Financial Technology-Enabled Sustainable Finance for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

This study aims to assess how FinTech facilitates sustainable finance (SF) for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the study identified several FinTech solutions, including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), digital banking and payment systems, and crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, that facilitate SF for SMEs. The research indicates that FinTech helps financial institutions provide SF effectively and efficiently to SMEs. Blockchain technology is effective for transparent and secure transactions because it can narrow credit gaps, lower information asymmetry, increase the availability of funds, improve credit evaluation processes, and promote financial inclusion. AI is applied to identify fraud, anticipate and mitigate environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related events, and enhance risk management programs through the use of different methods such as behavioral modeling, sequential modeling, and clustering. Crowdfunding connects funders with campaigns. Business owners and start-up founders are able to communicate with investors regarding their companies via the crowdsourcing website, which serves as a place to collect input from other people online. Smart contracts decentralized, verifiable, and auto-enforcing features allow their encoded business rules to be carried out in a P2P network without the assistance of a single server or believed authority. The successful case studies validate our study. Finally, the study provides significant policy and regulatory implications for all stakeholders.