Investigating the Impact of Intelligent Financial Technologies on Financial Inclusion, Economic Justice, and Access to Digital Financial Services
Keywords:
Intelligent financial technology, financial inclusion, economic justice, digital financial services, fintech, digital divideAbstract
This study aimed to explain the impact of intelligent financial technologies on financial inclusion, economic justice, and citizens’ access to digital financial services in Tehran. This qualitative study employed thematic analysis. Participants included banking experts, fintech managers and specialists, digital economy professionals, and informed users of digital financial services in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling with attention to experiential diversity. Data were collected through 22 semi-structured interviews, and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using NVivo software. Data analysis followed the thematic analysis process, including familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme development, theme review, naming, and final interpretation. The findings indicated that intelligent financial technologies have significant potential to promote financial inclusion by reducing transaction costs, removing spatial and temporal barriers, increasing service speed, and enabling personalized financial products. However, participants emphasized that the impact of these technologies on economic justice depends on three critical conditions: equal access to digital infrastructure, financial and digital literacy, and algorithmic transparency. Four main categories emerged from the analysis: “expansion of access and reduction of traditional barriers,” “redefinition of economic justice in digital finance,” “trust, security, and consumer protection,” and “digital divide and the risk of reproducing inequality.” Intelligent financial technologies can serve as effective instruments for improving financial inclusion and access to digital financial services, but they do not automatically guarantee economic justice. Justice in an intelligent financial ecosystem requires regulatory policy, inclusive design, protection of vulnerable groups, enhancement of digital literacy, and oversight of algorithmic bias.
Downloads
References
Arner, D. W., Buckley, R. P., Zetzsche, D. A., & Veidt, R. (2018). FinTech for financial inclusion: A framework for digital financial transformation. UNSW Law Research Paper. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3245287
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Broby, D. (2021). Financial technology and the future of banking. Financial Innovation, 7, 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40854-021-00264-y
Buchak, G., Matvos, G., Piskorski, T., & Seru, A. (2018). Fintech, regulatory arbitrage, and the rise of shadow banks. Journal of Financial Economics, 130(3), 453–483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.03.011
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D., & Ansar, S. (2022). The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial inclusion, digital payments, and resilience in the age of COVID-19. World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1897-4
Dhakal, K. (2022). NVivo. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 110(2), 270–272. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1271
G20. (2016). G20 high-level principles for digital financial inclusion. Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.
Gomber, P., Koch, J. A., & Siering, M. (2017). Digital finance and FinTech: Current research and future research directions. Journal of Business Economics, 87, 537–580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-017-0852-x
Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903
Odei-Appiah, S., Raitoharju, R., & Tuominen, H. (2022). Fintech use, digital divide and financial inclusion. Digital Business, 2(2), 100023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.digbus.2022.100023
Ozili, P. K. (2018). Impact of digital finance on financial inclusion and stability. Borsa Istanbul Review, 18(4), 329–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2017.12.003
Ozili, P. K. (2022). Digital financial inclusion. MPRA Paper No. 113789. Munich Personal RePEc Archive.
Puschmann, T. (2017). Fintech. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 59, 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-017-0464-6
Sahay, R., von Allmen, U. E., Lahreche, A., Khera, P., Ogawa, S., Bazarbash, M., & Beaton, K. (2020). The promise of FinTech: Financial inclusion in the post COVID-19 era. International Monetary Fund.
Suri, T., & Jack, W. (2016). The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science, 354(6317), 1288–1292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309
Tok, Y. W., & Heng, D. (2022). Fintech: Financial inclusion or exclusion? International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400208645.001
World Bank. (2022). The global state of financial inclusion and consumer protection 2022. World Bank.
