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Payments Professional Credential

Master the payments ecosystem to optimize performance, reduce costs, and support business growth.

Smiling professional holding a smartphone and credit card while working at a laptop. Text on a blue banner reads ‘Payments Professional’ with an icon of a hand holding a dollar sign inside a badge.

The MRC Payments Professional Credential validates your expertise across the full payments lifecycle—from infrastructure and routing to fraud prevention and regulatory compliance. Built for professionals driving operations, product strategy, and risk management, this program delivers the technical knowledge, strategic insights, and recognition to help you excel in today’s complex payments landscape.


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This program equips you with the knowledge and tools to navigate modern payments systems with confidence:


  • Streamline processing with orchestration to improve transaction performance
  • Optimize costs and approvals through smart routing and vaulting techniques
  • Track and improve payment KPIs such as conversion, fraud rates, and interchange impact
  • Leverage enhanced BIN data to drive smarter routing, compliance, and optimization strategies
  • Implement tokenization and 3-D Secure authentication to balance fraud prevention and user experience
  • Evaluate emerging methods such as Pay by Bank and open banking for lower-cost, low-risk payments
  • Navigate PCI-DSS, SCA, and evolving global compliance and data regulations

FAQs

    1. Payment Essentials
    2. Fraud Essentials
    3. Introduction to Payments Orchestration
    4. Payments Orchestration and Optimization
    5. Advanced Tactics for Transaction Optimization
    6. Enhanced BIN Data for Payment Professionals
    7. Payments Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    8. Tokenization Essentials
    9. Pay by Bank
    10. EMV 3-D Secure Authentication
    11. Payment Security and Compliance
    1. Payment Essentials
    2. Fraud Essentials
    3. Introduction to Payments Orchestration
    4. Payments Orchestration and Optimization
    5. Advanced Tactics for Transaction Optimization
    6. Enhanced BIN Data for Payment Professionals
    7. Payments Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    8. Tokenization Essentials
    9. Pay by Bank
    10. EMV 3-D Secure Authentication
    11. Payment Security and Compliance

  • This program is ideal for professionals shaping payment performance and strategy, including:

    • Payments professionals and operations teams responsible for transaction success, cost optimization, and reconciliation
    • Fraud and risk analysts seeking deeper insight into how payments systems influence detection and prevention
    • Product managers and engineers building or scaling secure, high-performance payment experiences
    • Finance and strategy leaders focused on KPIs, approval rates, and network-level insights

    This program is ideal for professionals shaping payment performance and strategy, including:

    • Payments professionals and operations teams responsible for transaction success, cost optimization, and reconciliation
    • Fraud and risk analysts seeking deeper insight into how payments systems influence detection and prevention
    • Product managers and engineers building or scaling secure, high-performance payment experiences
    • Finance and strategy leaders focused on KPIs, approval rates, and network-level insights


  • Level: Intermediate

    Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge

    Format: QAS self-study (11 on-demand courses + final exam)

    CPE Credits: 18.8

    Completion Time: 28 hours

    Price: $1000 for members; $2000 for non-members

    A final exam validates your ability to apply concepts in real-world contexts. Successful participants earn the Payments Professional digital credential, recognized across the global payments and fraud prevention community.

    Level: Intermediate

    Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge

    Format: QAS self-study (11 on-demand courses + final exam)

    CPE Credits: 18.8

    Completion Time: 28 hours

    Price: $1000 for members; $2000 for non-members

    A final exam validates your ability to apply concepts in real-world contexts. Successful participants earn the Payments Professional digital credential, recognized across the global payments and fraud prevention community.

Take the Next Step

Advance your payments expertise and earn industry recognition. Whether you’re optimizing operations, scaling product capabilities, or building strategic insights, the Payments Professional Credential provides the knowledge and credibility to succeed in today’s payments ecosystem.

Enroll Now




MRC Education Accreditation

The Merchant Risk Council is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: nasbaregistry.org

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MRC Education Refund Policy

MRC Education eLearning course refunds and cancellations are determined on a case-by-case basis. Cancellations and requests for refunds must be communicated in writing to programs@merchantriskcouncil.org. Refunds will not be issued once a course is started. Additionally, courses must be completed within one year of the course enrollment date.