Glossary: Level One Terminology

The Level One Project: An initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, within the Inclusive Financial Systems program, that works to support countries or regions building interoperable, low-cost digital financial services systems to bring low-income persons and merchants into the formal economy.

A Level One Platform: The set of operational capabilities, often including a Switch, that implement the exchange of Payments in a Level One aligned interoperable payments system.

A Level One Scheme: The Rules and policies which controls aspects of the use, Governance, operations, Participants and participant responsibilities in a given Level One System.  The Scheme may be a separate entity, or a set of Rules and policies within an entity that manages multiple Schemes.

Level One Services: The suite of services, defined by the Level One Scheme, which provide the core functions of the Platform (such as value transfer) as well as certain Shared Services decided upon by participants in the Scheme.

A Level One System: A term used to describe a Scheme, services, Platform, and Participants aligned with a Level One Project.

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