Reverse FinTech Socialisation: A Remedy for Financial Exclusion in the Digital Era

ABSTRACT

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.