Level One Principles

The Level One Project Guide outlines a vision of how an inclusive digital financial services system can work for the benefit of poor people. The underlying design principles of the Guide include:

• A push payment model with immediate funds transfer and same day settlement
• Open-loop interoperability between providers
• Adherence to well-defined and adopted international standards
• Adequate system-wide shared fraud and security protection
• Efficient and proportional identity and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements
• Meeting or exceeding the convenience, cost and utility of cash

By utilizing an open, digital approach to transactions, and partnering with organizations across the public and private sectors, the Level One Project Guide aims to provide access to a robust, low-cost shared digital financial services infrastructure, sparking innovation from new and existing participants, reducing risk, and generating substantial value for providers, individuals and economies in developing markets. Additional resources have been created to help governments, NGOs and financial service providers successfully implement these changes.