Ideas for Developing Asia and the Pacific

Call for Papers on Fintech and COVID-19

Fintech and COVID-19
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School

The increased use of financial technology (fintech) during the COVID-19 pandemic has provided households in Asia and the Pacific with more efficient and shock-resilient financial services access, and also has helped many of the region’s micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) remain economically viable by offering faster and cheaper financial services than traditional banking. While fintech-adopting firms have demonstrated considerable agility during the pandemic, relatively little is known about COVID-19’s impact on their business models and practices. Fintech’s rapid acceleration also poses greater financial stability risks.

ADBI, the Asian Development Bank, and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School are seeking original research paper submissions on issues related to fintech and COVID-19, and their implications for economies in Asia and the Pacific and globally. Selected papers will be featured at an ADBI virtual conference on fintech’s role in providing respite to vulnerable groups such as poor households and MSMEs during the COVID-19 crisis, the factors underpinning fintech providers’ pandemic era growth and resilience, and the wider financial stability risks fintech expansion can create.

Papers presented at the conference, to take place on 30 March-1 April 2021, may be considered for publication as ADBI working papers and as part of an edited book.

Paper topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Digital finance, fintech, and sustainable economic growth
  • Fintech, digital financial inclusion, and inequality
  • Fintech, climate change, and green finance
  • MSMEs, fintech, and COVID-19
  • MSME access to digital financial services and sectoral performance
  • Venture finance, digital capital raising, and COVID-19
  • Drivers of fintech credit and digital lending
  • Fintech, digital payments/remittances, and COVID-19
  • Fintech and Big Tech
  • Fintech market growth and sectoral performance during COVID-19
  • Central banks, financial regulators, and fintech during COVID-19
  • Fintech and cybersecurity
  • Fintech, consumer protection, and COVID-19
  • Fintech and data privacy
  • Fintech and digital literacy
  • Fintech, risk management, regulatory technology, and supervisory technology
  • Other relevant topics

Submission Procedure

Authors should submit full papers of around 8,000-10,000 words in length using this link by 5 March 2021. Please indicate if you would also like your paper to be considered for inclusion in the edited book.

Authors of selected papers will be notified by 12 March 2021.

Papers will be selected by the organizing committee of this project:

  • John Beirne, Research Fellow, ADBI
  • Peter Morgan, Senior Consulting Economist and Vice-Chair of Research, ADBI
  • Linda Arthur, Senior Capacity Building Economist, ADBI
  • James Villafuerte, Senior Economist, ADB
  • Bihong Huang, Economist, ADB
  • Raghavendra Rau, Co-founder and Academic Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance, University of Cambridge
  • Bryan Zhang, Co-founder and Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

Contact

Inquiries may be directed to John Beirne.

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