When financial services are offered through platforms, as in e-money, payments and other DFS, interoperability is key to generate value for consumers and maintain a competitive market. It is most frequently attained by using APIs, which enable connection and communication among systems. Ideally, authorities should allow the market to reach a voluntary, sustainable agreement on how to interoperate. This outcome can face challenges either in case of an impasse among players or when the desired result is sabotaged by one or more dominant market actors; both situations call for a more interventionist approach by the authority. Also relevant is the timing of the regulatory demand: too early it might hinder innovation, too late might result in entrenched monopoly powers1 .
1. UK Government (2022), A new pro-competition regime for digital markets - government response to consultation, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-new-pro-competition-regime-for-digital-markets/outcome/a-new-pro-competition-regime-for-digital-markets-government-response-to-consultation (accessed on 21 August 2025).
Country Examples
Bakong is Cambodia’s blockchain payment system, launched in 2020. It allows consumers, banked or unbanked, to create a digital wallet and deposit or receive tokenized versions of any of the currencies in use in the country (US Dollars or Cambodian Riel). A major benefit of Bakong was facilitating interoperability among commercial banks and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). There was, from the start, large room for financial inclusion improvement in the country, given that only 22% of adults had a bank account at the time of launch. Bakong’s effect over financial consumer habits were emphasized by a 2022 survey, where the country ranked first in QR code payment adoption in Southeast Asia, thanks to Bakong.1;2;3;4
1. Fintech Egypt (n.d.), About us, Fintech Egypt, https://fintech-egypt.com/about-us/ (accessed on 26 August 2025).
2. Central Bank of Egypt (2019), The Central Bank of Egypt’s FinTech Strategy, https://fintech-egypt.com/PDF/Central%20Bank%20of%20Egypt's%20FinTech%20Strategy_V15.pdf (accessed on 30 August 2025).
3. Bourreau, M. and T. Valletti (2015), Enabling Digital Financial Inclusion through Improvements in Competition and Interoperability: What Works and What Doesn’t?, Center for Global Development, https://www.cgdev.org/publication/enabling-digital-financial-inclusion-through-improvements-competition-and (accessed on 30 August 2025).
4. Roest, J. (2018), Public Clearinghouse Could Shake Up China’s Mobile Payment Market | Blog | CGAP, https://www.cgap.org/blog/public-clearinghouse-could-shake-chinas-mobile-payment-market (accessed on 26 August 2025).
