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The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the digital shift in finance, leading to more people having access to financial services and presenting new opportunities and challenges. This chapter looks at how digital finance has changed during the pandemic, focusing on how it’s made financial services more accessible, helped lessen gender disparities, boosted digital financial understanding, and dealt with potential risks. Since the pandemic, the use of digital financial services has grown rapidly, helping to overcome geographical limitations and increase financial inclusion. This change has been especially helpful for marginalized groups and women, significantly reducing the gender gap in financial inclusion. Meanwhile, understanding digital finance literacy has become crucial for effectively using digital financial services. However, the move towards digitization brings its own challenges, especially new financial risks. These risks require increased consumer awareness, better education, and stricter regulation. The chapter concluded by saying that the path of digital finance after the pandemic is a mix of opportunities and challenges. As a result, we need a careful and balanced approach to increase financial inclusion while also protecting against potential financial risks, ultimately aiming for a fairer, more stable, and more inclusive financial landscape.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has already changed the financial industry by increasing the accessibility and inclusiveness of financial services. While acknowledging the challenges posed by AI, this chapter provides insights into the positive impact of AI in promoting financial inclusion. AI has greatly enhanced credit scoring and risk assessment through the use of non-traditional data sources, enabling individuals with limited credit histories and low incomes to access loans and financial products. In addition, the implementation of AI-powered customer identification and verification systems has enhanced security measures while reducing the risk of fraudulent activity. However, the digital divide still remains a challenge to achieve wide financial inclusion. Limited access to technology and digital skills keeps some people from fully benefiting from AI-powered financial services. Access to loans through AI systems may seem convenient, but it also raises concerns about excess borrowing and the resulting unsustainable debt levels. In the age of digital finance, privacy and data security are still key issues. The chapter concludes by highlighting that more research is needed to address these challenges. By fully understanding the potential of AI, as well as its limitations, the power of technology can be harnessed to create more inclusive economic opportunities for everyone, especially those living in poorer areas.

The main purpose of this study is to test for the interaction effect of digital literacy in the relationship between financial technologies (FinTechs) of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in rural Uganda.

Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to construct the interaction effect using data collected from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs located in the four regions in Uganda as prescribed by Hair et al. (2022).

The findings from this study are threefold: first; the results revealed a positive interaction effect of digital literacy between FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion. Second; the results also confirmed that biometrics identification positively promotes digital financial inclusion. Lastly; the results showed that mobile money positively promotes digital financial inclusion. A combination of FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money together with digital literacy explain 29% variation in digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

The data for this study were collected mainly from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs. Further studies may look at data from other sections of the vulnerable population in under developed financial markets. Additionally, the data for this study were collected only from Uganda as a developing country. Thus, more data may be obtained from other developing countries to draw conclusive and generalized empirical evidence. Besides, the current study used cross sectional design to collect the data. Therefore, future studies may adopt longitudinal research design to investigate the impact of FinTechs on digital financial inclusion in the presence of digital literacy across different time range.

The governments in developing countries like Uganda should support women, youth, PWDs and other equally vulnerable groups, especially in the rural communities to understand and use FinTechs. This can be achieved through digital literacy that can help them to embrace digital financial services and competently navigate and perform digital transactions over digital platforms like mobile money without making errors. Besides, governments in developing countries like Uganda can use this finding to advocate for the design of appropriate digital infrastructures to reach remote areas and ensure “last mile connectivity for digital financial services' users.” The use of off-line solutions can complement the absence or loss of on-line network connectivity for biometrics and mobile money to close the huge digital divide gap in rural areas. This can scale-up access to and use of financial services by the unbanked rural population.

This paper sheds more light on the importance of digital literacy in the ever complex and dynamic global FinTech ecosystem in the presence of rampant cyber risks. To the best of the authors' knowledge, limited studies currently exist that integrate digital literacy as a moderator in the relationship between FinTechs and digital financial inclusion, especially among vulnerable groups in under-developed digital financial markets in developing countries. This is the novelty of the paper with data obtained from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) has caused revolutionary changes in various industries of South Asia, including financial services. Financial inclusion has been recognized as an important driver of economic growth. The combination of financial inclusion and the industrial revolution offers exceptional opportunities for business. The present chapter delves into the significance of financial inclusion within the framework of IR 4.0 in Asia and its potential to stimulate growth, innovation, and societal influence. It includes the discourse regarding challenges and opportunities for business in a new era of financial inclusion and the industrial revolution. Based on a thorough discussion, we give practical insights and best practices for businesses aiming to maximize the opportunities offered by financial inclusion in the era of IR 4.0. This chapter provides an in-depth understanding of Asia’s expanding financial inclusion landscape and empowers companies with the information and tools needed to prosper in this dynamic market.

Purpose: The advent of the fintech revolution has brought a tremendous increase in the dissemination of digital financial services. Although digital financial services increase financial inclusion through financial intermediation, it also increases the chances of systematic risk.

Need: In the quest to satisfy the curious minds, the authors have examined the influence of digital financial services on banking stability and efficiency.

Methodology: To achieve the above objectives, the authors have used the Auto-Regressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) estimation technique on the annual data set of India and the United States from 2004 to 2018. In addition, to estimate the long-run cointegration, the ARDL bound approach is also used.

Findings: The empirical analysis concludes that in the short run, the expansion of digital financial services in India in the form of internet-based transactions and mobile money transactions creates a negative and significant impact on banking efficiency and stability. Meaning, banking sector efficiency and stability fall by 0.09% and 0.05% with a 1% increase in digital financial services. However, in the long run, digital financial services enhance banking stability and efficiency in India. Besides, the study also reveals that in a developed country like the United States, both in the short run and long run, expansion of digital financial services helps in improving banking efficiency and stability. Furthermore, in context to control variables, the findings suggest that in the short run, industrial productivity has a negative influence on the Indian banking sector efficiency and stability, compared to the positive impact in the long run. This is unlike the United States, where both in the long-run and short-run, industrial productivity has a positive influence on the banking sector’s efficiency and stability.

Practical implication: The findings reveal several policy implications and suggest policy synergies between digital financial services, banking stability and efficiency.

Purpose: This chapter revisits digital financial inclusion as an international development agenda and discusses everything you need to know about digital financial inclusion.

Methodology: This chapter uses conceptual discourse methodology to explain digital financial inclusion.

Findings: This chapter identifies the definitions of digital financial inclusion, the goal of digital financial inclusion, the components of digital financial inclusion, the types of providers of digital financial services, the instruments for digital financial inclusion, the benefits of digital financial inclusion, the risks of digital financial inclusion, and the regulatory issues associated with digital financial inclusion. It also proposes suggestions on how to make digital financial inclusion work for the good of all. This chapter concludes by offering some implications for policymaking and practice in the digital finance ecosystem.

This paper aims at analysing the socio-economic characteristics, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour as key determinants of digital financial inclusion in India.

This study is based on the Global Findex Survey of the World Bank covering 3,000 adult individuals in India. Simple statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, chi-square test and regression analysis with a marginal effect have been used for the data analysis.

About 35.2% of respondents have reported using digital financial services in the country. There is a significant association between the socio-economic profiles of individuals with the adoption of digital financial services in terms of gender, age, education, occupation and income. The marginal effect indicates that socio-economic factors, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour of individuals towards borrowings and savings have indicated significant influence on digital financial inclusion. The analysis depicts that male with higher age, education, working status and higher income are more likely to adopt digital financial services. Further, individuals with mobile phone ownership and utilising banking in terms of borrowings and savings are more likely to adopt digital financial services.

As digital banking services have emerged as a preferred channel for financial service delivery, this study provides timely insights on developing user driven-strategies for promoting digital financial services.

Socio-economic characteristics, mobile phone ownership and banking behaviour are critical determinants of financial inclusion, so assessing its implications in the era of digitisation becomes imperative.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0673.

The purpose of this study is to explore digital financial services experience, investigate the antecedents to digital financial services experience and examine familiarity as a moderator.

The study uses dual methods: qualitative and quantitative. Multiple case studies are applied as a qualitative method to explore and capture recent development in rapidly changing digital finance. An empirical, survey-based approach is used to collect data from 258 respondents about their experiences with digital financial services experience using constructs, such as perceived ease of use, timeliness, lifestyle and digital financial element. The study used structural equation modeling using smart-PLS.

Using word count, hierarchy chart, items clustered by similarity and qualitative analysis by applying NVivo 12, the study validates the constructs and captures recent developments. Using smart PLS, the structural equation model reveals that the digital functional element positively affects the digital financial services experience. It is observed that lifestyle mediated between perceived ease of use and timeliness with digital financial services experience. Further, familiarity moderates the relationship between the digital financial element and digital financial services experience. Moreover, while this research analyzed the relationship regarding financial services customers, we suggest a comparative study between different entities.

The study can be considered one of its kind using qualitative and quantitative research methods. It integrates theory from both the information system and marketing domain. As the increased number of digital channels and interfaces has increased, companies need to understand how to improve the digital financial services experience.

To help inform the debate over whether socio-demographic characteristics are related to the use of digital technologies, the authors investigated the effects of age, gender, education, income and being in the workforce on changes in using financial digital services using panel data collected in the MENA countries during 2017.

This study aims to identify the impact of government policy on the determinants of financial inclusion and digital payment services in the MENA region. The authors use microdata from the 2017 Global Findex database on MENA countries to perform probit estimations. The paper focuses on the role of technology adoption by government authorities in extending financial inclusion and digital payment around different people.

The authors find that poorer people (and, by association, less educated people) and the young (but less so the elderly) are disproportionately excluded from the financial system. Results confirm that better collaboration between the government and the financial sector can help to develop digital financial inclusion through the technology adoption channels. The study confirms the significant impact of the government cashless policy in advancing financial inclusion in the MENA countries, with potentially wider applicability to other developed economies.

Policies to advance mobile money innovations could stimulate financial inclusion by promoting digital transaction services. The role of government authorities is imperative to harness the beneficial and sustainable gains from digitizing remittances and transfers to promote a cashless economy.

Financial inclusion promotes equality through a broadening of the system and government cashless policy can be a major catalyst for greater financial inclusion. It helps in the overall economic development of the underprivileged population and contributes to poverty reduction.