The first choices made in a national payment system are difficult to reverse. Who owns the switch, who governs access, how fees are set and who pays for upgrades can determine the market that develops on top of it. Publicly funded rails can widen access but leave the state carrying long-term costs. Commercial models can create stronger incentives to invest while making access harder for smaller providers. Bakong offers one model: a national network connecting banks and e-wallets through shared infrastructure and interoperable QR payments. The panel compares the ownership, governance and funding choices available to emerging markets and asks which capabilities must remain under national control, which can be shared with industry, and what makes an open payment network financially sustainable.

If emerging markets can build stronger domestic financial infrastructure, connect it across borders and reduce unnecessary dependence on external intermediaries, the impact goes far beyond payments. It changes how trade is settled, how capital moves, how small businesses reach markets, how governments exercise monetary and regulatory authority, and how regions relate economically to one another. The closing plenary steps back from the architecture itself to examine what this shift could mean at scale. It asks where greater financial autonomy could materially change economic outcomes, which forms of regional cooperation could create the greatest shared value, and what new risks or concentrations of power could emerge alongside that progress. The discussion looks ahead to the financial system these choices could produce over the next decade, and what role emerging markets can play in shaping it rather than simply adapting to it.