Category: Digital Finance

Digital finance is the delivery of traditional financial services digitally, through devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. Digital finance has the potential to make financial services accessible to underserved populations in areas that lacked the physical infrastructure for these services.

While technological innovation in finance is not new, investment in new technologies has substantially increased in recent years and the pace of innovation is exponential. We now interact with our bank using mobile technology. We make payments, transfer money and make investments using a variety of new tools that were not there a few years ago. Artificial intelligence, social networks, machine learning, mobile applications, distributed ledger technology, cloud computing, and big data analytics have given rise to new services and business models by established financial institutions and new market entrants.

For millions of people, using digital technology to access financial services (known as Fintech) is becoming routine, and this trend is expected to continue to develop in terms of how we send, receive, and save money. Today, using a computer or mobile device, people may pay their bills, transfer money, and see their bank statements with ease. This affords higher affluent nations more ease and choice. Millions of customers in developing nations now have access to financial services for the first time because of the expansion of digital financial services. Previously, these consumers had little or no access to a bank account. But it might be challenging to keep up with the rapid advancement of technology. We worry that the consumer protection systems in financial services are not keeping up with the development of mobile banking and associated technologies.