Interoperability depends on more than connecting payment systems. Countries must also trust the identities being verified, the data being exchanged and the institutions carrying responsibility when something fails. Cross-border finance exposes differences in digital identity, KYC, AML/CFT, cybersecurity, privacy and liability frameworks that may be manageable domestically but become serious risks once systems connect. The roundtable focuses on the minimum trust architecture required before two financial ecosystems can interoperate safely. It asks what must be mutually recognised, what data should remain under national control, how users can be verified across jurisdictions and where liability should sit when a cross-border transaction or security control fails.

Much of the world's workforce earns outside formal payroll systems. Income can arrive daily, seasonally or irregularly, while many savings, credit, pension and insurance products still assume a stable monthly salary. Informal workers are therefore not a marginal customer segment; in many emerging markets they are the economy's centre of gravity. Digital payments and alternative data have made it possible to build financial histories for people previously invisible to formal institutions, but access alone does not guarantee trust or sustained use. The roundtable compares products and distribution models designed around irregular income and asks what makes an informal worker continue using a formal financial product after the first transaction.