Search Results (118)

Financial fraud and money laundering continue to challenge financial stability and regulatory oversight, motivating the widespread adoption of machine learning models for transaction monitoring. Although ensemble models such as Random Forest and XGBoost achieve strong predictive performance, their deployment in high-stakes financial environments is constrained by limited interpretability, overconfident predictions, and the absence of principled mechanisms for expressing decision uncertainty. Emerging regulatory expectations increasingly emphasise transparency, accountability, and operational reliability, underscoring the need for evaluation frameworks that extend beyond predictive accuracy. This study proposes the Integrated Transparency and Confidence Framework (ITCF), a deployment-oriented approach that unifies model explainability, statistically valid uncertainty quantification, and operational decision support for fraud detection. ITCF combines instance-level explanations generated via Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) with distribution-free uncertainty estimation using split conformal prediction. The framework incorporates selective explainability, abstention-based routing, and uncertainty-driven triage to support human-in-the-loop review. Using the PaySim dataset of 6,362,620 mobile-money transactions, Random Forest and XGBoost models are evaluated under extreme class imbalance using F1-score, AUC–ROC, and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC). At a target coverage level of 90% ($\alpha =0.1$), both models achieve empirical coverage close to the target level, with XGBoost producing smaller prediction sets and superior recall, MCC, and latency. ITCF provides transaction-level explanations for uncertain cases and specifies an auditable workflow that is intended to support transparency, traceability, and risk-aware human review, thereby enabling defensible human decision-making in regulated environments. Overall, this study illustrates how explainability and uncertainty quantification can be combined in a deployment-oriented evaluation workflow while noting that real-world validation remains a future endeavour. Full article

This study investigates the potential effects of Mobile Money (MM) and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) on the average transaction costs of remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with a focus on Nigeria. While much of the current literature highlights the theoretical benefits of CBDCs in reducing intermediation costs, empirical evidence remains limited. The analysis combines descriptive statistics and regression models to examine the role of MM in reducing remittance fees across SSA. In addition, the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) is applied to assess the post-launch impact of Nigeria’s CBDC, the eNaira, on inward remittance costs. Results show that MM adoption is associated with significant reductions in remittance costs, reinforcing its importance as a tool for financial inclusion and efficiency. In contrast, the eNaira is not yet associated with transaction fee reduction and has not displaced the bank-dominated remittance channels, which are the most expensive. These findings suggest that while CBDCs hold promise, their effectiveness in emerging markets depends on complementary digital infrastructure and policies that support competition and interoperability. This paper offers one of the first empirical assessments of a CBDC’s economic impact on remittance costs, moving beyond largely theoretical or technical discussions. Jointly analyzing MM and CBDCs provides novel insights into their interaction and highlights policy considerations for emerging markets piloting CBDCs or expanding MM infrastructure. Full article

In this paper, we analyze the impacts of financial innovation and financial deepening on the economic growth of 14 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1995 to 2023. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and error correction model (ECM) were used to assess short- and long-run effects. The findings indicate that mobile cellular subscriptions and government spending are the main contributors to national economic growth and that money supply has a positive impact. However, the strong negative effect of capital formation on economic growth is contrary to expectations. Conversely, the findings confirm that gross capital formation has a strong positive effect on gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the long run. Bounds testing reveals varying degrees of cointegration across countries. Long-run relationships were confirmed in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe, all of which showed evidence of strong cointegration. These findings support policy recommendations aimed at promoting sustainable economic growth in SSA economies through targeted policies that increase domestic credit in the private sector and attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Full article

Interest in financial inclusion among academics has grown significantly over the past decade. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to create enabling policies to mobilize financial resources, highlight key factors in poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth, particularly financial inclusion. This study focuses on 15 selected Asian economies. This research examines the role of fintech in promoting financial inclusion in Asia, employing a mixed-methods research design. The literature review part employs critical analysis based on the SciVal bibliometric tool. Quantitatively, it applies the Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) technique to country-level panel data for 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021. This study also uses a comparative analysis of digitalization indices provided by the World Bank (WB), specifically the Global Findex Database. The findings reveal that digital payments have the most substantial effect at higher quantiles (τ = 0.5 and 0.75), reflecting their role in deepening financial engagement. Mobile money exhibits significant influence at the lower quantile (τ = 0.25), indicating its role in facilitating initial access for underserved populations. Internet usage contributes positively, albeit moderately, while GDP per capita shows no strong direct effect. Qualitative insights highlight challenges such as regulatory gaps, cybersecurity risks, and digital inequality. Full article

This study examines the combined impact of fintech and financial inclusion on achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Previous research has emphasized the role of financial inclusion in reducing poverty, strengthening resilience, and promoting economic stability; however, its interaction with fintech in advancing sustainability remains less examined. Using four composite indices incorporating updated variables, expanded country coverage, and a broader temporal scope, this analysis evaluates digital financial channels, including formal access, mobile money, digital credit, transfers, and rural finance, across SDGs 3, 4, 8, and 9. The findings indicate that formal access is associated with lower maternal mortality (SDG 3) and contributes positively to decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), as well as industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9). Digital credit and transfers help ease liquidity constraints in high-inequality regions, while mobile money enhances education outcomes (SDG 4) under robust governance, supporting informal labor markets. Rural finance strengthens innovation and infrastructure development in underserved areas, reinforcing SDG 9. A simultaneous equation model provides evidence of bidirectional relationships among financial inclusion, fintech adoption, and sustainable development, underscoring their mutual reinforcement rather than strict causality. Overall, the study highlights the systemic interconnection between finance and sustainability and emphasizes the importance of governance, infrastructure, and regulation in maximizing developmental benefits. Full article

As Morocco aspires to position itself as a regional hub for financial innovation in Africa, its Fintech sector presents a paradox: despite a robust digital infrastructure and growing institutional support, adoption remains limited. Systemic barriers—such as a persistent cash-based culture, low mobile money usage, and fragmented collaboration—continue to impede the sector’s growth. Against this backdrop, this study applies the Delphi research method to systematically identify and prioritize the most pressing challenges and strategic actions facing Morocco’s Fintech ecosystem. Drawing on the insights of 45 experts from finance, technology, academia, startups, and service-oriented organizations, the study follows a three-phase process: open-ended brainstorming, narrowing down, and final ranking. The process produced consensus around 12 key challenges and 12 strategic actions, including the need for an open banking framework, a unified national Fintech vision, regulatory sandboxes, and improved collaboration between incumbents and startups. These findings offer actionable insights to Moroccan policymakers and industry leaders and contribute to Fintech research in emerging economies. Full article

This paper measures the post-treatment effects of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) on mobile money and outstanding loans from commercial banks as a percentage of the GDP in Nigeria and the Bahamas, respectively, from the perspective of financial inclusion. The literature on the topic has primarily focused on the technological specifications of CBDCs and their potential future implementation. This article addresses a gap in the empirical literature by examining the effects of CBDCs. To this end, a Synthetic Control Method (SCM) is applied to the Bahamas (SandDollar) and Nigeria (eNaira) to construct a counterfactual scenario and assess the impact of CBDCs on mobile money and commercial bank loans. Nigeria’s mobile money transactions as a percentage of the GDP increased significantly compared to the synthetic control group, suggesting a notable positive effect of the eNaira. Conversely, in the Bahamas, actual performance fell below the synthetic control, implying that SandDollar may have contributed to a decline in outstanding loans. These results suggest that CBDCs could pose a “deposit substitution risk” for commercial banks. However, they may also enhance the performance of other Fintech tools, as observed in the case of mobile money. As CBDC implementations worldwide remain in their early stages, their long-term effects require further analysis. Full article

In this work, we examine the correlation between financial inclusion and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors of sustainable development with the assistance of an exhaustive panel dataset of 103 emerging and developing economies spanning 2011 to 2022. The “Account Age” variable, standing for financial inclusion, is the share of adults owning accounts with formal financial institutions or with the providers of mobile money services, inclusive of both conventional and digital entry points. Methodologically, the article follows an econometric approach with panel data regressions, supplemented by Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) with instrumental variables in order to control endogeneity biases. ESG-specific instruments like climate resilience indicators and digital penetration measures are utilized for the purpose of robustness. As a companion approach, the paper follows machine learning techniques, applying a set of algorithms either for regression or for clustering for the purpose of detecting non-linearities and discerning ESG-inclusion typologies for the sample of countries. Results reflect that financial inclusion is, in the Environmental pillar, significantly associated with contemporary sustainability activity such as consumption of green energy, extent of protected area, and value added by agriculture, while reliance on traditional agriculture, measured by land use and value added by agriculture, decreases inclusion. For the Social pillar, expenditure on education, internet, sanitation, and gender equity are prominent inclusion facilitators, while engagement with the informal labor market exhibits a suppressing function. For the Governance pillar, anti-corruption activity and patent filing activity are inclusive, while diminishing regulatory quality, possibly by way of digital governance gaps, has a negative correlation. Policy implications are substantial: the research suggests that development dividends from a multi-dimensional approach can be had through enhancing financial inclusion. Policies that intersect financial access with upgrading the environment, social expenditure, and institutional reconstitution can simultaneously support sustainability targets. These are the most applicable lessons for the policy-makers and development professionals concerned with the attainment of the SDGs, specifically over the regions of the Global South, where the trinity of climate resilience, social fairness, and institutional renovation most significantly manifests. Full article

Financial fraud detection is a critical application area within the broader domains of cybersecurity and intelligent financial analytics. With the growing volume and complexity of digital transactions, the traditional rule-based and shallow learning models often fall short in detecting sophisticated fraud patterns. This study addresses the challenge of accurately identifying fraudulent financial activities, especially in highly imbalanced datasets where fraud instances are rare and often masked by legitimate behavior. The existing models also lack interpretability, limiting their utility in regulated financial environments. Experiments were conducted on three benchmark datasets: IEEE-CIS Fraud Detection, European Credit Card Transactions, and PaySim Mobile Money Simulation, each representing diverse transaction behaviors and data distributions. The proposed methodology integrates a transformer-based encoder, multi-teacher knowledge distillation, and a symbolic belief–desire–intention (BDI) reasoning layer to combine deep feature extraction with interpretable decision making. The novelty of this work lies in the incorporation of cognitive symbolic reasoning into a high-performance learning architecture for fraud detection. The performance was assessed using key metrics, including the F1-score, AUC, precision, recall, inference time, and model size. Results show that the proposed transformer–BDI model outperformed traditional and state-of-the-art baselines across all datasets, achieving improved fraud detection accuracy and interpretability while remaining computationally efficient for real-time deployment. Full article

Women in emerging economies face unique constraints rooted in cultural norms, socio-economic disparities, and limited access to education and technology. Narrowing the digital gender gap by ensuring access to financial services may reduce the economic inequalities for women in these countries. This study examines the influence of digital finance in narrowing the gender gap, guided by the research question: To what extent do digital financial services contribute to narrowing the gender gap in access to and usage of financial services in low-and middle-income economies? Gender inclusion was measured by the ratio of accounts owned by women over the total number of accounts. Digital financial inclusion was constructed based on eight components: mobile money account, storing money in financial institutions, Internet access, mobile phone owned, savings, savings in financial institutions, making or receiving a digital payment, and mobile phone or use of the Internet for shopping. A Bayesian regression approach was computed using the Global Findex Database data for 73 countries classified as low and lower-middle-income economies from 2011 to 2022. The Machine Learning approach evaluates the model’s ability to predict women’s autonomy and the role of digital finance. The results show that digital financial services would reduce the gender gap in low-income economies while augmenting the number of open accounts, especially for women. The results aid in the establishment of policies to reduce the gender gap. These results are relevant to the UNSDG agenda, mainly Goal 5 and Goal 10. Full article

Financial technology (FinTech) has significantly changed access to financial services, particularly benefiting historically marginalized communities. While it offers many advantages, FinTech also brings substantial risks associated with this digital transformation. Recent studies highlight the significant impact of FinTech on financial inclusion, especially for marginalized populations. To investigate the benefits and drawbacks of FinTech and identify specific risks affecting users, particularly vulnerable groups, we employed the PRISMA method. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Web of Science database to explore recent research on FinTech and its relationship with financial inclusion, focusing on associated risks. The search covered 2010–2025; however, after applying inclusion criteria, the final dataset comprised publications from 2012 to 2025. Unlike previous bibliometric studies broadly addressing FinTech innovations, this review identifies and categorizes key risks affecting financial inclusion, emphasizing regulatory barriers, digital literacy, and socio-cultural challenges. The review is limited by the exclusive use of Web of Science and the English language, suggesting future research avenues using additional databases and multilingual sources. Findings reveal a notable increase in research activity surrounding FinTech and financial inclusion. This highlights challenges such as data privacy, regulation, and financial literacy. By mapping FinTech-related risks, this study aims to inform policymakers and stakeholders about effective strategies to mitigate these challenges and promote safe, inclusive financial ecosystems. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated several challenges, prompting the Indonesian government to enact rules aimed at minimizing direct contact to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which has also affected transactional activities. Transactions conducted using a digital wallet represent a technological advancement that facilitates a cashless society lifestyle. Bank Indonesia established the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) as a QR Code standard for digital payments using Electronic Money-Based (EU) servers, electronic wallets, or Mobile Banking. This study aims to identify the elements that affect consumer willingness to convert from cash payments to the QRIS during the COVID-19 epidemic. This study collected data through an online survey, distributing a 17-item questionnaire to QRIS users, yielding 568 valid responses. This research used a modified version of the Push-Pull-Mooring theory and an adaptation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, concentrating on consumers’ intentions to transition from cash payments to QRIS utilization. This study employed the Hybrid SEM-ANN methodology with the SmartPLS and IBM SPSS Statistics 27 applications for data analysis. This investigation had 11 hypotheses, of which 4 were accepted. The findings indicated that alternative attractiveness, trust, critical mass, and traditional payment habits significantly influenced the intention to transition from cash payments to QRIS payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

Sustainable finance is critical for solving global concerns such as climate change, social inequality, and fostering a circular economy, which seeks to decouple economic progress from resource extraction and waste production. This study explores how sustainable finance tools, such as green bonds, microfinance, and impact investing, can advance financial inclusion and sustainable development in developing countries. Employing a mixed-methods approach that encompasses financial analysis alongside case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the study discerns both successful initiatives and ongoing challenges in reconciling CE objectives with financial accessibility. The results indicate that the global green bond issuance exceeded $575 billion in 2023, while efforts toward financial inclusion have enabled mobile money access for over 70% of the adult population in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, the uptake of CE remains constrained, with merely 7.2% of materials within the global economy being classified as circular. These findings emphasize the necessity for integrated policies and innovative financial instruments to dismantle systemic obstacles and amplify sustainable finance solutions in resource-limited contexts. The study contributes to the literature by building on the existing frameworks and offering an integrated approach that provides empirical insights and pragmatic strategies for policymakers and financial institutions to enhance sustainable development and foster equitable economic growth, addressing gaps in traditional finance and regulatory frameworks to support circular economy adoption in resource-constrained nations. Full article

This article introduces systemism as a method of evaluating the expanding research agenda on the politics of migration. Systemism is a graphic method for presenting academic research concisely. It provides three methods of advancing the research agenda: elaboration, systematic synthesis, and bricolagic bridging. I employ two of these methods to follow the evolution of research on states’ migration policies from the 1990s to the 2020s, providing a critique of the research and suggesting methods for advancing our knowledge of this politically important policy issue. The article provides a short overview of systemism, and then illustrates its application through the presentation of two articles in graphic form: “No Vacancy. The Political Geography of Immigration Control in Advanced, Market Economy Countries” by Jeannette Money, and “The Migration State in the Global South: Nationalizing, Developmental, and Neoliberal Models of Migration Management”, authored by Fiona Adamson and Gerasimos Tsourapas. Elaboration is employed to expand the systemist presentation of “No Vacancy”, to communicate causal mechanisms more thoroughly. The next section employs systematic synthesis to bring together the two articles and to engage the research agenda on the politics of migration policy. The past 30 years have witnessed an expansion of the definition of migration management strategies captured by the four-fold typology proposed by Adamson and Tsourapas. However, continuing to pay attention to the domestic politics of migration management would help to illuminate variation among states within each category. Both articles acknowledge structural factors that constrain or provide opportunities for states’ migration policy choices, but neither develops a clear picture of the systemic factors that shape international mobility and the policy choices of states in the international system. The conclusions point to a continuing expansion of the research agenda along these three dimensions. Full article