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Exam Focus Areas

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Earning the CPFPP certification is a significant milestone for any payments and fraud prevention professional. Preparing for and completing the exam requires time, dedication, and focus — but the reward is well worth the effort. The CPFPP exam is designed to validate your professional experience and demonstrate your expertise across four key domains of practice. Achieving this certification affirms your commitment to excellence and positions you as a trusted leader in the payments and fraud prevention community.


35%
Performance Management
30%
Operational Management
20%
Provider Management
15%
Features & Enhancements

Exam Focus Areas

    • Data analysis (e.g., descriptives, projections, artificial intelligence [AI], using data to draw insights for risk mitigation)
    • Financial principles (e.g., return on investment [ROI])
    • Global and regional payment protocols and data flows (e.g., ISO 8583)
    • Data modeling (e.g., optimizing transaction routing decision)
    • Fraud and payments KPIs (e.g., authorization rate, merchant fee, manual review rate)
    • Payments performance benchmarks (e.g., digital versus physical, geography)
    • Payments response codes (e.g., insufficient funds)
    • Threat landscape (e.g., payment method with high probability of synthetic accounts, used in account takeover and payment fraud)
    • Fraud management strategies
    • Information security (e.g., phishing, social engineering, dark web, malware, ransomware)
    • Data analysis (e.g., descriptives, projections, artificial intelligence [AI], using data to draw insights for risk mitigation)
    • Financial principles (e.g., return on investment [ROI])
    • Global and regional payment protocols and data flows (e.g., ISO 8583)
    • Data modeling (e.g., optimizing transaction routing decision)
    • Fraud and payments KPIs (e.g., authorization rate, merchant fee, manual review rate)
    • Payments performance benchmarks (e.g., digital versus physical, geography)
    • Payments response codes (e.g., insufficient funds)
    • Threat landscape (e.g., payment method with high probability of synthetic accounts, used in account takeover and payment fraud)
    • Fraud management strategies
    • Information security (e.g., phishing, social engineering, dark web, malware, ransomware)
    • Payment processing requirements and regulations (e.g., card network mandates)
    • Industry fraud patterns and best practices
    • Chargeback representment strategies (e.g., success metrics [win rate], reason codes, compelling evidence rules)
    • Fraud detection and prevention operations (e.g., techniques)
    • Fraud prevention policies and controls
    • Fraud patterns (e.g., trends versus patterns, business and industry, balancing customer experience against rising fraud threats)
    • Payment processing requirements and regulations (e.g., card network mandates)
    • Industry fraud patterns and best practices
    • Chargeback representment strategies (e.g., success metrics [win rate], reason codes, compelling evidence rules)
    • Fraud detection and prevention operations (e.g., techniques)
    • Fraud prevention policies and controls
    • Fraud patterns (e.g., trends versus patterns, business and industry, balancing customer experience against rising fraud threats)
    • Service provider management
    • Contract management
    • Fees and fines (e.g., interchange, assessment fees, processing fees, foreign exchange rates, fraud threshold fines)
    • Global and regional payment ecosystems and regulations impacting payments (e.g., payments processing, card acquirers, banking [risk department], or e-commerce platform, GDPR)
    • Service provider management
    • Contract management
    • Fees and fines (e.g., interchange, assessment fees, processing fees, foreign exchange rates, fraud threshold fines)
    • Global and regional payment ecosystems and regulations impacting payments (e.g., payments processing, card acquirers, banking [risk department], or e-commerce platform, GDPR)
    • Architecture and flows between internal systems/services
    • Global and regional payment methods and associated risks and trade-offs
    • Payments security and compliance (e.g., internal controls and audit procedures)
    • Components of a contract (e.g., leveraging penalties, incentives, service requirements, payment costs)
    • Technical and business requirements associated with product launching
    • Product roadmaps
    • Product management lifecycle and processes
    • User experience (UX) and workflow requirements
    • Fraud technologies internal and external
    • Architecture and flows between internal systems/services
    • Global and regional payment methods and associated risks and trade-offs
    • Payments security and compliance (e.g., internal controls and audit procedures)
    • Components of a contract (e.g., leveraging penalties, incentives, service requirements, payment costs)
    • Technical and business requirements associated with product launching
    • Product roadmaps
    • Product management lifecycle and processes
    • User experience (UX) and workflow requirements
    • Fraud technologies internal and external

Study Resources

Explore a curated list of journals, textbooks, and websites to help guide your preparation for the CPFPP exam.