Welcome to the modular version of our flagship course "ISO 8583 and Transaction Processing".

ISO8583 Module 1: Beginner

Begin your journey into the exciting world of payment transactions with the 1st module of our flagship course "ISO 8583 and Transaction Processing", and learn about the different message types and their processing flow.





The complete course puts you on a track to become an expert at understanding how payment transactions work, from terminal to issuer.

The 4 modules together build up our "ISO 8583 and Transaction Processing" course, and are equivalent to a 3- to 4-day course with a highly experienced instructor, and learning outcomes are reached with taught lessons, quizzes and 22 practical exercises for the guided parsing and analysis of many messages. 


ISO8583 Module 1 is a 2-hour high-level course that paints the big picture of card payment and teaches the different message types and their processing flow.

This 1st module is not very technical, and can be taken by anyone who wants to start a journey towards payment transaction expertise.

Upon completion of this module, a "Beginner level" certificate is delivered to the student, which can be printed and shared on LinkedIn. 


All the video lessons come with English closed captions/subtitles, which have been automatically translated into the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian and Urdu.


If you want to understand the complete course structure, be sure to check the "ISO 8583 and Transaction Processing" course page: Visit now

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Watch Intro Video

Complete course presentation

Let the instructor tell you all about the course!

Unique learning approach

The learning path is one of increasing complexity, with building blocks to construct the ISO 8583 knowledge, and practical exercises and quizzes to keep students engaged. The complete course contains 22 practical exercises for the guided parsing and analysis of many messages.



The ISO8583 Module 1 course starts with the big picture: the non-technical, high-level information. Then students start their journey into the technical aspects of ISO 8583 with an overview of how messages are structured, followed by a course on Message Type Identifiers and explanations on transaction flows. 

The course finishes with a high-level view of how EMV and contactless transactions work, as well as how online PIN is processed.

Those constitute the building blocks needed to continue to the second module of the complete course.

Course curriculum

  • 1
    01. The big picture
    • Course material
    • 01-01. The actors
    • 01-02. Transaction stages
    • 01-03. Complexity of chip-based transactions
    • 01-04. Cryptography
    • 01-05. Specifications
    • 01-06. Message switching and routing
    • Chapter 1 Quiz
  • 2
    02. Payment messages
    • 02-01. Message format overview
    • 02-02. Message type identifiers
    • 02-02. Practical exercises on Message type identifiers
    • 02-03. Transaction flows
    • 02-04. EMV & Contactless transactions
    • 02.05. Online PIN
    • Chapter 2 Quiz

Reviews of the complete course

  • Excellent Course

    Innocent Oketayot

    [Innocent Oketayot, Systems Administrator-Finance Trust Bank, Uganda] This is a great course. For such a highly complex topic as transaction processing, th...

    Read More

    [Innocent Oketayot, Systems Administrator-Finance Trust Bank, Uganda] This is a great course. For such a highly complex topic as transaction processing, the course was presented in such a simplified manner making it very easy to understand. The content is also quite comprehensive, covering all the bases I needed to advance in the world of transaction processing.

    Read Less

  • Transaction processing

    Mphikeleli Zwane

    [Software Developer at Altech Card Solutions] Before taking this course, i had a little knowledge about transactions flow and processing from the merchants ...

    Read More

    [Software Developer at Altech Card Solutions] Before taking this course, i had a little knowledge about transactions flow and processing from the merchants terminal to the card issuer and the parties involved. This course made it easy for me to understand the processing of transaction within our company. with the help of this course, now i know the different message types, ISO 8583 message layout , fields and their meaning, different ISO 8583 message protocols. Without this course it would take me a year or so to understand the general flow of transactions from the Terminal to the issuer. i would recommend this course to anyone who works in Payment industry, it is easy to follow and understand.

    Read Less

  • Paytech Online Iso 8583:

    Justine Naidoo

    [Junior EMV Specialist in Standard Bank South Africa] It has been an incredible opportunity having to do the ISO 8583 ONLINE TRAINING, It was user friendl...

    Read More

    [Junior EMV Specialist in Standard Bank South Africa] It has been an incredible opportunity having to do the ISO 8583 ONLINE TRAINING, It was user friendly and straight to the point,easy to understand and it included very relevant information needed when working with ISO .I highly recommend that this course becomes a basis for all users of ISO, purely because of the content that touches on each and every ‘element ‘(no pun intended ) of the system.I enjoyed the interactive voice over that made it easier for me to understand as I am more of a listener than a reader 😊 .

    Read Less

Who is the course intended for?

I built the course with the following audience in mind: people who need strong, technical, payment transaction processing knowledge to be effective and efficient in their work. This includes developers, QA, customer support and managers in the following areas:

  • Acquirer host
  • Payment processor switch
  • Issuer host
  • Payment terminal integration
  • Troubleshooting transaction failures for banks or acquirers
  • Chip card issuance
  • Consulting in any of the areas above


I hope you’ll enjoy taking this course as much as I enjoyed building it.

They already learnt with us:

  • StandardBank
  • ACS
  • ARCA

Free trial

Want to see if you like it first? There's a free trial for the complete course that includes 3 lessons, you'll learn something new for sure!

Try it out now!

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