Shaping the Future of Payments, Delivery & Solutions — Together

We’re a group of experienced professionals with over 100+ years of combined experience across banks, fintechs, and technology firms.
We’ve delivered real outcomes in cards, payments, digital platforms, presales, and product innovation.
Now, we’re here to share, collaborate, and co-create — with people solving meaningful problems.

MT to MX: What Banks Miss During the Shift

Embedded Payments: Are You Ready to Plug In?

Patterns We've Seen in Failed Payment MVPs

A Simple Canvas to Deconstruct Any RFP in 15 Minutes

Shaping the Future of Payments, Delivery & Solutions — Together

We’re a group of experienced professionals with over 100+ years of combined experience across banks, fintechs, and technology firms.
We’ve delivered real outcomes in cards, payments, digital platforms, presales, and product innovation.
Now, we’re here to share, collaborate, and co-create — with people solving meaningful problems.

Our Focus Areas – Let’s Build Together

Innovating in Payments

We co-explore emerging payment trends — from digital card issuance to real-time and embedded payment experiences — and help shape what’s next.

Delivering Digital, Practically

We partner on making digital transformations real — by aligning architecture, delivery roadmaps, and execution plans.

Presales & Solutioning, Together

We support teams in crafting proposals, refining solutions, and winning pursuits — through collaborative thinking and domain-led storytelling

Product Thinking in Action

We help turn ideas into action — co-creating reusable toolkits, frameworks, MVPs, and PoCs that accelerate outcomes.

Training That’s Grounded in Reality

We conduct domain-rich, scenario-based learning sessions to upskill teams — with insights from real-world projects.

Accelerating with Data & AI

We unlock the power of data and AI — embedding intelligence into solutions to drive smarter decisions and next-gen experiences.

We’re not vendors

We’re collaborators — focused on clarity, speed, and shared value.

Trends, Solutions & Offerings - Real Conversations, Shared Thinking

MT to MX: What Banks Miss During the Shift

The real challenge isn’t the format—it’s the assumptions underneath it. Most ISO 20022 journeys start with the technical shift: MT103 to pain.001. The XML. The data mapping. The schemas. But what many banks miss is this: MX isn’t a technology project. It’s a payment context shift. Here’s what often gets skipped:
  • Enrichment Gaps: Legacy systems don’t natively generate all mandatory MX fields.
  • Cross-channel Consistency: A message format update in one rail impacts reconciliation, fraud, reporting, and even customer UX.
  • Business Rule Creep: What worked in MT may break silently in MX without visible failure.

Our advice?
Before you validate files, validate assumptions. Work backward from customer flows, not message specs.

Want to run a “no-code” MX readiness check across your flows? We can help.
hello@paythinkers.com

Embedded Payments: Are You Ready to Plug In?

Adding payments isn’t just a tech decision. It’s an experience shift.

SaaS, retail, lending, mobility—every platform wants to embed payments. And with good reason:

  • Higher margin
  • Better retention
  • Richer data

But here’s what we ask platforms before they “go embedded”:

  • Do you control enough of the customer journey?
  • Can your tech stack handle reconciliation, refunds, and reporting?
  • Is your risk/compliance model modular enough to support PSP licensing (or outsourcing)?

Most platforms are feature-ready but not flow-ready. And that’s where the friction starts.

Want to check where your embedded plan might break?
Let’s talk. → hello@paythinkers.com

Patterns We've Seen in Failed Payment MVPs

Why good ideas stall—and how to catch the early red flags. Not every MVP fails because the tech is wrong. Most fail because:
  1. They try to validate too much at once → Instead of testing “will people pay,” they try to test platform, licensing, PSP setup, and UX in one go.

  2. They build a feature, not a decision point → Good MVPs create a yes/no outcome. Not “we’ll keep refining it.”

  3. They miss edge-case reality → Think refunds, reversals, failed top-ups—not the happy flow demo.

💡 Good MVPs shrink the scope. Great ones shrink the question. Need help shaping a click-worthy, cost-efficient MVP that moves the needle? Ping us: hello@paythinkers.com

A Simple Canvas to Deconstruct Any RFP in 15 Minutes

Because presales shouldn’t feel like puzzle night.

RFPs are often bloated, ambiguous, and vague by design. But most teams lose precious days trying to decode them from page 1 to annexures.

Here’s a simple, 4-box framework we use at PayThinkers to break down any RFP—fast, collaboratively, and without panic.

🔷 The 15-Minute RFP Canvas

Section

What to Ask

What to Capture

1. What’s the buyer’s real problem?

Not “what they wrote”—but what they’re reacting to?

Compliance? Speed? Cost? Integration pain?

2. What do they want the solution to prove?

Think: “If we win, it’s because we showed…”

Scalability? Domain understanding? Partner model?

3. What’s your unique win path?

Where do YOU edge out others?

Existing IP, experience, faster rollout, integrations

4. What are the ‘must-nail’ sections?

Which 2–3 parts actually make or break the deal?

Functional fit, roadmap alignment, commercials

MT to MX: What Banks Miss During the Shift

The real challenge isn’t the format—it’s the assumptions underneath it. Most ISO 20022 journeys start with the technical shift: MT103 to pain.001. The XML. The data mapping. The schemas. But what many banks miss is this: MX isn’t a technology project. It’s a payment context shift. Here’s what often gets skipped:
  • Enrichment Gaps: Legacy systems don’t natively generate all mandatory MX fields.
  • Cross-channel Consistency: A message format update in one rail impacts reconciliation, fraud, reporting, and even customer UX.
  • Business Rule Creep: What worked in MT may break silently in MX without visible failure.

Our advice?
Before you validate files, validate assumptions. Work backward from customer flows, not message specs.

Want to run a “no-code” MX readiness check across your flows? We can help.
hello@paythinkers.com

Embedded Payments: Are You Ready to Plug In?

Adding payments isn’t just a tech decision. It’s an experience shift.

SaaS, retail, lending, mobility—every platform wants to embed payments. And with good reason:

  • Higher margin
  • Better retention
  • Richer data

But here’s what we ask platforms before they “go embedded”:

  • Do you control enough of the customer journey?
  • Can your tech stack handle reconciliation, refunds, and reporting?
  • Is your risk/compliance model modular enough to support PSP licensing (or outsourcing)?

Most platforms are feature-ready but not flow-ready. And that’s where the friction starts.

Want to check where your embedded plan might break?
Let’s talk. → hello@paythinkers.com

Pro tip: Do this live with sales + delivery + solutioning in one room. Skip the full doc initially—just align on the canvas. It’ll cut 2 days off your prep cycle.

Early-Stage Products & Accelerators

We develop plug-and-play concepts and frameworks to fast-track execution

  • ISO Transact – Support conversion from any format to ISO format and vice versa. For example, MT to MX, JSON to MX, ISO8583 to MX etc.

If a concept aligns with your needs, we’re happy to share, adapt, or co-build further.

We share what we’ve seen work — and what doesn’t.
These are not whitepapers or theories. They’re practical ideas you can use.

 

What You Can Expect

Honest, experienced inputs — across business and tech

No hidden agenda — we only engage where we can add value

Contact Us

Created by a domain-led collective with 100+ years of experience across banking, fintech & tech. No pitch. Just perspective.

© 2025 | PayThinkers 

© 2025 | Independent Practitioners Collective

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