With the expansion in digital finance leading to the question about whether greater access is translating into lasting confidence and improved economic opportunity, the Bridgforte Centre for Global Impact’s Bridgforte’s Trust Architecture programme recently examined how the design and governance of financial systems shape those outcomes, with shared accountability and the measurement of trust central to its next phase of research.
Held on 23 September at the Harvard Club of New York City during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, the second Bridgforte Dialogues brought together central bankers, financial institutions, payments and technology providers, researchers, consumer specialists and international development leaders to examine how trust is built and sustained across increasingly interconnected financial systems.
“Trust is not reputation, it is not communication. Trust is something that needs to be designed into a financial system,” said Aishah Ahmad, Founder of Bridgforte and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Bridgforte brings the people who build, govern and use that system into conversation, then turns the questions that emerge into research and work institutions can act on.”
In a recorded address, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said digital payments and trade-finance platforms could reduce costs and widen participation for smaller businesses, but required “appropriate regulatory frameworks, interoperable payment infrastructures and international cooperation”.
Speaking from the floor, HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano and former Governor of the CBN, brought the question of economic opportunity to the household level. “You could have a lot of money moving around without people’s lives getting better,” he said. “Beyond trust,” he added, “it’s also about hope.”
On accountability, Olugbenga Agboola, CEO and Co-Founder of Flutterwave, described payments as a chain of partnerships built on institutions trusting one another to honour payment instructions. In that sense, he observed, “trust is what is moving”.
Shared performance information can reveal where transactions fail, so that a problem can be explained and resolved without the customer being passed between providers. Anna Gincherman of ConsumerCentriX noted that such coordination depends on clear leadership, benefits that participating institutions understand and practical agreements for sharing data.
On shared capability, Ngover Ihyembe-Nwankwo, Executive Director at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), described how shared fraud alerts extend common payment and identity infrastructure into protection, but only when institutions respond and exchange intelligence.
Sanjay Jain of the Gates Foundation drew on India’s experience to argue that reusable digital infrastructure must be governed for public benefit. Kate Griffin of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program noted that scams can begin on telecommunications networks and websites before a payment is made, beyond the reach of finance alone.
On measurement, Tamara Cook of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health argued that reliable services and effective recourse build confidence, and that consumer education should not become a means of transferring responsibility for protection onto customers.
Darius Kingsley, Head of Consumer Fraud and Scam Prevention at JPMorganChase, said a bank may need to refuse a payment it suspects is a scam, despite a customer’s initial resistance. “If you get it right and the customer realises it, it’s a huge trust multiplier.”
Recorded contributions from Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed of the World Bank Group, Lincoln Mali of Lesaka Technologies and the deputy governors of the central banks of Botswana and Tanzania proposed examining what people say, how they behave and how they respond under stress as a measure of whether people trust the system.
Bridgforte has begun publishing insights in its “What We Heard series.” Through its Trust Lab, it will develop and test ways to measure perceptions, behaviour and responses to stress, and work with institutions on how that evidence can inform governance and consumer protection.
The Dialogues were held in partnership with Lagos Business School, the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, ConsumerCentriX and the Milken Institute.
Bridgforte Centre for Global Impact is an independent, practitioner-led policy research and convening institution working to strengthen trusted, resilient and inclusive financial systems in Africa and the wider Global South. Its work combines research, structured dialogue and institutional engagement.
