Payments & Financial Rails
Payment architecture for the state: disbursements, collections, and the rails they travel on.
Overview
When a government pays a farmer a subsidy or a citizen pays a licence fee, that transaction travels over rails someone owns. This publication treats the civic payment layer as public infrastructure: interoperable, switch-agnostic, and priced as a utility rather than a franchise.
Reference architecture
The architecture separates the instruction layer (what the state orders paid, to whom, against which entitlement) from the settlement layer (which rails move the money). Entitlement-anchored instructions from PL-02 are rail-agnostic by construction.
Standards & interoperability
Interface | Standard | Role |
|---|---|---|
PAY-MSG | ISO 20022 | Payment instruction and status messaging. |
SWITCH | Mojaloop-pattern APIs | Inter-scheme interoperability without a private monopoly switch. |
Downloads & citation
This publication is in drafting.