Digital Finance and COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted digital financial inclusion trends across the world in many and complex ways. In developing and emerging contexts, this crisis also holds the potential to propel an unprecedented acceleration in the process of financial digitization and turn out to be a game-changer for digital financial inclusion. The aim of this study is to illustrate the opportunities and risks associated with the surge in uptake and use of digital financial service, providing ideas on how to leverage the paradigm changes affecting the overall approach and perspective towards digital financial services on the part of various stakeholders to advance financial inclusion and development. It also seeks to showcase how digital financial services have been used in both traditional and innovative ways to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on economies and societies, by both public and private actors.