Pay for Success Is Quietly Undergoing a Radical Simplification

Recent changes to rules that dictate the permissible use of large social spending streams are ushering in a radical simplification of pay for success (PFS). These changes greatly reduce the amount of political effort required to secure PFS-enabled sources of spending for any given project; they make it easier to avoid the complexity of social impact bond financing arrangements; and they lead to PFS structures that work systemically across many providers at once, rather than with just one or two at a time