Browsing by Subject "addressing"

Efficient payment services form part of the critical infrastructure of a modern economy. In this thesis we investigate the technical, regulatory and commercial aspects of payment systems. We describe the concepts of payment systems, payment schemes and payment infrastructures. We review the common structures of payment systems and develop a taxonomy of payment system characteristics. We leverage the taxonomy in three ways. First, we analyse payment system structures using the concepts of addressing and routing from the theory of data networks. Second, we develop a prototype of a payments router software. Third, we review in detail the primary retail (SEPA and FPS) and wholesale (TARGET2 and CHAPS) payment systems in the Eurozone and the UK. In addition to its academic contribution, we aim for this thesis to serve as an introductory text on payment services and payment systems for software engineers who are new to the domain.