Information Effect of Fintech and Digital Finance on Financial Inclusion during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Evidence

Abstract

The lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased interest in Fintech and digital finance solutions, and it gave people an incentive to join the formal financial sector by owning a formal account. People became interested in information about Fintech and digital finance solutions, and it led them to search the Internet to obtain information about Fintech, digital finance, and financial inclusion. In this study, we investigate whether interest in Internet information about Fintech and digital finance led to interest in Internet information about financial inclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using global data that capture interest over time, we found that interest in information about Fintech was greater in developed countries while interest in information about financial inclusion was greater in developing countries during the pandemic. Interest in Fintech information was strongly correlated with interest in financial inclusion information during the pandemic. Interest in Fintech information had a significant positive effect on interest in financial inclusion information during the pandemic. There is a unidirectional causality between interest in Fintech information and interest in financial inclusion information during the pandemic. The implication of these findings is that interest in Fintech information is an important determinant of interest in financial inclusion information.

Keywords

• information
• digital finance
• financial inclusion
• Fintech
• Internet
• COVID-19