Special session 13:
Fintech AfterLives: Transformations, Challenges, and the Future of Digital Finance

FinTech has profoundly changed the way in which enterprises and consumers can access financial services. FinTech, which stands for Financial Technology, is considered to be both a set of innovations and an economic sector devoted to the development of digital technologies and platforms for financial products and services. FinTech is contributing to a greater movement of money, and has been considered a “revolution” or a “new golden age”. For the World Bank (2017), a greater access to FinTech and its mobile financial services can significantly contribute to the reduction of poverty and social inequalities given the lower costs and easiness of use of FinTech platforms. On the other hand, FinTech platforms and their mobile financial services have also been understood as a new hegemonic form of financialization in the poorest countries and an instrument for data (neo)colonialism. Thus, although the potential of FinTech platforms and their mobile financial services to promote financial inclusion is recognized globally, their downsides are being slowly unveiled. In this context, more careful attention to the afterlives of FinTech is needed.

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This session invites papers that critically analyses the impact of FinTech in several dimensions (not limited to):

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• The role of Fintech in expanding financial access;

• New forms of financial inclusion and financial inclusion across the world;

• Neobanks vs. traditional banks: competition or collaboration?

• Microfinance and the future of financial inclusion;

• Dichotomies between Global North and Global South and the FinTech usage;

• The influence of fintech platforms and services on household financial behaviour and debt management;

• Digital Payments & Cryptocurrencies;

• AI & Big Data in Fintech.

 

We welcome research papers, case studies, and thought leadership pieces that explore the current trends, challenges, and future directions of Fintech.