Pitch deck layer
Simple customer journey. Clean mockups. Happy-path transaction.
Acquiring · Acceptance · Terminals · E-commerce · EMV · Tokenization · Secure elements · A2A
Payment systems craftsmanship for the ugly parts nobody puts in pitch decks.
I help banks, acquirers, PSPs and fintechs design, launch and operate payment products that survive production reality: merchant onboarding, underwriting, terminal estates, e-commerce setup, processing, scheme monitoring, settlement files and operational support.
Reality layer
Where fintech slogans usually die
The pitch deck says: tap, pay, done.
Production asks different questions: which terminal estate, which kernel, which AID, which acquirer, which scheme path, which timeout, which liability model, which reconciliation flow, which operational owner?
That is where I work.
Reality layer
Terminals, schemes, processors, wallets, routing, settlement, exceptions and operational ownership.
My role
Turn the messy layer into flows, requirements, decisions and delivery logic teams can actually use.
Expertise
Payment infrastructure from product setup to operational reality.
Real payment delivery spans commercial design, merchant setup, terminal and e-commerce enablement, transaction processing, settlement outputs, support paths and the credential layer beneath the user interface.
acquiring operating chain
Full-chain acquiring and acceptance work
Product setup, merchant onboarding, underwriting, acceptance enablement, terminal personalization, e-commerce payments, merchant portals, scheme monitoring, processing, settlement, general-ledger mapping and operations.
- 01Product setup
- 02Onboarding
- 03Processing
- 04Acceptance for eCommerce
- 05Terminals
- 06Settlement / GL
- 07Ops support
- 99...plus cards and QR codes
Acquiring and acceptance
End-to-end acquiring and acceptance thinking across product setup, merchant onboarding, terminal estates, e-commerce enablement, scheme paths, processing, settlement and operations.
Terminals and merchant infrastructure
Unattended terminals, Android terminals, SoftPOS constraints, parameterization, routing logic, TMS, merchant portals, field deployment and acceptance hardening.
EMV and scheme logic
Card acceptance, EMV logic, AIDs, kernels, transaction data, contactless flows, certification risks, scheme requirements and edge cases.
Wallets and tokenization
Wallet acceptance, tokenized credentials, mobile-payment constraints, provisioning concepts, NFC realities and platform-level dependencies.
Card, issuing and secure elements
Issuing-side and credential-layer experience: multi-application payment card design, fleet cards, own RID/AID range with 10M+ instances of SIM and eSIM deployed, GlobalPlatform, TSM, HSM and key-management realities.
A2A and open-banking acceptance
Product and acceptance thinking for account-to-account flows, open-banking rails and their coexistence with card-based payment infrastructure.
Product architecture and delivery logic
Requirements, system flows, stakeholder alignment, option papers, vendor challenge and decision material for complex payment products.
Useful when
The payment problem is too specific for generic consultants and too cross-functional for one internal team.
- You are launching an acquiring, acceptance, wallet or payment-infrastructure product.
- You need to design the full acquiring chain, not just connect to a processor.
- You need to assess a terminal, SoftPOS, merchant portal, wallet, tokenization or processing solution.
- A vendor proposal looks good, but the assumptions need to be tested before they become expensive.
- Business wants simple payments, but delivery needs scheme, EMV, terminal, settlement and operational reality mapped properly.
- You need decision material for management, product, technology, compliance, risk or operations.
- You need someone who can translate between product ambition and payment-system constraints.
Method
How I work
Diagnose
Understand the product goal, commercial context, regulatory frame, technical constraints and operating model.
Map
Turn the payment journey into actors, systems, messages, responsibilities and failure points.
Challenge
Expose assumptions hidden in vendor decks, product ideas, architecture diagrams and delivery plans.
Design
Create realistic options with trade-offs, dependencies, risks and implementation consequences.
Align
Bridge business, product, technology, vendors, compliance, risk and operations.
De-risk
Support requirements, delivery planning, test thinking, rollout logic and operational readiness.
Engagement models
Ways to use the work
Architecture review
Independent review of proposed payment architecture, vendor solution, terminal setup, acquiring flow or wallet concept.
Product discovery
Structuring a new payment product before delivery teams start building around weak assumptions.
Acquiring and acceptance launch support
Support across product setup, onboarding, underwriting, terminal and e-commerce enablement, processing, settlement and operational readiness.
Vendor challenge
Helping buyers ask the questions vendors prefer to avoid.
Delivery support
Requirements, flow mapping, stakeholder alignment, issue analysis and delivery de-risking.
Executive briefing
Clear explanation of complex payment topics for management, steering committees or cross-functional teams.
Proof layer
Experience below the checkout button.
Experience across acquiring, acceptance, terminal infrastructure, card schemes, mobile payments, secure elements, NFC, wallets, tokenization, smart cards and payment-product delivery.
Full-chain acquiring exposure
Hands-on understanding of acquiring-as-a-service delivery from product setup and merchant onboarding through processing, settlement, general-ledger files, operations and support.
Product and stakeholder translation
Turning complex payment-system topics into flows, requirements, decision papers and delivery logic.
Smart card applets
Own RID/AID range and applet deployed on 10M+ SIM and eSIM cards.
Secure-element and key-management roots
SIM Toolkit banking, OTP generation, key management, GlobalPlatform, TSM and HSM experience from the infrastructure layer beneath modern wallet and tokenization products.
Current focus
Where the work is active now
Current focus areas where I am actively working, researching or supporting delivery.
- Acquiring launch models for EU banks, acquirers, PSPs and fintechs.
- Terminal estates, routing, unattended acceptance and merchant infrastructure.
- Wallet acceptance, tokenization and credential lifecycle strategy.
- A2A and open-banking acceptance experiments.
- Payment product documentation, decision material and stakeholder alignment.
Based between Bratislava, Prague and Vienna. Remote by default, on-site when the problem deserves a room.
Contact
Let’s build something that works in the wild.
Send the context, not a polished brief. What are you trying to build, what is blocking it, and who needs to decide?
Fastest route: email with the problem, timeline and decision context.