The Optimal Design of Payment Systems Workshop, which is supported by CFSP, brings together experts to examine payment and transfer technologies for use in developing countries where banking and transportation infrastructure is limited.
Given the assumption that, because of differences in comparative advantage, households are better off when they can trade goods than when they are self-sufficient, the overall goal of the workshop is to encourage payments systems that expand access to the payments and financial system for poor people. The workshop also explores related questions regarding the coexistence of private and public means of payment, the overall optimal design of payments systems, and the regulation of financial systems – regulatory regimes have been weak historically in developing countries.