Finance and Accounting
Banking, fintech and payments
Banks take deposits, lend them out and move money between people who never meet, and fintech firms now compete for each of those jobs with software. This topic covers lending and credit analysis, cards and open banking, and the rails beneath them. In the UK alone the Payment Systems Regulator oversees eight designated systems, from Bacs and Faster Payments to Visa and a wholesale ledger called Sterling Fnality.
Why this topic exists: Deposits, lending and credit analysis, payment systems, cards and open banking: the UK Payment Systems Regulator's eight designated systems name the rails, CFI's CBCA the credit analyst's job; the field's newest titles live here.
Next to this topic
- Accounting and bookkeepingDouble-entry, ledgers, the three statements and the reporting frameworks (IFRS, US GAAP): the base of ACCA Financial Accounting, AAT Levels 2 to 4 and CPA FAR; bookkeeping software (QuickBooks, Xero) is where most people meet it.
- Management accounting, budgeting and FP&ABudgets, forecasts, costing and variance analysis: what the CMA examines and ACCA Management Accounting and Performance Management teach; financial planning and analysis is the same work inside a corporate finance team.
- Financial statement analysis and modellingReading the three statements and rebuilding them in a spreadsheet: the CFA topic Financial Statement Analysis and the core of CFI's FMVA, whose curriculum weights modelling at 35 % and accounting at 20 %.
- Corporate finance and valuationTime value of money, cost of capital, capital structure, DCF and comparables: the CFA topics Corporate Finance and Equities, ACCA Financial Management and Advanced Financial Management, FMVA's valuation modules; where the field's fundamentals courses start.
- Personal finance and financial planningBudgeting, saving, credit, insurance, pensions and estates for a household: the CFP Board's eight Principal Knowledge Domains give the professional map; CISI's Level 2 Fundamentals the entry point for people who will work in the sector.
- Investing and portfolio managementAsset classes, risk and return, diversification and portfolio construction: the CFA topics Equities, Fixed Income, Alternative Investments and Portfolio Construction; CFP's Investment Planning domain.
- Crypto-assets and blockchainDistributed ledgers, keys and wallets, smart contracts, tokens and DeFi: the technical side rests on the Bitcoin and Ethereum documentation, the consumer side on the FCA's warning that a crypto investor should be prepared to lose everything.
- Financial risk, regulation and complianceMarket, credit, operational and liquidity risk, Basel, AML and KYC and conduct rules: FRM Parts I and II, the CFA's Ethical and Professional Standards, CFP's Professional Conduct and Regulation; where finance meets the law.
- TaxIncome, corporate, VAT and sales tax, capital gains and returns: CPA REG and the TCP discipline, ACCA Taxation and Advanced Taxation, CFP's Tax Planning domain; the one finance topic every adult meets.
- EconomicsSupply and demand, national accounts, inflation, interest rates, monetary and fiscal policy: the CFA topic Economics; the macro context every other finance topic assumes.
Concepts to know
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters here.
- Open banking
PSD2's account and payment services and the UK roadmap.
- AML
Onboarding and monitoring duties every bank and fintech carries.
Courses in the directory
44 courses are filed here; the top 6 by our ranking, details and the provider link on each course page.
Last reviewed 26 September 2026 · Getting Digital