Key takeaways
- Pricing can influence adoption and merchant behaviour.
- Payment ecosystems need sustainable economics for participating institutions.
- Trust, fraud management and dispute handling are as important as transaction cost.
Payment infrastructure creates value far beyond the fee earned on an individual transaction. Network effects, formalisation, financial inclusion and digital commerce can produce much larger economic benefits.
That does not mean payment infrastructure should ignore commercial sustainability. Banks, payment institutions, technology providers and networks need viable economics.
The policy challenge is to find the balance: keep infrastructure affordable enough to drive adoption while ensuring participants have incentives to invest, innovate and maintain strong controls.
The same principle applies to cross-border payments. Lower cost and faster settlement are important, but the ecosystem must also remain secure, compliant and commercially sustainable.