Fintech and Low-Income Communities: A Systematic Literature Review

Nasar, F., Sirat, A. H., Husen, A., & Hadady, H. (2025). Fintech and Low-Income Communities: A Systematic Literature Review. Society, 13(1), 818-835. https://doi.org/10.33019/society.v13i1.764

Share

Views

Abstract 42
PDF (English) 13

_{Statistics reflect real-time downloads and views.}

Abstract

The current systematic literature review aimed to document the breadth of fintech research in low-income areas. Three papers that satisfied the inclusion requirements were found after a thorough search of the Scopus database published between January 2007 and October 2024 using PRISMA. The synthesis of these articles shows that fintech in low-income communities has been conducted in Africa, the United States, and the Netherlands. In addition, research on this theme also focuses on the water supply and sanitation industry, banking, and new holistic sanitation projects. Additionally, the transition and development theory is one of the theories employed to elucidate this relationship. This work presents theoretical and practical contributions and ideas for future research.

PDF (English)

References

Agustin, G. (2023). The Rise of Financial Technology and Its Credit Risk in Indonesia. International Journal of Accounting & Finance in Asia Pasific, 6(2), 98–109. https://doi.org/10.32535/ijafap.v6i2.2318

Akinyemi, A. (2025). The role of financial literacy in reducing the wealth gap: The effectiveness of financial coaching in low-income communities (a case study of the US and Europe). Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review, 3(1), 1921–1949.

Al-Shari, H. A., & Lokhande, M. A. (2023). The relationship between the risks of adopting FinTech in banks and their impact on the performance. Cogent Business & Management, 10(1), 2174242. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2174242

Alda-Vidal, C., Kooy, M., & Rusca, M. (2018). Mapping operation and maintenance: an everyday urbanism analysis of inequalities within piped water supply in Lilongwe, Malawi. Urban Geography, 39(1), 104–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2017.1292664

Berg, S. V., & Mugisha, S. (2010). Pro-poor water service strategies in developing countries: promoting justice in Uganda’s urban project. Water Policy, 12(4), 589–601. https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2010.120

Bernstein, R. S., Bulger, M., Salipante, P., & Weisinger, J. Y. (2020). From Diversity to Inclusion to Equity: A Theory of Generative Interactions. Journal of Business Ethics, 167(3), 395–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04180-1

Boakye-Ansah, A. S., Ferrero, G., Rusca, M., & van der Zaag, P. (2016). Inequalities in microbial contamination of drinking water supplies in urban areas: the case of Lilongwe, Malawi. Journal of Water and Health, 14(5), 851–863. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2016.258

Boakye-Ansah, A. S., Schwartz, K., & Zwarteveen, M. (2019). Unravelling pro-poor water services: what does it mean and why is it so popular? Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 9(2), 187–197. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2019.086

Brune, L., Giné, X., Goldberg, J., & Yang, D. (2011). Commitments to Save: A Field Experiment in Rural Malawi. In Commitments to Save: A Field Experiment in Rural Malawi (Issue 5748). World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-5748

CGAP. (2019). Mobile Money and Financial Inclusion: An Overview. CGAP. https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/CGAP-SSN-Mobile-Money-and-Financial-Inclusion-Nov-2019.pdf

Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2022). World Inequality Report 2022. In L. Chancel, T. Piketty, E. Saez, & G. Zucman (Eds.), World Inequality Report 2022. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674276598

Chemmanur, T. J., Imerman, M. B., Rajaiya, H., & Yu, Q. (2020). Recent Developments in the Fintech Industry. Journal of Financial Management, Markets and Institutions, 8(1), 2040002. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2282717X20400022

Coyne, K. P. (1986). Sustainable competitive advantage—What it is, what it isn’t. Business Horizons, 29(1), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(86)90087-X

Criqui, L. (2015). Infrastructure urbanism: Roadmaps for servicing unplanned urbanisation in emerging cities. Habitat International, 47, 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.01.015

Danladi, S., Prasad, M. S. V, Modibbo, U. M., Ahmadi, S. A., & Ghasemi, P. (2023). Attaining Sustainable Development Goals through Financial Inclusion: Exploring Collaborative Approaches to Fintech Adoption in Developing Economies. Sustainability, 15(17), 13039. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713039

Ediagbonya, V., & Tioluwani, C. (2023). The role of fintech in driving financial inclusion in developing and emerging markets: issues, challenges and prospects. Technological Sustainability, 2(1), 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1108/TECHS-10-2021-0017

Fatorachian, H. (2012). A critical investigation of E-supply chain practice among SCM. International Journal of Advance Innovations, Thoughts & Ideas, 1(4), 1–18.

Forbes. (2017). VCS four times more likely to fund all male startups than those with even one woman leader. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/07/26/vcs-four-times-more-likely-to-fund-all-male-startups-tha n-those-with-even-one-woman-leader/

Gleick, P. H. (1996). Basic Water Requirements for Human Activities: Meeting Basic Needs. Water International, 21(2), 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508069608686494

Gómez-Corona, C., Schleiss, M., Barroso, R., Richard Schmoyer, J., Jallat, J., & Ravily, M. (2025). Community voices: A different approach to study low-income populations in consumer research. Food Quality and Preference, 123, 105339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105339

Greig, A., Hulme, D., & Turner, M. (2007). Challenging Global Inequality: Development Theory and Practice in the 21st Century. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Gulyani, S., Talukdar, D., & Mukami Kariuki, R. (2005). Universal (Non)service? Water Markets, Household Demand and the Poor in Urban Kenya. Urban Studies, 42(8), 1247–1274. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980500150557

Hailu, D., Rendtorff-Smith, S., & Tsukada, R. (2011). Small-Scale Water Providers in Kenya: Pioneers or Predators. United Nations Development Programme.

Halme, M., Piekkari, R., Matos, S., Wierenga, M., & Hall, J. (2024). Rigour vs. Reality: Contextualizing Qualitative Research in the Low‐Income Settings in Emerging Markets. British Journal of Management, 35(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12690

Holmes, J., Isham, J., Petersen, R., & Sommers, P. M. (2007). Does Relationship Lending Still Matter in the Consumer Banking Sector? Evidence from the Automobile Loan Market *. Social Science Quarterly, 88(2), 585–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2007.00473.x

Hornuf, L., Klus, M. F., Lohwasser, T. S., & Schwienbacher, A. (2021). How do banks interact with fintech startups? Small Business Economics, 57, 1505–1526.

Hunter, P. R., MacDonald, A. M., & Carter, R. C. (2010). Water Supply and Health. PLoS Medicine, 7(11), e1000361. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000361

Hutukka, P. (2024). Fintech law in the European Union, the United States and China: Regulation of financial technology in comparative context. Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 31(5), 559–594. https://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X241298416

IBM. (2023). Cost of a data breach report 2023. IBM. https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach

Iman, N. (2020). The rise and rise of financial technology: The good, the bad, and the verdict. Cogent Business & Management, 7(1), 1725309. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.1725309

Innovate Finance. (2023). UK FinTech Investment Trends 2022. Innova Finance. https://www.innovatefinance.com/research-reports/uk-fintech-investment-trends-2022/

International Labour Office. (2018). Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (3rd ed.). International Labour Office (ILO).

Israni, A., Ellison, N. B., & Dillahunt, T. R. (2021). “A Library of People” online resource-seeking in low-income communities. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1–28.

Jatobá, A., Bellas, H. C., Bulhões, B., Koster, I., Arcuri, R., & de Carvalho, P. V. R. (2020). Assessing community health workers’ conditions for delivering care to patients in low-income communities. Applied Ergonomics, 82, 102944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102944

Karlan, D., Osei, R., Osei-Akoto, I., & Udry, C. (2014). Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints *. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2), 597–652. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju002

Kayaga, S., & Franceys, R. (2007). Costs of urban utility water connections: Excessive burden to the poor. Utilities Policy, 15(4), 270–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2007.06.002

Kee, D. M. H., Kum, Y. L., Lee, J. H., Lee, N. C., Lee, X. T., & Muckar, D. S. (2024). Riding the FinTech Wave: Exploring Service Satisfaction and Trust among Generations Y and Z. International Journal of Accounting & Finance in Asia Pasific, 7(3), 342–360. https://doi.org/10.32535/ijafap.v7i3.3616

Kemp, R., Loorbach, D., & Rotmans, J. (2007). Transition management as a model for managing processes of co-evolution towards sustainable development. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 14(1), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504500709469709

Kimber, A. (2023). How to champion equality and career progression for women in Fintech. EY. https://www.ey.com/en_uk/banking-capital-markets/fintech-ecosystems/how-to-champion-equality-for-women-in-fintech

Lagna, A., & Ravishankar, M. N. (2022). Making the world a better place with fintech research. Information Systems Journal, 32(1), 61–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12333

Lawhon, M. (2012a). Contesting power, trust and legitimacy in the South African e-waste transition. Policy Sciences, 45(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9146-x

Lawhon, M. (2012b). Relational Power in the Governance of a South African E-Waste Transition. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 44(4), 954–971. https://doi.org/10.1068/a44354

Loorbach, D., & Rotmans, J. (2010). The practice of transition management: Examples and lessons from four distinct cases. Futures, 42(3), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2009.11.009

Mara, D. D. (2003). Water, sanitation and hygiene for the health of developing nations. Public Health, 117(6), 452–456. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0033-3506(03)00143-4

McKinsey and Company. (2021). The rise of Fintechs and the digital financial marketplace. McKinsey on Payments, 13(31).

Mendenhall, R. (2010). The Political Economy of Black Housing: From the Housing Crisis of the Great Migrations to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. The Black Scholar, 40(1), 20–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2010.11413507

Muthoifin, Rohimat, A. M., Irsyad, M., Usnan, Nurrohim, A., Afiyah, I., & Mahmudulhassan. (2024). Sharia Economic Empowerment of Low-Income Communities and Subsidy Recipients in Boyolali for Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of Lifestyle and SDGs Review, 5(1), e02983. https://doi.org/10.47172/2965-730X.SDGsReview.v5.n01.pe02983

Okechukwu, I. C., Edeh, F. O., Sherifah, N. K., Duruzor, I. G., Chukwuma, N. C., Ukaidi, C. U. A., & Oben, N. D. (2024). Mitigating the African Economic Crisis Through Financial Inclusion. International Journal of Accounting & Finance in Asia Pasific, 7(2), 131–144. https://doi.org/10.32535/ijafap.v7i2.3239

Pant, L. P., Adhikari, B., & Bhattarai, K. K. (2015). Adaptive transition for transformations to sustainability in developing countries. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 14, 206–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.07.006

Plesko, C. M., Yu, Z., Tobin, K., & Gross, D. (2021). Social connectedness among parents raising children in low‐income communities: An integrative review. Research in Nursing & Health, 44(6), 957–969. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22189

Popescu, A. D. (2019). Empowering financial inclusion through fintech. Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 6(2), 198–215.

Rahman, S. M. M., Yii, K.-J., Masli, E. K., & Voon, M. L. (2024). The blockchain in the banking industry: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis. Cogent Business & Management, 11(1), 2407681. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2407681

Roque, A., Quimby, B., Brewis, A., & Wutich, A. (2021). Building social capital in low-income communities for resilience. In The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies (pp. 1–22). Palgrave Macmillan.

Rusca, M., & Schwartz, K. (2018). The paradox of cost recovery in heterogeneous municipal water supply systems: Ensuring inclusiveness or exacerbating inequalities? Habitat International, 73, 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.03.002

Saima, F. N., Rahman, M. H. A., & Ghosh, R. (2022). Gender diversity in FinTech: An effort towards creating an inclusive and sustainable industry. In AI-enabled agile internet of things for sustainable FinTech ecosystems (pp. 66–92). IGI Global.

Sandeep, M. S., & Ravishankar, M. N. (2015). Social innovations in outsourcing: An empirical investigation of impact sourcing companies in India. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(4), 270–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2015.09.002

Smale, W. (2014). The man changing the world of remittances. In BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30192220

Solo, T. M., Joyce, S., & Perez, E. (1993). Constraints in Providing Water and Sanitation Services to the Urban Poor. Water and Sanitation for Health Project.

Statista. (2023). Fintech revenue in selected European countries in 2023. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1384918/fintech-revenue-europe-by-country/

Stoler, J., Weeks, J. R., & Appiah Otoo, R. (2013). Drinking water in transition: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis of sachet water consumption in Accra. PLoS One, 8(6), e67257. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067257

Stoll, M. A. (2006). Job sprawl, spatial mismatch, and black employment disadvantage. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: The Journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 25(4), 827–854. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20210

Tiwale, S., Rusca, M., & Zwarteveen, M. (2018). The power of pipes: Mapping urban water inequities through the material properties of networked water infrastructures - The case of Lilongwe, Malawi. Water Alternatives, 11(2), 314–335.

Van den Bosch, S. (2010). Transition Experiments: Exploring societal changes towards sustainability. In Drift: Vol. PhD Thesis (Issue September 2010). Erasmus University Rotterdam.

van Welie, M. J., & Romijn, H. A. (2018). NGOs fostering transitions towards sustainable urban sanitation in low-income countries: Insights from Transition Management and Development Studies. Environmental Science & Policy, 84, 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.08.011

World Bank. (2020). Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020: Reversals of Fortune. World Bank.

Zhang, M., Zhang, W., Liu, Y., Wu, M., Zhou, J., & Mao, Z. (2021). Relationship between Family Function, Anxiety, and Quality of Life for Older Adults with Hypertension in Low-Income Communities. International Journal of Hypertension, 2021(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5547190