Features and models of payment infrastructure functioning

Subject. The article discusses payment infrastructures. Objectives. The aim is to explore the issues of payment infrastructure functioning from a general position, not limited by the types of infrastructure, requirements of regulatory acts and/or recommendations of international organizations; to develop models of payment infrastructure functioning. Methods. The methodology rests on the object-subject approach to the description of entities, the method of structural analysis of objects, systems approach to the description of structured objects, the method of process analysis and process approach to the description of systems functioning. Results. We offered a generalized definition of the term ‘infrastructure’, built a model underlying the term ‘payment infrastructure’, and a model reflecting the functioning of the payment infrastructure in the chain of servicing and serviced systems. This enables to distinguish several levels of payment infrastructure and divide its services into key and fundamental ones. We formulated our own definitions of the concepts of ‘money transfer’, ‘money turnover’, ‘money token’. Conclusions. We presented three types of models of payment infrastructure functioning. In the simplest model, the service systems are presented as a single level. In the second model, the service systems of the payment infrastructure are presented as two levels, upper and lower, linked by the ‘served/serving’ relationship. In the third, the most complex model, an intermediate level of service systems is added, ensuring the circulation of payment tokens.