Research and Report Library

By Design? How Design Harms and Confuses Consumers in Digital, Finance Products

• Abstract: An interactive report on harmful design patterns, sometimes called dark patterns, in banking and financial services, a domain the existing literature has largely passed over in favor of e-commerce and privacy. Over eight months the author combined a literature review and systematic mapping of harmful design taxonomies with a design analysis of specific platforms, including Chime and SoLo Funds, and user research with four Chilean immigrants in London observed making live international transfers. Interviews with current and former US and UK regulators and with design and consumer protection experts supplement the user work. The report distinguishes harmful design from merely unfriendly design and from the necessary friction of identity verification, and it proposes a new category of harmful design specific to financial services: the failure of neobanks and payment platforms to disclose prominently that they are not banks and what protections consumers therefore lose. It closes with practical recourse for consumers and an argument that financial literacy cannot substitute for regulation.
• Author(s): Caroline Sinders (Convocation Research+Design)
• Publication date: 2025

Banking on Rights: A Case Study of Digital Financial Inclusion for Blind Persons in Pakistan

• Abstract: This paper examines digital financial inclusion for blind and low-vision banking customers in Pakistan, tracing the evolution of the State Bank of Pakistan’s regulatory framework from 2009 to 2024. Drawing on documentary analysis, a survey of 120 respondents, and 18 semi-structured interviews, the study argues that financial exclusion has been transformed rather than eliminated: legacy barriers such as reliance on witnesses and institutional paternalism persist alongside emergent digital barriers, including inaccessible mobile applications, authentication systems, and ATMs. Informed by the capability approach, socio-technical systems theory, and the concept of institutional paternalism, the paper introduces “functional internet access” as a measure of substantive financial capability and proposes a six-pillar reform agenda centered on binding digital accessibility obligations, alternative authentication pathways, and disability-disaggregated supervisory monitoring.
• Author(s): Dr. Muhammad Shabbir
• Publication date: 2026

The Missing Link: Remittances & Socially Trusted Financial Intermediation as Key Element for Addressing Root Causes of Migration

• Abstract: This paper argues that properly intermediated remittances represent a critical yet underutilized resource for addressing the root causes of migration. Current public policies have largely overlooked the potential of community-based financial institutions, when combined with Fintech infrastructure, to channel remittances into sustainable local development in rural, remittance-dependent regions.
• Author(s): Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, Roberto Valdovinos Alba, Isabel Cruz Hernández, Yvonne Su
• Publication date: September 2025

A Cashless Country & The Future of Banks

• Abstract: The financial world is rapidly shifting, with consumers increasingly questioning the value of cash and the definition of a traditional bank. This report is based on a national survey of 1,004 U.S. consumers, revealing the deep-rooted habits and changing views driving the industry’s evolution.
• Author(s): This study was commissioned by the Interledger Foundation and conducted by third-party research firm Dynata.
• Publication date: October 24, 2025

The Internet of Opportunity: Unlocking Financial Interoperability in Latin America

• Abstract: This joint study by the Interledger Foundation and FINNOSUMMIT argues that financial interoperability is the missing layer in Mexico’s payment ecosystem, drawing on interviews with more than ten payment industry experts, operational data from over fifty companies in the payment value chain, and a review of urban and rural socioeconomic indicators. It documents the costs of fragmentation, including roughly nine in ten adults still transacting in cash, a merchant discount rate near 2.0 percent against 0.9 percent in Europe, remittance costs of 4 to 5 percent on annual inflows of USD 64.7 billion, and a twenty-point urban-rural gap in digital payment use. Survey evidence reveals a readiness paradox: institutions rate their architectures at 63 out of 100 for adopting open payment protocols and half could integrate within six months, yet 56 percent would only answer “maybe” when asked to join a pilot, a hesitation the authors attribute to unresolved governance, absent use cases, and the incomplete secondary rulemaking under Mexico’s 2018 Fintech Law. Benchmarking against Brazil’s Pix and India’s UPI, the paper estimates that interoperable rails could cut merchant acceptance costs by up to 85 percent and free roughly USD 1 billion annually in remittance value, and proposes a four-step roadmap moving from proof of utility, to compulsory standards set by Banco de México and the CNBV, to structured collaboration, to user adoption.
• Author(s): Jordi Puig, FINNOSUMMIT
• Publication date: 2025

UN Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on Digital Financial Inclusion Policy Primer

• Abstract: Despite the rapid expansion of digital financial services, systemic barriers such as fragmentation, regulatory divergence, and exclusionary architectures continue to impede global digital financial inclusion. This policy blueprint proposes a comprehensive framework for interoperable payment protocols as foundational infrastructure to advance equitable access to financial systems. Drawing from multistakeholder consultations and expert research, it outlines guiding principles for inclusive governance, adaptive technical standardization, flexible regulatory design, and user-first ecosystem development. Emphasizing interoperability as a digital public good, the policy blueprint advocates for systems that are secure, accessible, and locally adaptable, while maintaining global compatibility. It highlights the critical role of public investment, regulatory oversight, and participatory design in mitigating risks of digital exploitation, systemic exclusion, and monopolistic capture. Positioned as a strategic intervention, interoperable payment protocols are framed not merely as technical tools but as enablers of broader financial empowerment. The blueprint underscores that achieving meaningful financial inclusion requires sustained commitment across policy, infrastructure, and education—ensuring that no user, institution, or region remains disconnected from the evolving global financial landscape.
• Author(s):  Ayden Férdeline, David Higgins, Jeremiah Lee, Smriti Parsheera, Stephanie Perrin, Ian Jacobs, Caroline Sinders, Vineel Reddy Pindi
• Publication date: 2025

Questioning IPS Design Inclusivity: Unlocking Fintech and Non-Bank Participation in Domestic IPS

• Abstract: Instant Payment Systems (IPS) are rapidly becoming a foundational component of modern financial infrastructure. Significant investment has been directed toward building real-time payment rails to support financial inclusion, innovation, and economic growth. By enabling real-time, free-to-consumer or nearly free-to-consumer payments between individuals, businesses, and institutions, IPS are widely viewed as a cornerstone of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) capable of accelerating innovation, expanding financial access, and supporting inclusive economic growth. The promise of IPS extends beyond faster payments. Their broader impact is determined by the ecosystem they enable. Inclusion within IPS is not determined by access alone, but by who can participate in the system and under what conditions. Fintech and non-banks are often closest to underserved populations and play a critical role in developing accessible, low-cost, and innovative financial services that reach women, rural communities, people with disabilities, and others historically excluded from formal financial systems. Realizing the inclusion potential of IPS depends not only on enabling participation by fintech and non-banks, but on ensuring their meaningful participation, the ability to shape IPS evolution, and the capacity to build innovative products and services on top of IPS rails. This assessment examines how IPS participation by fintech and non-banks, including fintechs, neobanks, and microfinance institutions, is enabled or constrained across more than twenty markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Drawing on insights from 129 senior industry practitioners, the research finds that while IPS are often designed to be inclusive, participation remains uneven, and in many cases structurally constrained.
• Author(s): Sarah Corley, Nandini Harihareswara
• Publication date: 2026

Digital Public Infrastructure for Payments: Sovereignty, Interoperability, and Consumer Protection

• Abstract: A virtual convening hosted by the Center for Technology and Society at Fundação Getulio Vargas, examining how states build and govern instant payment infrastructure, with Pix and UPI as the two working cases against which general claims about digital public infrastructure can be tested.

  The session moves from domestic design questions to the harder problem of connecting national systems across borders, where the Interledger Protocol and multi-CBDC bridge proposals represent competing approaches rather than settled ones. Governance runs through the discussion as a persistent question: what obligations on data protection, cybersecurity, and user rights should attach to payment infrastructure that a population has no practical option to avoid.

• Author(s): Luca Belli, Hannah Draper, Ajay Kumar Choudhary, Breno Lobo, Amrita Sengupta, Larissa Magalhães, Anna Sheard

• Publication date: 2026

THE WATERWORKS OF MONEY

• Abstract: Charting the influence of big money on our society.
• Author(s): Cartographer Carlijn Kingma in collaboration with investigative journalist Thomas Bollen and researcher Martijn Jeroen van der Linden
• Publication date: 2023