The index covers three dimensions of fintech activity: fintech firm creation and growth through the availability of early-stage equity financing; usage of fintech credit and digital payments—now the most commonly used digital financial services, especially in developing countries; and the usage of mobile distribution channels for financial services.1 The fintech activity index is positively correl. [...] Specifically, the paper explores the role of three broad set of enabling factors: basic foundations, including information and communications technology (ICT) and financial infrastructures; financial sector development, distinguishing between the development of the banking system and capital markets; and the enabling policy environment, capturing the legal and regulatory frameworks for digital fin. [...] In addition to using a systematic regression approach to evaluate the association between fintech activity and enabling factors, we also separately explore in the appendices several topics in more depth: the impact of the pandemic on finance app downloads (appendix 3), the role of more stringent banking regulation on fintech activity (appendix 4), and the link between the digitalization of remitta. [...] The index is more encompassing than those in the literature, covering three dimensions of fintech activity: fintech firm creation and growth through the availability of early-stage equity financing; usage of fintech credit and digital payments, currently the most commonly used digital financial services - especially in developing countries; and the usage of mobile distribution channels for financi. [...] Using cross-country data on the volume of lending facilitated by online platforms, several papers find that the size of a country’s fintech credit market is negatively related to the competitiveness of its banking system, the depth of the banking system, and the density of commercial banks’ branch network (Claessens et al.
- Pages
- 109
- Published in
- Canada
