FinTech Adoption Index

Pham, P., Suleman, M. T., and Man, Y. (20225) FinTech Adoption in Global Banking: Measuring How Banks Incorporate Financial Technologies.  Available at SSRN.

This study constructs a global fintech adoption index to examine how banks integrate financial technologies into their operations. Adopting the Word2Vec natural language processing technique, we analyse earnings calls from 687 banks across 67 countries from 2009 to 2023, resulting in an index that covers six fintech dimensions. Our research presents three key findings: First, fintech adoption has a consistent upward trend across all measured dimensions, with a pronounced acceleration of approximately 52% following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Second, banks exhibit a pattern of embracing mobile transactions and data analytics more rapidly than peer-to-peer and blockchain technologies. Third, there is an increase in banks' engagement with fintech in all global regions, with developing economies demonstrating particularly notable growth rates. Our measure is robust in multiple validation tests using other text-based methods and actual accounting data, confirming its reliability in tracking the integration of new technologies in the banking industry.