Fintech Lab
Lesson 46Payments railsIntermediate
Push vs pull payments
Who initiates the money movement decides who eats the chargeback.

Every payment rail is either a PULL (you tell the user's bank to send you money: cards, direct debit) or a PUSH (the user tells their bank to send you money: bank transfer, RTP, NIBSS Instant Pay). The ledger shape is similar, but the RISK shape is opposite. Pull rails settle T+1 or later and the issuer can claw the money back for 60+ days (chargeback). Push rails settle in seconds and money is final on receipt. This lesson posts the same ₦10,000 deposit on both rails and shows why your provisional / final / cleared liability accounting depends on which rail the money came in on.

Fintech Lab is a free, interactive lab for fintech engineers. Real ledger, your own sandbox, engineering patterns from production. See all 85 lessons.

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