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    Who should I follow to learn about payments infrastructure?

    Updated October 20, 2026

    Key takeaway

    Simon Taylor of Fintech Brain Food is named by every engine except Perplexity, and Tom Noyes, Patrick McKenzie, Marcel van Oost and Nicole Casperson recur. ChatGPT favours practitioners and writers, Copilot adds fintech executives, Gemini and Google AI Mode add newsletters, books and companies, and Perplexity names different LinkedIn voices. ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Google AI Mode all name Simon Taylor's newsletter, and ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode all point readers to Stripe's engineering writing.

    Where they differ

    What is recommended to follow

      Sourcing and quality

        Verdict

        Treat Simon Taylor, Tom Noyes and Patrick McKenzie as the repeated names, and note that Copilot adds fintech executives, Gemini and Google AI Mode lean to newsletters and companies, and Perplexity names different people. The lists are unverified.

        What engines actually searched

        The sub-queries each engine actually searched before answering.

        Cited, but not mentioned

        2 sites cite this answer without naming anyone

        Full responses

        5 of 5 engines that answered. Full stored text as captured, with dashes shown as hyphens. Nothing is summarised.

        ChatGPT4,296 characters · October 7, 2026

        If you want to actually understand payments infrastructure - not just fintech news - I’d follow a mix of practitioners, engineers, and people who explain the plumbing.

        My shortlist

        If I were starting from zero

        I'd do this order:

        1. Patrick McKenzie → learn how payments actually work.
        2. Simon Taylor → understand the ecosystem and where it's going.
        3. Modern Treasury → learn the operational/API/ledger infrastructure.
        4. Tom Noyes → understand card-network economics.
        5. Stripe engineering → see how sophisticated infrastructure gets built.
        6. Net Interest → develop the banking/financial-system mental model.

        And I'd avoid following 50 fintech influencers. These six perspectives will give you a much better foundation than a giant feed of fintech news.

        If you're learning payments because you want to build a payments company / work in fintech, I can also give you a "payments infrastructure curriculum" - 20 people + 30 articles + the concepts you should understand (ACH, RTP, FedNow, acquiring, issuing, BINs, card networks, ledgers, reconciliation, KYC/KYB, sponsor banks, etc.) in the order I'd learn them.

        Gemini logo Gemini3,042 characters · October 7, 2026

        To learn about payments infrastructure, you need to follow a mix of industry operators, technical experts, newsletters, and institutional bodies that pull back the curtain on how money actually moves globally.

        The most valuable sources to follow are categorized below by format and focus:

        1. Exceptional Newsletters & Substacks (Deep Dives)

        • Double Digits (by Sheel Mohnot & team) / Fintech Today (Maria Shen & Olivia Moore): Great for tracking fintech infrastructure players, trends, and investments.

        • Not Boring (Packy McCormick): Occasionally publishes legendary, exhaustive deep dives into foundational infrastructure giants like Stripe, Adyen, and Visa.

        • Fintech Takes (Alex Johnson): Essential for breaking down the mechanics of banking-as-a-service (BaaS), ledger systems, and how software companies embed payments.

        • Bits about Money (Patrick McKenzie / patio11): Widely considered the gold standard for understanding the deeply unsexy, complex mechanics of the US banking system, clearing houses, ACH, credit card interchange, and compliance.

        2. Industry Thought Leaders & Builders to Follow (X / LinkedIn)

        • Patrick McKenzie (@patio11): Former Stripe advisor, writes extensively on how the plumbing of finance works.

        • Sheel Mohnot: Investor in many early-stage fintech and infrastructure companies.

        • J.P. Morgan Payments Insights & Research Teams: They consistently publish phenomenal corporate insights and whitepapers on real-time payments (RTP, FedNow) and ledger architecture.

        • Stripe Press / Engineering Blog: While corporate, Stripe’s engineering posts and books (like Stripe Architecture documentation) are masterclasses in building global payment systems.

        3. Standards Bodies & Organizations

        • Nacha (The Electronic Payments Association): Critical for understanding the US ACH network, rules, and faster payments initiatives.

        • The Payments Association: Great for regulatory updates, cross-border frameworks, and open banking trends. The Payments Association - connecting the future | The Payments

        • The Clearing House (TCH): The private-sector owner and operator of core US payment infrastructure like RTP (Real-Time Payments) and wire systems.

        Recommended Starting Point

        If you want a single reading list to kick off your education:

        1. Read Patrick McKenzie's blog archive ("Bits about Money") on how credit card networks and ACH work.

        2. Follow Alex Johnson's Fintech Takes for weekly breakdowns of modern ledger and payment API infrastructure.

        3. Review official documentation from Stripe or Adyen on payment routing, authorization flows, and acquiring.

        What specific area of payments infrastructure are you most curious about - is it consumer checkout flows, cross-border/FX plumbing, or core banking ledgers?

        Google AI Mode2,990 characters · October 7, 2026

        Learning about payments infrastructure requires following a mix of deep technical operators, industry analysts, and newsletter authors who break down how money actually moves behind the scenes (APIs, rails, clearing, and cross-border settlement).

        Here are the top voices, newsletters, and resources to follow on LinkedIn and X (Twitter):

        1. Essential Newsletters & Deep-Dive Analysts

        ** Simon Taylor** (Co-founder of 11:FS) – Writes 11:FS Fintech Insider and is exceptional at breaking down complex payment rails, embedded finance, and crypto/traditional bridge infrastructure. Follow him on Simon Taylor's LinkedIn or X.

        Jason Mikula (Author of Fintech Business Weekly) – Offers rigorous, highly analytical breakdowns of the intersection between banking infrastructure, payment compliance, and fintech economics.

        Nik Milanovic (Author of This Week in Fintech) – Great for macro overviews of who is raising money, building infrastructure, and changing the global payments landscape.

        Marcel van Oost (Curator of Connecting the Dots in Payments) – Widely known on LinkedIn for compiling massive, highly practical lists of payment experts and keeping a daily pulse on global merchant acquiring and payment service providers. 100+ Payment Experts to Follow on LinkedIn (Including My Top Picks!)The Fintech Thought Leaders and Companies You Need to Follow

        2. Industry Insiders & Operators

          • ** Patrick Collison & John Collison** (Founders of Stripe) – While busy running a giant, their technical posts and announcements offer a masterclass in global financial infrastructure.

        • ** Frank Rotman** (Co-founder of QED Investors) – Frequently posts deeply strategic and mathematically sound breakdowns of payment unit economics, interchange, and risk infrastructure.

        • Ajin Vir Singh – Frequently highlighted as a top voice in global payments, digital wallets, and real-time payment infrastructure on LinkedIn. [LinkedIn]

        3. Companies & Institutional Resources to Watch

          • Stripe Engineering & Blog – The gold standard for technical documentation and architecture articles on handling high-throughput, reliable payment infrastructure at scale.

        • Adyen’s Insights & Engineering – Excellent source for learning about unified commerce, cross-border acquiring, and local payment methods globally.

        • Plaid’s Financial Data Network Blog – Perfect for understanding account-to-account (A2A) payments and open banking infrastructure.

        If you want to narrow this down, let me know:

        • Are you looking at payments from a software engineering angle or a business/product angle?
        • Are you interested in a specific region (like US FedNow/ACH , EU SEPA , or cross-border)?
        Perplexity515 characters · October 20, 2026

        Follow Colin Luce for perspectives on payments as a core business capability, and Pratik Datta for structured learning on payment rails, transaction flows, and infrastructure.(blog.basistheory.com)(linkedin.com)

        Copilot logo Copilot2,239 characters · October 7, 2026

        Here are some of the most influential voices you should follow if you want to stay ahead in payments infrastructure :

        🌍 Industry Leaders

        📈 Policy & Global Voices

        📰 Analysts & Commentators

        • Alba González – Covers fintech and payments trends across Europe, APAC, and LATAM, with a focus on open banking and AI-driven financial services.Top Fintech Voices to Follow in 2026

        🔗 Resource

        For a broader list of 51 payment & fintech experts to follow, check out this curated guide: 51 Payment & FinTech Experts to Follow in 2025 and Beyond

        The 2Checkout Blog

        The 2Checkout Blog

        51 Payment & FinTech Experts to Follow in 2025 and Beyond

        https://blog.2checkout.com › top-payment-fintech-experts-follow

        Would you like me to organize these into Twitter/LinkedIn handles so you can follow them directly, or would you prefer a breakdown by specialization (e.g., fraud prevention, real-time payments, embedded finance)?