Payment Systems

Overview | Publications | Blogs & Stories

OVERVIEW

Payment systems, Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) and digital financial services (DFS) help expand financial inclusion, foster economic development, enable digital economy, and support financial stability. Given this, promoting safe, reliable, and efficient domestic and cross-border payments systems, and FMIs is an integral component of the World Bank Group's work to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity.

The work of the World Bank Group on these topics spans development of legal/regulatory framework, large value payment systems, securities settlement, foreign exchange settlement, retail payment systems, government payments, cross-border payments, oversight and cooperation, as well as the latest developments in fintech notably crypto, central bank digital currency, and open banking. Over the last two decades, the World Bank Group has contributed to the global payment systems knowledge agenda and has supported payment systems reforms in over 120 countries through:

• The development of Payments Systems Strategies and formulation of reforms.
• The establishment of appropriate institutional arrangements for central banks / other regulators for steering National Payments System (NPS) development.
• The formulation of international standards related to payment systems, alongside other standard setting bodies.
• Global convening.
• Technical and financial assistance for implementation of specific payment system components such as Automated Clearinghouses (ACH), Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Systems, Fast Payment Systems (FPS), Central Security Depositories (CSD), Securities Settlement Systems (SSS).
• The creation, curation, and dissemination of knowledge around global payment systems.

The World Bank Group delivers technical and financial assistance to public sector authorities including financial sector authorities, central banks, securities commissions, as well as other supervisory and regulatory authorities, and in partnership with public authorities to specific market level initiatives.

The World Bank Group engages private sector and public sector donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), AusAID, Global Affairs Canada, and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Globally, World Bank Group partners include, among others regional development banks; standard setters such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), particularly the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures; the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO); the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to develop global standards, guidance, best practices, and to conduct formal assessments such as the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). Furthermore, the WBG has developed structured engagements with various global private sector players and convenes public-private partnership fora.

Development and Implementation of Standards for Financial Market Infrastructure and Payments Systems

At the country-level, the World Bank Group helps countries to adopt international best practices and standards such as CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs). It also contributes to the work of the standard-setting bodies by participating in working groups that develop and monitor implementation and adequacy of standards, leading joint task forces such as CPMI-WB Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion and CPMI-WB General Principles for International Remittances, and disseminating standards and guidance through convenings such as the biennial Global Payments Week and the Regional Payments Weeks.

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI)

Having access to useful and affordable financial products and services- transactions, payments, savings, credit, and insurance - is a hallmark of financial inclusion. Accessing a transaction account and being able to make/receive digital payments are considered as an entry point to the broader set of digital financial services and financial inclusion overall. The CPMI-WBG Report on Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI) application guidance serves as a framework based on which the World Bank Groupprovides technical assistance on several intersectional aspects of financial inclusion and payments such as: legal/regulatory framework, financial infrastructures, transaction account and payment product design, readily available access channels, awareness and financial literacy, and leveraging large volume recurrent payment streams.

International Remittances Cost Reduction and Monitoring

Payment flows such as remittances are three times larger than official development assistance and steadier than both private debt and portfolio equity flows. In more than 60 countries, remittances account for 3 percent or more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and small/fragile states are more heavily dependent on remittances. As such, it is critical that both, remittance senders and receivers have access to a multitude of payment methods and channels in order to deliver and receive remittances in an affordable and fast manner. This requires interventions and coordination at the domestic and regional/global level. To support those objectives and more broadly the global remittances agenda, the World Bank Group provides assistance and engages in this area by:

• steering the global efforts through the Global Remittances Working Group;
• monitoring the cost of international remittance services through the Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) database and disseminates knowledge; promoting innovative approaches to undertaking remittances reforms, including through Project Greenback 2.0;
• undertaking assessments of the remittance markets against the CPMI-WB General Principles for International Remittance Services.

Government Payments

The Government is typically the largest payer/payee in a country. As such, it is important to design inclusive, efficient and modern payment systems as well as a variety of cost-effective collection/disbursement channels that would facilitate government payments and take into consideration beneficiary choice and convenience. Indeed, the World Bank Group supports countries in the digitization of Government payments in areas such as social protection, e-Government and public financial management reforms. This includes large-scale programs like tax collection, public sector salary payments, public procurement and other Government to Person (G2P) payments, including through cross-sectoral initiatives like G2Px. The World Bank Group has also played a crucial role in facilitating timely and efficient cash transfers during emergencies and crises, most recently during the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

Fintech Agenda

In the payment systems domain, the FinTech specific focus is on e-money, fast payment services, central bank digital currencies (CBDC), open banking, tokenization, Quick Response (QR) codes, and policy formulation for crypto-assets and leveraging the underlying technology. In October 2018, the World Bank Group and the IMF launched the Bali FinTech Agenda. Under the Bali Fintech Agenda (BFA), the World Bank Group is supporting countries in developing their fintech ecosystems and advancing the work of the global standard setting bodies. In 2022, the World Bank published a flagship report on Fintech and the Future of Finance.

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PUBLICATIONS

Central Bank Digital Currency

Central Bank Digital Currencies and Fast Payments: Rivals or Partners? (2024)

Central Bank Digital Currencies: A New Tool in the Financial Inclusion Toolkit? (2022)

Options for Access to and Interoperability of CBDCs for Cross-Border Payments (2022)

Central Bank Digital Currencies for Cross-Border Payments (2021)

Central Bank Digital Currency: A Payments Perspective (2021)

Central Bank Digital Currency: Technical Background Technical Note (2021)

Central Bank Digital Currencies for Cross-Border Payments: A Review of Current Experiments and Ideas (2021)

Cross-Border Payments and Project Greenback

Measuring the Cost of Cross-Border Business-to-Business Payments in the Western Balkans (2025)

Cross-Border Payments and Project Greenback

Kingdom of Eswatini: Review of the Market for International Remittances (2025)

Cross-Border Payments: South Africa-Zimbabwe Corridor Diagnostic Report (2025)

Measuring the Cost of Cross-Border Business-to-Business Payments in the Western Balkans (2024)

IMF and World Bank Approach to Cross-Border Payments Technical Assistance (2023)

Digitizing Remittances in the Kyrgyz Republic (2023)

Exploring Multilateral Platforms for Cross-Border Payments (2023)

The journey so far: making cross-border remittances work for financial inclusion (2022)

Project Greenback Kosovo (2022)

Project Greenback Albania (2022)

Resilience in the Market for International Remittances During the Covid-19 Crisis (2021)

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Market for International Remittances in the Short and Medium Term (2021)

A Draft Framework for Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing - Risk Assessment of a Remittance Corridor (2021)

Greenback Morocco: Rapport des résultats des groupes de discussions sur les transferts de fonds (2021)

Migrant Workers' Remittances from Malaysia (2017)

Baseline Survey on Remittance Beneficiaries' Financial Behaviors in East Europe and Central Asia (2016)

The Role of Transnational Family Distribution in Shaping Remittance Flows (2015)

Remittances and the Economic Crisis: Evidence from Greenback Survey in Italy (2015)

Migrants' Remittances from UK (2015)

Migrants' Remittances from France (2015)

Migrant's Remittances from Italy (2014)

From Remittances to M-Payments (2012)

Guidance Report for the Implementation of the General Principles for International Remittances (2012)

Remittance Price Comparison Databases: Minimum Requirements and Overall Policy Strategy (2010)

General Principles for International Remittance Services (2007)

Cybersecurity

Legal Framework for Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector: A Comparative Study on Existing Domestic or Regional Legislation on Cybersecurity (2022)

Cyber Threats to the Financial Sector in Africa: An Assessment of the Current Threat and an Analysis of Emerging Trends on the Future Threat Landscape (2022)

Cyber Resilience for Financial Market Infrastructures (2019)

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

Digital Public Infrastructure and Development: A World Bank Group Approach (2025)

G20 Policy Recommendations for Advancing Financial Inclusion and Productivity Gains through Digital Public Infrastructure (2023)

Digital ID to Enhance Financial Inclusion: A Toolkit for Regulatory Authorities (2022)

Digital ID Assessment Instrument: Financial Sector Module (2022)

Digital Identification: Mexico (2022)

Digital Financial Services (2020)

Electronic Payment Acceptance

Launching and Acceptance Development Fund: A Vehicle for Expanding Usage of Digital Payments (2025)

Kingdom of Eswatini: Electronic Payment Acceptance Assessment (2025)

Guidance for the Implementation of Electronic Payment Acceptance Reforms (2022)

Electronic Payment Acceptance Assessment Guide (2022)

Innovations in Electronic Payment Acceptance (2022)

Incentives for Electronic Payment Acceptance (2022)

Regulatory Aspects of Intermediaries in Electronic Payment Acceptance (2022)

Electronic Payment Acceptance Merchant Survey Instrument (2022)

Assessing Incentives to Increase Digital Payment Acceptance and Usage (2022)

EPA Incentives: Literature Review and Country Examples (2020)

Innovation in Electronic Payment Adoption: The Case of Small Retailers (2016)

Fast Payments

Driving Digital Transformation and Inclusion: Fast Payments in Latin America and the Caribbean (2025)

Pricing in Fast Payments: A Practical and Theoretical Overview (2025)

World Bank Fast Payments Toolkit (2025)

Financial Market Infrastructures

How to Analyze the Costs and Benefits of Introducing a Central Counterparty (2022)

General Principles for Credit Reporting (2011)

Financial Infrastructure: Building Access Through Transparent and Stable Financial Systems (2009)

The Evolution of Real-Time Gross Settlement: Access, Liquidity and Credit, and Pricing (2009)

Measuring Payment System Development (2008)

Fintech

Fintech and the Future of Finance - Overview Paper (2022)

Global Patterns of Fintech Activity and Enabling Factors (2022)

Global Market Survey: Digital Technology and the Future of Finance (2022)

Fintech and Digital Transformation of Financial Services: Implications for Market Structure and Public Policy (2022)

Regulation and Supervision of Fintech: Considerations for EMDE Policymakers (2022)

Financial Consumer Protection and Fintech: An Overview of New Manifestations of Consumer Risks and Emerging Regulatory Approaches (2022)

Innovation in Payments: Opportunities and Challenges for EMDEs (2022)

Fintech and SME Finance: Expanding Responsible Access (2022)

What Does Digital Money Mean for EMDEs? (2022)

Open Banking - Comparative Study on Regulatory Approaches (2022)

The Bali FinTech Agenda (2018)

Government Payments

Deep Dive into the Ecosystem for the Delivery of Social Assistance Payments: Türkiye Case Study (2022)

A Digital Stack for Transforming Service Delivery: ID, Payments and Data Sharing (2022)

Next Generation G2P Payments: Building Blocks of a Modern G2P Architecture (2022)

Key Considerations and Policy Options for Emergency Social Assistance Payments (2020)

General Guidelines for the Development of Government Payment Programs (2012)

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion

Implementation Guide for the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion (2022)

Universal Financial Access 2020: Lessons for the Future (2022)

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion in the FinTech Era (2020)

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion: Application Tools (2020)

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (2016)

Payments Oversight

The Oversight of the Payment Systems: A Framework for the Development and Governance of Payment Systems in Emerging Economies (2001)

Regional Integration

Guidelines for the Successful Regional Integration of Financial Infrastructures (2014)

Retail Payments

A Comparative Methodology for Measuring Supply-Side Domestic Payment Costs: Results from a Pilot Study (2025)

Retail Payment Costs and Savings in West Bank & Gaza (2024)

Retail Payment Costs and Savings in Kosovo (2022)

Governance of Retail Payment Systems: Keeping Pace with Changing Markets (2021)

Developing Digital Payment Services in the Middle East and North Africa (2021)

Innovations by Domestic Payment Systems in the Pandemic (2021)

The Retail Payment Costs and Savings in Albania (2018)

A Practical Guide for Measuring Retail Payment Costs (2016)

Developing a Comprehensive National Retail Payments Strategy (2012)

A Practical Guide to Retail Payments Stocktaking (2012)

Balancing Cooperation and Competition in Retail Payment Systems (2008)

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BLOGS & STORIES

How Interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure Can Transform Fast Payments (2025)

Paraguay's Path to Inclusive Digital Finance: New Milestones, New Horizons (2025)

Securing the Future of Fast Payments: The Open-Source Debate (2025)

Securing the Future of Fast Payments: The Cybersecurity Conundrum (2025)

International Day of Migrants: The Power of Digital Remittances in Supporting Egypt's Families (2024)

Remittances and the High Cost of Generosity (2024)

E-Payments as a Pathway to Growth: Empowering the West Bank and Gaza through Digital Inclusion (2024)

From Reliance to Leverage: Transforming Albania's Remittance Landscape for Economic Empowerment (2024)

A Fast Payments Revolution in Latin America (2024)

Fast/Instant Payments: An Imperative for Accelerating Financial Inclusion in Africa (2024)

Riskier than We Think? A Focus on Insolvency of Frameworks to Protect Mobile Money Users (2024)

Advancing the Modernization and Integration of Payment Systems in the Western Balkans (2024)

The oversight of payment systems and the green agenda: Part I | Part II (2023)

Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa Interview Series - Tim Masela, Vice Chair, AACB African Inter -Regional Payments Integration Task Force (2023)

Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa Interview Series - Settor Amediku, AACB Payment Systems Integration Working Group (2023)

Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa Interview Series - Ashley Olson Onyango, GSMA's Head of Financial Inclusion and AgriTech (2023)

Digital Payments in Georgia: Bolstering the Regulatory Environment and Developing Infrastructure for an Inclusive Future (2023)

Fast Payments Offer Potential for Faster Digital Financial Inclusion and Faster Growth (2023)

Sierra Leone Taps Fast Payment Systems to Promote Fast Progress with Financial Inclusion (2023)

Embracing the Promise of Fintech Responsibly through Regulation and Supervision (2023)

Fintech and Financial Services: Delivering for Development (2023)

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt: Global Regulatory Challenges for Crypto Insolvencies (2023)

Beti Kamao: Empowering India's Micro-Level Women Entrepreneurs (2022)

Is Central Bank Digital Currency the Right Tool to Expand Financial Inclusion? (2022)

The COVID-19 Crisis Showed the Future of G2P Payments Should Be Digital. Here Is Why (2022)

Five key digital enablers of social assistance delivery in Türkiye (2022)

Global Findex: Digitalization in COVID-19 Boosted Financial Inclusion (2022)

Expiring Money: Part I, Part II (2022)

CBDC and Financial Inclusion - Changing the Paradigm: Part I, Part II (2022)

The long and winding road: Remittances and financial inclusion (2022)

Remittance Recipients: Findings on the Greenback Initiative in Morocco (2021)

Women and Remittances: Three Takeaways from Project Greenback in the Western Balkans (2021)

Ebb and Flow: Remittances in a Year of Pandemic (2021)

Fast Payment Systems: A Toolkit Helps Countries and Regions Navigate Implementation (2021)

On Fintech and Financial Inclusion (2021)

How Digital Financial Services Can Provide a Path Toward Economic Recovery in Algeria (2021)

Will Smart Contracts Usher in a New Wave of Financial Inclusion? (2020)

Fast Payments Benefit Senders and Receivers Alike - Especially in a Crisis (2020)

Covid-19 Will Shape the Trajectory of Fintech Development in the Europe and Central Asia Region (2020)

Fintech Can Help in the Response to Covid-19. But Where Should Policymakers Start? (2020)

Suptech: Moving from Why to How (2020)

In Ethiopia, Prototyping a Mobile App to Support Women Entrepreneurs Facing the Pandemic (2020)

Four Years and Counting: What We Have Learned Regulatory Sandboxes (2020)

How a Pandemic-Induced Boom in E-Commerce Can Reshape Financial Services (2020)

Remittances in Times of the Coronavirus - Keep Them Flowing (2020)

How Can Financial Service Providers Move the Needle for Migrants and their Families? (2019)

World Savings Day Looks a Lot Different Almost a 100 Years Later (2019)

On the International Day of Family Remittances: the Greenback Runmittance Treasure Hunt in Berat (2019)

Notes from the Field: Using Big Data to Unlock Insights (2019)

Digital ID: A Critical Enabler for Financial Inclusion (2019)

What's Holding Back Digital Disruption in Remittances in Southern Africa? (2019)

Paying Across Borders - Can Distributed Ledgers Bring Us Closer Together? (2019)

How Digital Remittances Can Help Drive Sustainable Development (2019)

Making Remittances Work for the Poor - Three Lessons Learned from Three Greenback 2.0 Remittance Champion Cities in Southeast Europe (2018)

Sandbox or Quicksand? (2018)

Initial Findings from the Implementation of the Practical Guide for Measuring Retail Payment Costs (2018)

De-Risking and Remittances: The Myth of the "Underlying Transaction" Debunked (2018)

The Accounting View of Money: Part I, Part II, Part III (2018)

Return to Sender (2018)

Three Things to Know About Migrant Workers and Remittances in Malaysia (2017)

How Much Does it Cost to Pay? (2016)

Solving Payments Interoperability for Universal Financial Access (2016)

Establishing Payments Interoperability: Coordination Is Key (2016)

Championing Interoperability for Financial Inclusion: Carrot or Stick? (2016)

Leveraging Urbanization to Fund Sustainable Development and Financial Inclusion (2016)

Why Are Payment Services Essential For Financial Inclusion? (2015)

World Bank Launches Survey to Assess the Impact of De-Risking on Remittances (2015)

Getting SmaRT about Reducing Remittances Costs (2015)

More Efficient Ways to Transfer Remittances Are Emerging. Are Migrants and their Families Ready to Benefit from Them? (2014)

Project Greenback 2.0: Remittance Champion Cities' Launched in Turin, Italy (2013)

How Can We Cut the High Costs of Remittances to Africa? (2013)

Putting $8.7 Billion Back in the Pockets of Asia's Migrants (2013)

We Need to Fix the Leaks in Remittance Transfer Systems around the World (2013)

Closing the Gap in Retail Payments (2012)

Why Should Governments Care about Improving their Payment Programs? (2012)

5X5=US$16 Billion in the Pockets of Migrants Sending Money Home (2012)

Promoting Financial Inclusion: Is Mobile Money the Magic Bullet? (2012)

Bill Payment: A Demand-Based Approach to Financial Inclusion (2012)