Payment Failure Investigation Lab

Investigate why a payment failed. Seven cases, one for each failure type: validation, account checks, screening, payment orchestration, routing, clearing and settlement. Read the transaction record, reveal the evidence step by step, identify the root cause, choose the next step, and compare your answers with the reference solution. All data is synthetic and for education only. Nothing here connects to a real banking system and nothing moves real money.

How to play. Pick a case below. Read the transaction record, the timeline and the system logs. Reveal the evidence items in any order, each one you examine earns 5 points the first time (4 items, 20 points per case). Then answer both decisions: the likely root cause and the appropriate next step. Each correct decision earns 20 points. The reference solution appears after both decisions. Total per case is 60 points. Your best score is saved in this browser only.

Best score: not attempted yet

Case files

Easy

Validation failure: rejected pacs.008

A pacs.008 is rejected at validation before it reaches screening or clearing.

EUR 18,400.00 · SEPA Credit Transfer · Status RJCT

Best: not attempted yet

Easy

Account checks failure: closed debtor account

A payment fails at debtor account validation. The account cannot be debited.

GBP 27,600.00 · Faster Payments · Status RJCT

Best: not attempted yet

Medium

Screening hold: possible sanctions name match

A payment is held after sanctions screening returns a possible name match.

USD 63,900.00 · SWIFT gpi · Status ACSP, held

Best: not attempted yet

Medium

Orchestration failure: wrong clearing channel

A same-day EUR payment was sent to a next-day batch instead of the instant rail.

EUR 85,000.00 · SEPA batch · Status ACSP, wrong channel

Best: not attempted yet

Hard

Routing failure: wrong intermediary bank

A cross-border USD payment went to the wrong intermediary bank.

USD 142,500.00 · SWIFT gpi · Settlement unconfirmed

Best: not attempted yet

Medium

Clearing failure: SEPA rejection AC01

A SEPA credit transfer is rejected at clearing with reason code AC01.

EUR 120,000.00 · SEPA · Status RJCT, reason AC01

Best: not attempted yet

Hard

Settlement failure: insufficient nostro liquidity

A payment fails at settlement because the nostro account lacks liquidity at the settlement window.

USD 250,000.00 · SWIFT gpi · Status RJCT at settlement

Best: not attempted yet

Case

Transaction record

Event timeline

System logs

Investigation: reveal the evidence

Reveal the evidence items in any order. Each item you examine earns 5 points the first time. Every item adds a concrete fact, and all the evidence is consistent with the true root cause.

Decisions

Answer both decisions: the likely root cause, then the appropriate next step. Each correct decision earns 20 points. Once answered, a decision cannot be changed in this attempt. Use Reset to try again.

Your score

Score 0 of 60 points. Evidence items earn 5 points each, correct decisions earn 20 points each.

Teaching note. These cases are simplified for learning. Real validation, screening, clearing and settlement behaviour varies by bank, scheme and system, and real cases involve more checks, approvals and audit steps than shown here. Status codes used include ACCP (accepted), ACSP (accepted, settlement in process) and RJCT (rejected). Reason codes used include AC01 (incorrect account number) and AC04 (closed account). Check current scheme rules before relying on any of this in live work.

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