Open Payments Innovation Lab

The Open Payments Innovation Lab investigates how open payment protocols such as Interledger enable faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payments, and what is required legally, economically, and socially to achieve this.

Centre of Expertise Digital Operations & Finance

The Open Payments Innovation Lab investigates how open payment protocols such as Interledger can contribute to faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment systems. By having students work on specific case studies relating to financial inclusion, the lab generates insights into the legal, economic and social feasibility of open payment infrastructure.

Problem definition

Open payment systems enable direct payments between different financial systems without the intervention of traditional intermediaries. These technologies promise faster and cheaper cross-border payments and have the potential of promoting financial inclusion worldwide.

Financial inclusion means access to useful and affordable financial services. Billions of people worldwide, both those with and without bank accounts, are unable to make full use of these services due to high costs, strict eligibility criteria or a lack of infrastructure. Open payment systems can offer new opportunities by facilitating micro-payments, direct payments and innovative business models.

At the same time, these technologies raise fundamental questions: Who is responsible for what? How are privacy and anti-money laundering rules enforced? And under what conditions can open protocols actually contribute to full financial inclusion for everyone?

Target group

Third- and fourth-year students on law and finance study programmes.

Research methods

The Open Payments Innovation Lab combines teaching with applied research through design-based learning.

The Open Payments Innovation Lab consists of a twelve-week programme. After eight weeks of workshops and three weeks of coaching, the programme concludes with a pitching event. Students work in interdisciplinary teams (law and finance) on a case study of their own choosing that addresses an aspect of financial inclusion using the Interledger Protocol and open payment technologies.

Intended (intermediate) results

The lab generates insights into the regulatory challenges of open payment infrastructure. In addition, the lab analyses which business models are viable for open payment services and assesses what works and what does not work in financial inclusion solutions, and why. The results are shared via the project website, publications, and transfer to the Interledger Foundation.

The Open Payments Innovation Lab helps students better prepare for the changing financial labour market. It contributes to the Interledger Foundation’s ecosystem by bringing in new talent and delivering practical solutions.

Project duration

September 2025 – ongoing

Team

New Finance research group:

Martijn van der Linde, professor
Aleksandra Asscheman, lecturer-researcher and lab coordinator

Partners

Interledger Foundation

Funding

Interledger Foundation, NextGen Higher Education Grant

Involved study programmes

International & European Law and International Financial Management & Control