On 11th March 2025, Dr. Francesco Pierangeli, Deputy Director at the UK Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UK CBT), spoke at the Modernising Payments Infrastructure for a Digital Economy session hosted at Google’s Central Saint Giles office in London. The session was part of the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL) showcase, which brought together experts from the finance, technology, and policy sectors to explore the role of digital infrastructure in transforming global payments.

The event focused on persistent inefficiencies in cross-border payments, including high transaction costs, long settlement times, and low levels of transparency. These challenges continue to affect individuals and businesses worldwide, especially in emerging markets. The session examined how emerging technologies, such as blockchain, tokenised assets, and programmable payments, could support the development of faster, cheaper, and more transparent payment systems.

Dr. Pierangeli joined a panel of industry leaders to discuss the policy and technical conditions required to realise this transformation. A key theme was the importance of interoperability, across payment networks, digital asset platforms, and regulatory regimes, as a foundation for modern digital finance. The discussion also addressed evolving approaches to stablecoin regulation, institutional use cases, and how cloud-native architecture can support more efficient transaction systems.

A series of live demonstrations highlighted the potential of Google Cloud Universal Ledger for domestic settlement, tokenised value transfer, and account-to-account transactions. These demonstrations illustrated practical applications of cloud-based ledger technology and helped contextualise broader discussions on innovation and policy.

The event reinforced the importance of public-private collaboration in building the next generation of financial infrastructure. By convening technologists, academics, and industry stakeholders, the GCUL showcase highlighted the growing alignment between infrastructure innovation and digital policy development. UK CBT’s participation in the session reflects its ongoing commitment to advancing research and dialogue on digital financial systems and emerging technologies.

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