In January, I co-organized a panel on the Future of Payments at Beyond Cash, Code & Monetary Power event, hosted by our New Finance Research Group. The panel brought together Ria Roerink from De Nederlandsche Bank, Tamara Schmidt from the Digital Euro Association, and myself (Aleksandra Asscheman from The Hague University of Applied Sciences) on the legal side. What made it special was how our three perspectives fit together to reveal the bigger picture. Private and public m

We talk a lot about financial inclusion. The statistics sound encouraging: 76% of the world's population now has access to a financial account . Mobile money has exploded from 1% adoption in 2014 to 15% today . Digital payments are growing rapidly, especially in low- and middle-income countries. But here's the uncomfortable question: are we measuring the right thing? Financial Inclusion Isn't Just About Access. It's About What Comes Next Having an account is just the starting

Last November I had the privilege of speaking at the Interledger Summit 2025 on a panel about how universities are cultivating the next generation of open payments talent. Honestly? It was surreal. A year ago, this was just an idea I was sketching out. Now, thanks to the Interledger Foundation NextGen Higher Education Grant, we're actually building it. The future of open payments won't be built by technologists alone, or lawyers alone, or finance professionals alone. It will