Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the results of the 2025 Financial Access Survey (FAS), accompanied by the report " Financial Access Survey: Fintech, a Catalyst for Financial Services Access, Innovation and Growth ." The report analyzes how fintech innovations are reshaping global finance and driving financial access and use, which are crucial for economic growth, financial stability, and sustainable development. Established in 2009, the FAS stands as the most comprehensive annual supply-side database on financial access and use, providing essential data for developing and evaluating relevant policies. In 2025, 163 economies reported data, up from 158 in 2024, featuring 121 data series spanning from 2004 to 2024. The database continues to evolve in line with financial innovations, including digital financial services, fintech lending, and gender-disaggregated data.
Digital Financial Services Experience Rapid Growth
Digital transactions, including mobile money, and mobile and internet banking, have surged in emerging and developing economies, increasing from 55 transactions per adult in 2017 to 251 per adult by 2024 (Figure 1). This growth has been especially strong in Sub-Saharan Africa, where mobile money has brought millions of unbanked people into the formal financial system without requiring traditional bank accounts. Mobile money accounts are now growing faster than traditional deposit accounts across the region (Figure 2) and have exceeded traditional banking in multiple economies. These services offer rural households secure ways to save money, transfer funds, and pay bills. Digital payments have also transformed remittances, with digital flows rising from 13% in 2019 to 46% by 2024, reducing costs for migrants sending money home.
Fintech Lending is Transforming Credit Access for Underserved Populations
Beyond payments, fintech lending is reshaping credit markets globally. The report notes that, according to industry data from sources including Statista, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services reached $350 billion in transaction value in 2024, while peer-to-peer and marketplace lending facilitated $62 billion in transactions. The impact on underserved groups is striking: citing data from CGAP, the report highlights that in Sub-Saharan Africa, fintech lending targeting micro and small enterprises surged from 13% to 88% of overall fintech funding between 2020 and 2023. In emerging markets, fintech lenders are increasingly serving retail borrowers previously excluded from traditional finance, with significant portions of their loan portfolios directed toward young and rural populations. In some advanced economies, fintech companies have surpassed traditional financial institutions in issuing unsecured personal loans, demonstrating fintech's expanding market presence.
Figure: Use of Digital Financial Services |
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Sources: Financial Access Survey, UN, OECD, World Bank's Global Findex and IMF staff calculations. Notes: Regional weighted averages are calculated using only the economies with available data for the respective periods. Mobile money is a digital medium of exchange and store of value using mobile money accounts, facilitated by a network of mobile money agents. A bank account is not required to use mobile money services. Mobile and internet banking is the use of an application on a mobile or another electronic device to execute banking services. |
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Literacy Gaps and Emerging Risks Present Challenges
Despite its rapid growth, serious challenges remain. FAS data reveal a strong correlation between literacy levels and successful adoption of digital financial services (Figure 3). Countries with stronger financial and digital skills show higher usage, highlighting how knowledge gaps in other countries can limit safe fintech adoption. Low literacy combined with poor infrastructure, high costs, and complex regulations increases vulnerability to over-indebtedness, predatory lending, fraud, and identity theft. Gender disparities remain particularly pronounced, with women's outstanding deposit amounts at 64 percent of men's and loan balances at only 46 percent of men's globally. Products like BNPL can obscure the true cost of borrowing because they are unsecured and often absent from credit registries. Without improved financial education, clear regulations, and robust cybersecurity measures, these risks could undermine fintech's benefits.
FAS Initiatives Address Critical Fintech Data Gaps
To address data gaps in the rapidly evolving fintech sector, the FAS team conducted pilot exercises in 2024 and 2025, testing over 100 new indicators across e-money, e-wallets, mobile money-enabled loans and deposits, peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding, and neobanks. Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Kosovo, and Saudi Arabia made notable contributions to these pilots, helping to pioneer new standards for fintech data collection. Selected indicators from these exercises will be incorporated into regular FAS reporting in the coming years, equipping policymakers with enhanced tools to monitor and support fintech-driven financial access. These efforts complement the G20 Data Gaps Initiative-3 Recommendation 12 on fintech-enabled financial inclusion, marking a significant step forward in understanding and harnessing the potential of digital finance for inclusive growth.
