Sending $500 overseas costs $50 and takes a week. Sending an email overseas is instant and free. Both are just updating databases. So why is one so much harder?
The answer is trust. Banks in different countries don't have direct relationships with each other. So your payment hops through intermediaries who sit in the middle, and each one takes a cut for the trouble.
This course explains how that system actually works. Not the version they teach in school, where money "flows" through the economy. The real version, where databases update, messages pass between institutions, and settlement happens days after you thought you paid.
You'll learn why card payments involve five companies. Why international wires cost $50. Why 1.4 billion people don't have bank accounts. And why all of this matters if you're building anything that touches money.
What You'll Learn