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Across much of the world, people still struggle to access even the most basic financial tools. Not because they lack demand, but because the digital and institutional rails that make modern finance work, from identity systems to payment networks to reliable data, remain uneven, fragile, or inaccessible.
As financial activity becomes increasingly digital, inclusion depends less on outreach and more on whether underlying systems are secure, interoperable, and resilient. Inclusive finance is no longer just about bringing people into the system; it’s about rebuilding the system so that inclusion is built in by design.
From open-source coders to central bankers, a new consensus is emerging: secure, interoperable and identity-anchored systems are the foundation of financial resilience. What began as an access agenda has become a systems challenge, linking the reliability of digital infrastructure to the dignity and agency of the people who depend on it.
A Global Shift Toward Resilient Finance
Regulators are increasingly recognising what development economists have long argued: financial inclusion cannot exist without digital resilience. The European Union’s new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into force in 2025, treats financial technology as critical infrastructure.
Many OECD countries now operate national digital ID systems. According to World Bank, 186 out of 198 countries now have foundational ID systems stored in digital format, and the Bank’s ID4D and DPI programmes have supported upwards of 60 countries to issue inclusive digital IDs as part of wider digital-public-infrastructure efforts. This expanding digital infrastructure is becoming essential: without secure delivery systems, countries cannot stretch limited climate-finance resources or ensure they reach frontline communities.
These shifts come at a pivotal time. Developing economies are now spending more servicing external debt than they receive in aid, widening the gap between available capital and the resilience finance that actually reaches communities.
Why Inclusive Finance Matters Now
“If we want finance to reach people on the front lines of climate change, inclusive finance can’t be an afterthought, it’s a central delivery mechanism,” says Peter Zetterli, climate lead at CGAP, the World Bank–housed think tank on inclusive finance. “With less than 1% of climate finance going to adaptation in local communities, the limitations of the current system are clear. Inclusive finance is the missing piece of the puzzle.”
Zetterli argues that inclusive finance must evolve from a standalone development goal into the connective tissue of economic resilience. “As much as we need resilient bridges or electricity infrastructure, vulnerable people also need to harden their lives and livelihoods to shocks,” he notes. “That’s not what most people mean when they talk about the pipeline for investment in adaptation and resilience, but it should be.”
For financial institutions and fintechs, this shift is not just regulatory pressure, it is a commercial opportunity. Interoperable payment systems reduce transaction friction and expand customer reach, while digital IDs can dramatically lower onboarding costs. Secure open-source components reduce cyber exposure at a time when operational resilience is increasingly material to risk management. As climate shocks become more frequent, the firms that maintain continuity and trust during crises will gain an advantage.
Bridging The Climate Finance Gap
A secure open finance architecture rests on three ingredients: trusted identity, interoperable payment rails, and verifiable data. People and institutions need to prove who they are, move money across systems, and confirm results without friction or doubt. In practice, that might mean a farmer using a verified digital ID to receive emergency payments directly to a mobile wallet, with project results automatically logged to a transparent system. When these foundations are in place, climate finance can flow quickly, transparently, and safely to the people who need it most.
The challenge is that today’s global financial system wasn’t built to serve the disconnected majority. It was built for scale, not for flexibility or the ability to respond to shocks. Without upgraded digital rails, climate finance becomes slower, more expensive, and more vulnerable to leakage and disruption — exactly when speed and trust matter most. As climate risks multiply, that design flaw has become a systemic weakness.
Zetterli sees this as both a challenge and an opportunity. “Local financial systems already reach three in four people hit by climate shocks, so we have a channel to the vulnerable,” he says. “But to scale further and fully unlock innovation that makes both systems and clients more resilient will require a shift toward secure open finance architectures.”
The implication is profound: the next stage of financial inclusion will depend on shared infrastructure, digital rails, open standards, and governance models that allow finance to function under pressure.
As global climate negotiations increasingly highlight the difficulty of getting adaptation and disaster recovery funding to the local level, the missing link is often the infrastructure required to deliver those funds securely and at speed. No major financing mechanism, whether for adaptation, Loss and Damage, or humanitarian response, can scale without trusted rails for identity, payments, and verification.
Trust Begins In The Code
For Christopher Robinson, chief architect at the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), the future of financial inclusion starts in the code itself. “Security frameworks like the Open Software Security Baseline for OSS Projects will be increasingly foundational to global resilience,” he explains. “In the same way that we depend on physical infrastructure, like power grids or water systems, fintech software and digital identities need to be secure at their core for businesses to operate.”
The baseline sets minimum security practices that make the software behind financial systems auditable, transparent, and accountable. “The security of open-source software has become a collective responsibility,” Robinson says. “When the code that underpins critical infrastructure is open and verifiable, it strengthens trust across the entire ecosystem.”
That trust underwrites everything from cross-border remittances to microcredit platforms. A single vulnerability can cascade through systems that millions rely on, particularly in countries where backups are scarce and downtime can be devastating. By embedding transparency and verifiability into code, OpenSSF is effectively translating inclusion into the language of resilience.
Interoperability As Fairness
On another front, Chris Lawrence, head of programmes at the Interledger Foundation, is working to connect the world’s payment networks in much the same way the internet connects websites. “We’re trying to build a more equitable world by making sure money can move as easily as information does on the internet,” he says. “Billions of people are still locked out of the global economy because the systems that move money don’t talk to each other. Interoperability is how we change that.”
Lawrence describes open payment systems and portable digital IDs as “financial lifelines.” When disaster strikes, whether that’s a flood in Bangladesh or conflict in Sudan, being able to receive money securely can be as critical as access to food or water.
“When people lose their homes or their documents, they shouldn’t also lose access to their money,” Lawrence notes. “That’s why digital identity and open payments have to go hand in hand.” Interoperability isn’t just technical plumbing; it’s the foundation for fair, fast and accountable financial delivery.
The Interledger Protocol, an open-source standard, allows different financial systems to exchange value seamlessly, a foundation for emergency response, remittances, and digital trade. For governments and humanitarian agencies, interoperable systems also reduce leakage and fraud, ensuring funds reach those who need them most.
This shift is not merely technical; it is structural. Interoperability distributes power away from dominant platforms and toward users and lowers the barriers that prevent smaller providers from competing. It allows small financial service providers, cooperatives, and local fintechs to plug into global networks without having to reinvent the rails.
Finance As Public Infrastructure
The links between secure code, trusted identity, and resilient delivery reveal a deeper truth: financial inclusion has become a systems‑engineering challenge. In the same way regulators hold power grids or water utilities to reliability standards, financial networks increasingly require safety codes of their own.
DORA offers one early blueprint. By requiring consistent risk management, incident reporting, and third-party oversight, it effectively codifies financial technology as public infrastructure.
“Adopting open-source security standards allows projects to consistently communicate their security posture,” says Michael Lieberman, chief technical officer and co-founder of Kusari, an OpenSSF contributor. “It also enables financial organizations to adopt consistent open-source consumption practices.” That consistency lowers costs for the industry and simplifies oversight for regulators, a prerequisite if inclusion is to scale securely.
From Systems To Solidarity
The pandemic made the stakes visible. Before 2020, many bankers viewed agriculture and smallholder lending as peripheral and high-risk. Yet when global supply chains fractured, those same producers kept local economies running. What once looked marginal became essential.
Zetterli believes that lesson must now guide climate and financial policy alike. “We can’t build resilience on systems that exclude a quarter of the world,” he says. “The challenge isn’t only to extend access, but to make sure the infrastructure of finance is inclusive, secure, and interoperable by design.”
The next decade will not be defined by new apps, but by whether the world can build financial infrastructure that carries trust and fairness as reliably as it carries money. Without that foundation of trust, the finance needed for climate resilience won’t move at the speed or scale the world now requires, and the gap between climate risk and climate response will only widen.
