Since the inception of the Level One Project, the Gates Foundation and our global partners continue to pursue a simple, ambitious vision: that Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (Inclusive IPS) can deliver useful, convenient, affordable, digital payments to all people and facilitate their full participation in their economies.
Desired Outcomes
Without usefulness, convenience, and affordability, Inclusive IPS will not reach the scale needed to transform financial access and wellbeing for low-income individuals and small businesses. By prioritizing both usefulness, convenience, and affordability, L1P enables digital payments that are widely accessible and sustainable.
Useful
A payment system is useful when it seamlessly integrates into daily life, allowing users to pay anyone and be paid by anyone, securely, and across user needs. This means ensuring interoperability and making payments as reliable and intuitive as cash.
Convenient
A payment system is convenient when a user’s experience is hassle free, not prone to error, and eased by good user interface and experience design. This means encouraging DFPs to build user friendly interfaces and scale their services to make instant payments a ubiquitous option – available at any location at any hour, proximately or remotely.
Affordable
Equally important, an Inclusive IPS must be affordable—low-cost for both users and providers. Keeping fees minimal for participating providers helps them keep costs low for end users. Leveraging economies of scale ensures that financial inclusion is not a luxury but a reality.
Supporting Guidance
The Level One project presents a set of Core Design Principles to guide the design, development, and scaling of Inclusive IPS.
About L1P
Established in 2015, the Level One Project is an effort of the Gates Foundation’s Inclusive Financial Systems Team. We join a community of global practitioners, partners, and leaders in promoting a global vision for inclusive instant payments systems. Our efforts include the provision of technical assistance to country implementations and ecosystems. Read more about our journey and future ambitious.
