Digital payments are reshaping everyday transactions—from shopping to accessing financial services and making cross-border payments—while also opening the door to broader benefits like stronger commerce, lower crime, greater formalization, as well as more efficient and transparent government revenue collection and spending mobilization.
Many countries are eager to capture these benefits but face a common design dilemma: how to encourage choice and competition without fragmenting the system. If too many users cluster on a handful of dominant platforms, choice can narrow, and costs may rise. Yet if too many platforms remain disconnected, markets can splinter, undermining the benefits of scale. This dilemma is relevant for both domestic and cross-border payments.
By allowing people to pay seamlessly across different platforms, interoperability combines the reach of a unified network with the freedom to choose among providers—giving users the best of both worlds.
This session will bring together researchers, policymakers, and private sector leaders to discuss how interoperability can deliver on its promise, what its limits may be, and what foundations are needed to make it succeed—both within countries and across borders.
