This study explores gender diversity in fintech usage for creating an equitable and sustainable fintech industry in Bangladesh. A closed-ended structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to fintech users by email and social media platforms. A total of 527 complete responses were documented. SPSS and SmartPLS have been used for analyzing data. Moreover, structural equation modeling (SEM) has been employed to test the study's hypotheses. Results reveal that perceived ease of use, perceived credibility, and perceived usefulness have a significant positive relationship with satisfaction. Furthermore, satisfaction has a positive and significant relationship with loyalty. While investigating the role of gender diversity on fintech, there is no moderating effect of gender on the effects of perceived ease of use, perceived credibility, and satisfaction on loyalty. However, the relationship between perceived usefulness and satisfaction is moderated by gender. Satisfaction is a significant predictor of ensuring fintech loyalty of both males and females.
TopIntroduction
The dominance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Blockchain Technology has revolutionized our traditional lifestyle. The epoch-making technological innovations of the 21st century have made peoples' life more convenient and brought socio-economic progress. Such a digital technology, Fintech, has emerged with the potential to bring sustainable development by creating an inclusive financial service system. According to World Bank (2018), “Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs-transactions, payments, savings, credit, and insurance- delivered responsibly and sustainably.” World Bank estimated that 1.7 billion adults (with women 1 billion) yet to have a basic financial transaction account (Kapadia, 2020, p.5). These unbanked people are mostly from developing countries (Demirguç-Kunt et al., 2018). Fintech will help to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)1 (terminating extreme poverty) and SDG5 (ensuring gender equality). It will unlock the door of enormous socio-economic opportunities for financially unserved or underserved communities. They will be better able to manage their financial life (i.e., collect money from distant sources, transfer and store funds) through Fintech. Thus, it can positively impact society by reducing poverty and empowering women. Suri and Jack (2016) documented a 22% reduction in the poverty level of women-headed Kenyan households due to mobile money usage. The G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion formulated by the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) is also promoting the digital financial system that provides an economical way for the financially excluded communities, especially the women, to conduct their necessary financial transactions (e.g., making payment, saving for kids' school, sending/receiving remittances, getting a loan or buying insurance) (Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, 2016). Inclusive Fintech can make financial products and services accessible, affordable and appropriate for the underserved segments of society (Kapadia, 2020, P. 10).
Though Fintech can drive the growth of financial inclusion and reduce income inequality, this projection may not be applied equally to low-income countries. According to Demir et al. (2020), the probable reasons behind this might be the lack of a well-established infrastructure, proper consumer protection regulations, and essential financial literacy among households in low-income countries. However, the financial inclusion penetration rate has shown an uptick since 2011 in developed and developing countries. 1.2 billion adults have opened a bank or mobile money account since 2011 (The World Bank, 2018), but a wide gender gap exists in accessing financial service accounts globally (Delaporte & Naghavi,2019). In developing countries, women are 9% less likely to own a bank account than men (Demirguç-Kunt et al., 2018). Closing the gender gap is now a paramount concern to achieving the Universal Financial Goal 2020. Focusing on a gender-inclusive financial system will also foster the financial growth of the mobile industry. As per the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), the revenue of the mobile industry could be increased to $140 billion over the period 2019-2023 in low and middle-income countries by reducing the existing mobile gender gap (GSMA, 2021).