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In light of the COVID-19-induced financial crisis, the need for robust financial services and networks has become more apparent than ever, which necessitated the accurate measurement of the breadth of financial inclusion in India. First, the study conducted a detailed critical review of the current indices and their construction methodology. Then, we created a financial inclusion index for India by accounting for the flaws existing in the current indices. The primary contribution of this study to the existing literature is the new approach it proposed for the assignment of weights in the financial inclusion index. Based on this new financial inclusion index, the study concluded that India's Southern states and union territories showed better financial inclusion. In contrast, the traditionally backward BIMARU states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, and a few of the North Eastern states of India, lagged. The study also provided a refined and inclusive definition of financial inclusion based on its new approach to index creation. © 2023, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is expeditiously stirring the global economy. The impact of this pandemic has implications on the sustenance of industries worldwide. This study investigates the influence of various endogenous and exogenous factors affecting e-wallet adoption among micro entrepreneurs in India. A sample of 287 micro enterprises were identified in NCR (National Capital Region) region on the basis of random sampling. Structured questionnaires were administered to the respondents. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data with the help of Smart PLS 3. The main findings of the study show that self-belief, personal innovativeness, and satisfaction are the key indicators affecting the e-wallet adoption among the microentrepreneurs. Microentrepreneurs contribute greatly to economic development in developed and developing nations. Digitalisation of this segment of industry can turn India into a cashless country, thereby reducing the cash burden of the economy. Microentrepreneurs can also act as a catalyst for financial inclusion.
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Purpose>This study aims to empirically develop a reliable and valid instrument measuring the online service quality in the context of the banking sector in India.Design/methodology/approach>The methodological framework of this research comprises developing an instrument that is based on previous literature, qualitative and quantitative procedure. The study used the survey method and collected data via a well-structured questionnaire from a sample of active Internet banking users. The proposed instrument is identified by the data-reduction technique that is exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validated through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Findings>The results confirmed that the digital banking service quality scale (DBSQual) contains 24 items in seven dimensions: (1) web architecture, (2) user friendliness, (3) efficiency of website, (4) reliability, (5) responsiveness, (6) security and (7) personalization. The relationship between digital banking service quality and e-customer satisfaction has also been found to be significant in this study.Research limitations/implications>The results of this study do not find general application for different banks operating in the same sector in India. More testing of DBSQual is required across various different contexts for validity augmentation. In addition, findings would be more reliable if the non-Indian context could be taken into consideration. Thus, such limitations open a window for future research.Practical implications>This study is quite fruitful for the banking organizations in measuring their online services, and enables them to implement their marketing and operational strategies more effectively and efficiently.Originality/value>The contribution of this study is the development and validation of a new instrument that is DBSQual that contains seven determinants of customers' e-service quality perception, emphasis on measuring online service quality in the Indian banking sector. These determinants will offer banks a promising starting idea for establishing an effective quality management for their online businesses. They will be able to increase the opportunities by tapping themselves at a competitive edge.
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This paper examines India's level of digital access to financial services as compared to other Asian countries. The study also intends to analyse whether COVID-19 has influenced the usage trend of the selected digital payment indicators in India. Data has been collected from the World Bank Global Findex Database and RBI bulletins. Cross country descriptive analysis was used for studying India's digital financial access against the other Asian countries. Event study methodology followed by trend analysis was employed to examine whether COVID-19 has impacted the digital payment indicators' usage in India. The findings of the study indicated that India's position in digital financial access needs to be improved. It was further identified that COVID-19 has increased the usage of digital modes for financial transactions in India. There has been a significant increase in the usage volume of mobile banking after the declaration of the pandemic. Govt. can frame its action plans to make use of the opportunity created through the pandemic to improve digital financial access in India.
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COVID-19 quarantine measures impacted incomes, labour and housing situations in different ways, particularly in the domestic sphere. In Argentina, "financial inclusion" polices" were linked, on one hand to the "bankarization" of new sectors to access relief funds, and on the other to the proliferation of fintech to mediate the receipt of funds. Debt, as a way of privatizing the crisis in the ability to eat, protect and heal oneself, solves emergencies in the here and now and exploits and conditions future time. Household debt, as a specific articulation of gender mandates, extracts value from reproductive tasks. Household debt is also an index of public debt, its cascading down the social hierarchy, and, as such, allows for a simultaneous analysis of the micro and macro planes. Even prior to the health emergency, the expansion of financial technologies targeting the most precarious sectors was becoming an accelerator for taking out non-banking debt.Alternate :Les mesures de confinement imposées par la pandémie de COVID-19 ont affecté les revenus, l'emploi et le logement de différentes manières, en particulier dans la sphère domestique. En Argentine, les « mesures de solidarité financière » ont été associées, d'une part, à la bancarisation de nouveaux secteurs dans le but de leur donner accès aux fonds de secours, et, d'autre part, à la prolifération des technologies financières qui permettent de recevoir ces fonds. L'endettement, en tant que moyen de privatiser une crise qui nuit à la capacité de se nourrir, de se protéger et de se soigner, résout les urgences immédiates ;il exploite l'avenir et l'assujettit à des conditions. La dette des ménages, comprise comme une branche particulière des obligations liées au genre, extrait une valeur des tâches reproductives. La dette des ménages est également indicatrice de la dette publique et de sa transmission vers le bas de la hiérarchie sociale et, en ce sens, elle permet l'analyse simultanée des niveaux micro et macro. Même avant la crise sanitaire, l'expansion des technologies financières ciblant les secteurs les plus précaires était en train d'accélérer l'endettement non bancaire.
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Technology has brought unprecedented changes in the financial realm, and its benefits were evident during the times of COVID-19. Nonetheless, digital divide has kept fintech out of the reach of many. Digital financial exclusion needs practical solutions to bring positive attitudes and confidence to use fintech among these segments. This is an original work that suggests reverse fintech socialisation as a tool to create such confidence within the digitally excluded. Employing a cross-sectional design, a sample of 349 middle-aged mothers was drawn from Kerala, India to examine the relationships between attitude, reverse socialisation, and confidence to deal in fintech. Findings supported the hypothesised relations between these variables and revealed that attitude predicts reverse fintech socialisation, which has a very high influence on confidence. Age, income, and income earner in the family too were found significant for confidence. Findings imply that policymakers can formulate interventions that make use of the youth to create confidence within the digital immigrants to use fintech.
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Financing strategies and energy performance have been extensively studied previously, and researchers frequently overlook the co-movements of integration of financial inclusion and energy performance index in the E7 Context. To address this gap, current research estimates the co-movement between the financial inclusion index and sustainable energy performance index to reflect the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. Our findings show that in E7 economies, China exceeds the other nations in terms of energy performance. With a steady score, Russia is second in the group. Indonesia and Turkey are respectively fourth and fifth, and their total results show excellent prospective performances for sustainability. Mexico and Brazil follow this ranking with bad results and the lowest scores reported in the study results. The study findings are helpful for policy formulation and assessment. The study presented recommendations about financial inclusion and energy management practices in COVID-19 and delivered insights about the energy performance index in E7 economies.
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In light of the COVID-19-induced financial crisis, the need for robust financial services and networks has become more apparent than ever, which necessitated the accurate measurement of the breadth of financial inclusion in India. First, the study conducted a detailed critical review of the current indices and their construction methodology. Then, we created a financial inclusion index for India by accounting for the flaws existing in the current indices. The primary contribution of this study to the existing literature is the new approach it proposed for the assignment of weights in the financial inclusion index. Based on this new financial inclusion index, the study concluded that India's Southern states and union territories showed better financial inclusion. In contrast, the traditionally backward BIMARU states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, and a few of the North Eastern states of India, lagged. The study also provided a refined and inclusive definition of financial inclusion based on its new approach to index creation. © 2023, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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Financial inclusion remains a key political issue. Since microcredit first captured public attention, Microfin-ance Institutions (MFIs) have expanded rapidly all around the world. Although much economic and fin-ancial literature has highlighted the importance of microfinance as a factor of development, there is also an intense debate about its effectiveness as a development tool. This paper is a descriptive analysis of the microcredit state of the art contrasted with the fieldwork done in Peru. A qualitative research methodo-logy was used;29 in-depth face-to-face interviews were done with different microfinance agents: MFIs, NPOs, microfinance associations, and microfinance customers in Peru. Peru has been chosen because it has a dynamic and well-regulated microfinance sector with more than 70 entities specialized in microfin-ance. Though statistical generalization is not possible, interview data provided rich and contextual evidence, which is often missing from a quantitative research approach. This paper highlights the importance of fin-ancial and accounting education in microcredit beneficiaries and how can it be enhanced in the digital age. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced vulnerable population to embrace new digital technologies and has highlighted the digital gap that still exists in Latin America although this situation presents opportunities and challenges. This present study contributes to the debate over how to improve microcredit interventions ' impact on the more vulnerable and identifies some unique insights into the interrelationships of financial education and financial inclusion. The results of the present study confirm that financial and accounting education are key elements in financial inclusion. (c) 2023 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM -Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of large-scale social restrictions have caused economic and social disruptions globally, including in Indonesia. These difficult situations have shifted the financial attitudes, especially among the working-age group in Indonesia, to be more focused on saving and investing. One of the popular options among new investors is mutual fund investment because it requires a lower cost than other options, offers diversified holdings, and supports a variety of risk profiles. New investors primarily use an investment app, such as a mutual fund investment application, to manage their investment portfolios safely and seamlessly. In line with the rapid growth of mutual fund investors, the number of mutual fund investment apps in Indonesia has increased to more than 80 providers in 2022, resulting in fiercer competition between service providers. Therefore, retaining and increasing the apps' investment usage is crucial to providers' business success. This study investigates factors affecting the investor's continuance intention to use mutual fund investment apps by adapting the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) with other key constructs, i.e., perceived security, trust, and self-efficacy. The collected data from 384 participants were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results indicate that perceived usefulness, trust, and user satisfaction positively affect the continuance use of mutual fund investment apps. Based on findings, this study proposes practical strategies to retain the application usage, such as implementing security measures, personalized investment courses and advisories based on the user's profile risks and preferences, and recommendations on achieving the user's investment goals based on machine learning solutions. Digital solutions, such as financial and investment apps, may contribute to expanding access to banking, financial services, and financial inclusion in the Indonesian population. © 2022 IEEE.
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Purpose: Covid-19 sparked new interest in consumer financial resilience (CFR) amongst regulatory authorities, financial institutions, policymakers and the academia. No financial and health crisis has been worse than Covid-19, erasing the growth momentum of nations at all development stages. This study measures consumers' current financial resilience and future expectations within India's emerging market and its likely response to policy measures. Design/methodology/approach: CFR is investigated using individual household data on economic state, employment, income and savings from the Reserve Bank of India's consumer confidence survey. The empirical approach is based on the temporal time-series data with mixed frequency regression. Consumers' current and future expectation indices appear as the regressand, whereas credit-deposit ratio, credit outstanding, number of bank accounts and digital transactions act as main regressors. Findings: The response of consumers' current situation is 3.50 times higher than that of their future expectations. This implies that a rise in the credit-deposit ratio and credit line positively affects CFR. In contrast, a higher number of bank accounts, a proxy for financial inclusion, adversely affect consumer's well-being possibly owing to the government's failure to provide financial support through banking networks. Digital payments (value) positively affect consumers' current situation and future expectations. Practical implications: The results of this study inform policy formulation for enhancing financial resilience. Consumer sentiment index acts as a proxy for CFR. Originality/value: Financial resilience is a concern for policymakers. This study is one of the first studies linking CFR with financial inclusion, credit creation and digital financial capability. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Purpose - This study was conducted to examine factors that could determine breadwinners' willingness to accept qardhul hassan financing in the time of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Design/methodology/approach - Drawing upon 'Attitude, Social Influence and Self-Efficacy' (ASE) model, this study examined the effects of attitude, subjective influence and self-efficacy on qardhul hassan financing acceptance during the pandemic. The sample size was 294 respondents who were all breadwinners and sourced from group bottom 40 or B40 in Malaysia. Findings - The results obtained acknowledged that attitude, subjective influence and self-efficacy shaped the formation and development of breadwinners' acceptance to take up the facility during the pandemic at best for well-being. Research limitations/implications - Future studies should include samples from other geographies in Malaysia along with new variables relevant to extend the findings. Practical implications - The results obtained offer new action plans for Islamic social financial institutions to better plan the offered qardhul hassan financing to society at large. Originality/value - There are two originalities drawn from this study. First, this study is a pioneering work in Malaysia examining the importance of qardhul hassan financing in the time of COVID-19. Second, this study used the ASE model in examining the breadwinners' acceptability of the financing facility in meeting basic needs and requirements.
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In a context where many African populations are excluded from the traditional banking system, financial inclusion appears to be a determining factor in enabling agents in need of financing, notably producers and consumers, to have easy access to financial services in order to contribute to the multiple efforts of economic and social progress of nations. However, to date, the literature remains silent on the optimal level of financial inclusion that can boost growth. Consequently, this paper aims to verify whether there is a non-linear relationship between economic growth and financial inclusion in the WAEMU zone. Econometric applications based on the PCSE (panel-corrected standard error) model on a panel of eight countries for the period 2014-2018 reveal a U-shaped relationship between the extended banking rate and economic growth. Economic growth shows two different behaviours depending on whether one is on the side of one or the other of the regimes inherent to the inflection point. In view of these results, we suggest that the public authorities: i) intensify campaigns to open accounts in local languages, ii) promote the development of online sales applications for goods and services, iii) pursue the dematerialisation of financial operations within public administrations. Finally, this paper paves the way for future research on the microeconomic component and a similar treatment of the subject, but taking into account the occurrence of the Covid pandemic19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic came as a shock, prompting governments around the world to impose lockdowns to prevent the disease from spreading. Demands of social distance and quarantine measures forced millions of people to embrace digital banking tools for the first time. Many people began using e-commerce, online education, and other services sparking interest in digital financial instruments. The pandemic provided an opportunity for the banking sector's digital revolution by improving financial inclusion chances. Hence, this study aims propose new policies and methods that governments might use to increase financial inclusion in the post-COVID-19 environment by utilising fintech products. Using secondary sources of data through documentary analysis, the study discovered the importance of investing in better infrastructure that can promote better payment services through fintech, increase trust in the use of fintech financial services, investment in cybersecurity of fintech financial services and investment in artificial intelligence among other initiatives. The study concludes that following this recommendation can help to further improve financial inclusion prospects even after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The vigorous development of information and communications technology has accelerated reshaping of the financial industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has further catalyzed the demand for digital financial services. Digital financial inclusion relies on information technology to overcome spatial limitations. In this case, the research question is whether it adheres to the spatial laws governing conventional financial activities. This study uses exploratory spatial data analysis and a geographical detector to elucidate the spatiotemporal characteristics and factors influencing digital financial inclusion at the county level in China (Data don't include that of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2014 to 2020. The research findings indicate: first, China's county-level digital financial inclusion is generally increasing and exhibits significant spatial autocorrelation. Second, population density, level of traditional financial development, government regulation, and education level are key determinants of China's county-level digital financial inclusion. Third, policies should be differentiated by region to narrow the spatial gap in digital financial inclusion. The results provide a reference for other developing countries on using digital technology to develop financial inclusion.
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The objective of the article is to know the impact of the four financial dimensions on the probability of financial inclusion (IF) of remittance recipients. A Probit model helps to reflect this association, its marginal effects are estimated using the data available from the module on international remittances of the ENIF 2015 Survey. The results reflect the importance of the "use" of financial instruments for the FI of the recipients, much more than having high income;while financial access and knowledge has a varying effect. One recommendation derived from the analysis is that in the post-Covid horizon, progress can be accelerated to increase banking penetration of remittance recipients. The limitation for this type of analysis is the availability of data, since the latest version of the ENIF eliminated the section on international remittances;however, the originality of the study lies in analyzing the recipients and their proximity to the financial system. Receiving remittances does not necessarily imply participating in the system, recipients are conditioned to different degrees by financial use and access, and attention must be paid to this. © 2022 Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas. All right reserved.
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The banking sector in India is one of the paramount drivers for the magnification event of the economy. The word digitalization is almost used in every sector of the economy and banking is no exception to it. The twenty-first centur in which we are living is highly regulated by the digitalization process. The govt. of Indian also announced Digital India Programme with the vision that the financial sector move to increase their knowledge with technological innovation. The process of digitalization in banking is also important for the smooth functioning of transactions and enhanced customer satisfaction. The digitalization process in banking helped in the process of financial inclusion. Keeping a similar objective the Prime Minister Mr. Narender Modi also started the Jan Dhan Yojana for opening the saving account for the unbanked person. In the scenario of Covid 19, most of the banks in the pandemic time have reduced the banking hours for their customers and insist them to go for digital banking, but fulfilling the customers demand and their expectations is a big challenge for the banks. Banks to ensure their continuity and to mitigate the impact of this pandemic have to make structural and operational changes in the delivery of the banking services online and also increased their digital offerings, including an enhancement in the number of digital touchpoints offered to their customers. After this Covid 19, it's been expected that the Indian public will experience new digital banking apps with a simplified interface and enhanced security features along with the fast execution of banking services. Further, these changes will change the behavior of the bank customers, such as shifting from physical banking to online banking. This implies that if banks want to grasp the opportunities that emerged out of this Covid-19 banks will have to re-devise their strategies and shift their efforts and resources towards digitization. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
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COVID-19 quarantine measures impacted incomes, labour and housing situations in different ways, particularly in the domestic sphere. In Argentina, "financial inclusion" polices" were linked, on one hand to the "bankarization" of new sectors to access relief funds, and on the other to the proliferation of fintech to mediate the receipt of funds. Debt, as a way of privatizing the crisis in the ability to eat, protect and heal oneself, solves emergencies in the here and now and exploits and conditions future time. Household debt, as a specific articulation of gender mandates, extracts value from reproductive tasks. Household debt is also an index of public debt, its cascading down the social hierarchy, and, as such, allows for a simultaneous analysis of the micro and macro planes. Even prior to the health emergency, the expansion of financial technologies targeting the most precarious sectors was becoming an accelerator for taking out non-banking debt.
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Earlier literature has shown that the implementation of FinTech innovations is not only determined by banks, financial institutions, or government support, but also by the perception and experiences of FinTech users. FinTech research has shown encouraging findings from scholars in developed countries. However, little is known about the users’ acceptance and use of FinTech in Jordan. The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of users’ intentions and e-Loyalty toward FinTech adoption in Jordan post the COVID-19 era. A conceptual framework was developed by integrating the four original constructs of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), namely performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), and facilitating conditions (FC), with three additional factors: personal innovativeness (PI), financial literacy (FL), and uncertainty avoidance (UA). In addition, the proposed model considered the e-Loyalty of FinTech users as a consequence of having a good FinTech experience. A quantitative approach using a cross-sectional online questionnaire was applied to collect data from 423 FinTech users. Data were analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) based on AMOS 26.0 software package. The findings revealed that UA has a moderating effect on the relationship between FC and users’ intentions. Also, PI has a significant impact on PE and EE. While PE, SI, and FC are factors that enhance behavioral intentions. In return, it builds users’ e-Loyalty toward FinTech services and is deemed a new normal behavior. This study may help FinTech service providers and policymakers better understand the, currently relatively low, usage rate of FinTech, and how it contributes to the development of strategies that boost the acceptance and e-Loyalty of FinTech by Jordanian users after the COVID-19 era, where FinTech is still considered an innovation.
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FinTech has not only become a buzzword but also brought several business opportunities in the financial world, with the potential to increase financial inclusion, enhance people's daily lives, and spur growth. The issue of online buyers' knowledge about FinTech adoption has emerged from the rapid trend of digital technology in Kathmandu Valley. It also suggests that demographic variables (age and gender) and digital activity (internet experience and level of awareness) mitigate the major correlations. This paper aims to understand online grocery buyers' prior knowledge imprint in FinTech adoption during COVID-19 lockdowns. An exploratory research design was adopted, and data were collected through structured questionnaires using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of structural equation modeling. We find that the most respondents are aged twenty-one to forty, showing that most youth are attracted to technological innovation in FinTech (e-commerce and e-banking). We find that two-thirds of online buyers in Kathmandu Valley are facing the challenge of FinTech adoption due to slow internet and lack of awareness about its applications. The structural equation modeling shows that six out of eight constructs are fit and validated with the model. Attitude has a significant effect on actual purchases, whereas trust does not play a partial mediating role between dependent and independent variables. The internet as a digital marketplace has become an important part of marketing strategy and customer-relationship management. Thus, internet issues should be solved immediately with stable connections by internet service providers.