Abstract

     People’s acceptance of technological changes has escalated with time. However, the acceptance and adoption of fintech services hiked after the outbreak of the virulent coronavirus. With this breakout, the adoption of mobile fintech services (MFS) increased among general citizens and business sectors around the world, including in developed, emerging, and developing economies. This study aimed to identify the factors that impact the adoption intention of consumers to embrace and enhance the use of mobile fintech services in an emerging market, Bangladesh. A research model was developed to strengthen the objective of this paper. A total of 218 respondents responded to the questionnaire. The study utilized structural equation modeling to analyze the results in SmartPLS software. The results showed significant positive effects of social influence, trust, perceived benefit, and facilitating conditions on the adoption intention towards MFS. Mobile fintech service providers must keep their users’ needs and literacy rates in mind when designing the user interface (UI). Moreover, they should also cater more efficient services to the users and work based on the feedback received. The customers’ satisfaction will ultimately lead to customers conducting more digital transactions and will contribute to the escalation of fintech transactions, resulting in more financial inclusion.

Introduction

     The modernization of financial transaction systems has increased the velocity of monetary transactions, resulting in knock-on effects, and leading to the growth of economies. Emerging economies, especially, have experienced significant progress as digitalization has evolved the ways in which people conducted fintech transactions. For Bangladesh’s low and middle income, mobile fintech services (MFS) have proved to be the most convenient and cost-efficient [1]. Mobile fintech services are an e-money services where the funds of the person with a mobile account are recorded on an electronic general ledger. The transactions are made either from the mobile phone or via a digital process to ensure their authenticity [2]. The foundation of Mobile Fintech Services established in 2011 by Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, vigorously grew the number of account holders and the volume of transactions [2]. In 2013, the number of registered accounts for mobile fintech services rose faster than in any other country [3]. The average daily transactions increased by 3.08% from December 2021 to January 2022 [4]. The current 13 MFS providers, which are licensed scheduled banks and financial institutions, provide a range category of services, such as sending money, paying bills, cashing out, making payments to merchants, salary disbursement, and many other services. With the growth of mobile phone subscribers to 178.61 million as of August 2021, there is prodigious opportunity for mobile fintech service providers [5]. To continue the growth rate of mobile fintech service adoption, it is very crucial for the MFS providers to understand what motivates the users in Bangladesh to adopt mobile fintech services.

Conclusions

     The growth of mobile fintech services in Bangladesh has been noteworthy recently, especially after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. People around the country are getting used to new technologies such as fintech services. Almost every sector is now utilizing mobile fintech service applications to perform financial transactions, ranging from salary disbursement to utility payments. This study aimed to determine the factors influencing the consumers’ intention to adopt mobile fintech applications. To determine these factors, this study proposed a combined research framework by utilizing two models, EVF and UTAUT. According to the structural equation modelling analysis, consumers’ intentions to use MFS are influenced by several factors. The perceived benefits have a significant positive influence because consumers focus on the benefits, they can get from using a new technology. In addition, social influence showed a positive influence, as people are inspired by their family, peers, and friends’ opinions. Moreover, the facilitating conditions also demonstrated a significant positive impact, since the available resources such as smartphones and tablets and the MFS organizations’ contact center services are crucial to performing smooth financial transactions. Finally, perceived trust significantly positively impacts the intention towards MFS adoption. The trust towards MFS providers plays a significant role in online financial transactions using mobile technology. However, the perceived risk and effort expectancy did not influence the behavioral intention to use MFS. Furthermore, the post hoc analysis revealed that the perceived benefit mediates the relationship between the perceived trust and intention to utilize MFS. Mobile fintech services are expected to grow substantially in Bangladesh soon. Therefore, the MFS providers must work on the consumer expectations and preferences to boost the acceptance of mobile fintech services.