Fintech Adoption and Financial Inclusion in South Asia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66021/Keywords:
Fintech Adoption, Financial Inclusion, Digital Public Infrastructure, Phygital Convergence, Regulatory Genotypes, Network Effects Threshold, Rural Latency, Agent Economics, Gender Multipliers, Climate Resilient Fintech.Abstract
This study establishes the causal impact of fintech adoption on financial inclusion across South Asia's 1.9 billion population, documenting 15.4% FII uplift per 10% platform penetration (LATE=0.51, IV-2SLS; N=52,000; 2018-2025). Mixed methods analysis reveals six regulatory genotypes with centralized APIs (India UPI: +22.4%) outperforming agent decentralized (Bangladesh bKash: +18.2%) architectures. Phygital multiplier theorem confirms 2.8x rural ROI through spatial trust (agent proximity <2km yields 2.3x female adoption). Binding constraints rural latency (58% gap), KYC compliance (68% deficit), literacy friction (72% shortfall) necessitate edge native infrastructure (<150ms SLA) + 1.2M agent saturation. Policy simulations project 95.3% universal inclusion by 2032 via DPI agent convergence ($5.4B investment, 4.6x social ROI , $68B NPV). Findings generalize as digital electricity blueprint for 47 emerging markets, positioning South Asia as prototype laboratory for scalable financial universality.
