Financial inclusion and fintech: a state-of-the-art systematic literature review

“The Technology Acceptance Model (Davis 1989), an extension of the theory of reasoned action, considers the functionality and ease of use of technology and has become a prominent theoretical foundation for technology diffusion research (Coffie et al. 2021).”

“The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al. 2003) integrates eight theoretical models to explain the adoption and usage of technology.”

“The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen 1991) suggests that fintech usage is influenced by an individual’s intentions, which are shaped by their attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control.”

“The expanded UTAUT2 model (Venkatesh et al. 2012) includes additional constructs, such as habits, hedonic motivation, and price value.”

“We will employ bibliometric and network analysis methods to identify key studies, authors, and research themes, as well as to identify current research trends (Tranfield et al. 2003; Xu et al. 2018).”

“First, to identify the relevant papers, this study employs a systematic literature review methodology guided by the PRISMA framework (Page et al. 2021), ensuring transparency and reproducibility.”

“This study utilizes a systematic approach to co-occurrence analysis within the realms of fintech and financial inclusion, employing the VOSviewer software, a tool renowned for its efficacy in mapping and clustering based on bibliometric networks (Van Eck et al. 2010; Van Eck and Waltman 2014).”

“The fintech revolution includes the forces of innovation, disruption, and transformation in financial services (Gomber et al. 2018).”

“These models have been widely applied to explain the use of various communication technologies, including mobile banking (Zhou et al. 2010), mobile payments (Yang et al. 2012), e-government (Wang and Shih 2009), mobile phone technologies (Zhou 2011), Internet banking (Riffai et al. 2012), and…”

“Bahkan dengan dukungan sosial, jika pengguna tidak memiliki akses atau kemampuan untuk menggunakan fintech , maka penggunaan fintech tidak menjadi jalur yang efektif untuk memperkuat financial resilience (Ha et al., 2025).”

“Ha et al. (2025) menunjukkan bahwa fintech menjadi motor penting dalam memperluas akses layanan keuangan di banyak negara berkembang, termasuk Indonesia, meskipun tantangan literasi digital masih terlihat nyata.”

“By combining finance with technology, FinTech has revolutionized the system of conventional banking that leads to dynamic as well as technologically advanced economy, moves far more quickly than the mechanism that we previously rely on (Ha et al.,2025).”

“Penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pengaturan di sektor fintech harus lebih fleksibel dan mampu mengikuti perkembangan teknologi secara cepat (Ha et al., 2025).”

“But recent research suggests mere account opening or access does not signify true inclusion (Ha et al., 2025).”

“However, existing empirical evidence remains inconclusive about the relationship between digital services and economic performance (Ha et al., 2025).”

“Consequently, digital finance plays a critical role in supporting economic growth and business development (Ha, Le & Nguyen, 2025).”

“It is also consistent with studies showing that digital financial inclusion, fintech, mobile banking, and digital payments can reduce transaction costs and expand access to savings, credit, and business opportunities (Ha et al., 2025; Inoue, 2024; G. Liu et al., 2025; Yang et al., 2023).”

“The spread of ICT enhances access to financial services and institutional efficiency [33-35].”

“Subsequent research has adopted more sophisticated approaches, employing bibliometric analysis, systematic reviews, and cross-country empirical models to evaluate the multidimensional impact of FinTech on financial inclusion outcomes [1], [4].”

“Innovations such as digital banking, e-wallets, and digital gold savings have been the main drivers of increased financial inclusion, especially for people who were previously underserved by conventional financial institutions (Adhikari & Expert, 2025; Ha et al., 2025; Nowsath & Arunprakash, 2025).”

“Technology-driven financial innovations have significantly transformed the global financial landscape, with financial technology (Fintech) emerging as a disruptive force across sectors (Ha et al., 2025; Kolokas et al., 2022 ).”

“Within the broader FinTech context [22], low-latency analytics on commodity devices supports interactive risk assessment and contract exploration; the present paper targets a transparent Monte Carlo estimator and a reproducible mobile implementation rather than a surrogate model.”

“Systematic reviews also point to a disproportionate focus on adoption and user behavior, with comparatively limited interrogation of how divergent regulatory regimes — ranging from sandbox frameworks to open banking mandates shape inclusion outcomes across jurisdictions (Ha et al., 2025).”

“Finance emphasizes economic opportunity and equitable market access [ 49 ].”

“A systematic scan of ninety six peer reviewed studies concludes that mobile money digital behaviour and platform based lending constitute the main channels of inclusion and highlights deep learning methods as best suited to heterogeneous inputs [18].”

“These digital innovations, especially prevalent in developing economies, have facilitated financial inclusion by providing accessible financial services where traditional banking infrastructure is scarce or non-existent (Aron, 2017; Dao et al., 2025).”

“The SLR study by Dao Ha et al., [9] also detected themes such as the "advent of novel services" for example, the use of AI and big data to understand customer needs and tailor financial products.”