FinTech Adoption in SMEs and Bank Credit Supplies: A Study on Manufacturing SMEs
2023Rehman SU, Al-Shaikh MS, Washington PB, Lee E, Song Z, Abu-AlSondos IA, Shehadeh M, Allahham M
Economies, 11(8), 213
Research · Issue area · FinTech Consumer Protection
FinTech Consumer Protection
Buy-now-pay-later, alternative credit data and FinTech-driven small-business credit have produced uneven outcomes for lower-income households and small businesses. Which products expand access, and which raise costs or risks for the people who use them?
Evidence on FinTech adoption by households and small businesses, informing consumer-protection policy and small-business credit programs.
About this issue area
New credit products — buy-now-pay-later plans, alternative credit-data scoring and app-based small-business lending — have spread quickly, and evidence on their outcomes for consumers has not kept pace. FinTech adoption in small and mid-sized enterprises also varies widely across sectors and countries, with implications for credit supply and access.
The Institute of FAME's research base in this area centers on Rehman et al. (2023, Economies), which examines FinTech adoption and bank credit supply in manufacturing SMEs and sets out a firm-level framework for what drives adoption.
Research questions in this area include: which FinTech products expand access for lower-income households and which raise their costs or risks; what conditions predict productive FinTech adoption by small businesses; how alternative credit data affect access and outcomes for borrowers with thin credit files; and how consumer-protection rules should adapt as products change.
Plain-language explainer
What this means for you
Consider a parent who uses a buy-now-pay-later plan for back-to-school clothes. The checkout screen shows four equal payments and no interest. Less visible are the late fees if a payment is missed and how missed payments may be reported. For a family on a tight budget, a convenient product can become an expensive one.
Product design shapes how people use credit. Some features help households manage cash flow; others make it easy to borrow more than they intended. The research tests which is which, using real outcomes rather than marketing claims.
Our research base includes a 2023 study in Economies on FinTech adoption and bank credit supply in manufacturing SMEs. Your support funds peer-reviewed evidence that regulators, educators and consumers can use.
Evidence base
FAME-funded and affiliated research in this area
Peer-reviewed publications that anchor FAME's standing in this issue area.
Active programs
FAME programs producing evidence in this area
Where FAME stands
Institutional positions on questions in this area
Question
What policy interventions productively expand FinTech adoption in small and mid-sized manufacturing enterprises?
FinTech adoption in manufacturing SMEs is shaped substantially by firm-level factors (institutional readiness, prior digital-financial-service engagement, bank-relationship structure) that are responsive to targeted policy intervention. Generic FinTech-promotion programs without firm-level support produce uneven adoption that excludes precisely the sub-categories of SMEs (smaller firms, less-well-banked sectors, female-founded SMEs) whose access expansion would deliver the strongest financial-inclusion gains. The institute supports targeted SME-credit and FinTech-adoption programs that incorporate firm-level capability-building, distinguished from broad-stroke FinTech-promotion frameworks.
Adopted 2026-05-08
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Forthcoming outputs
- — Policy brief on FinTech adoption by small and mid-sized enterprises (planned)
- — Policy brief on buy-now-pay-later consumer-protection priorities for lower-income households (planned)
Policy audiences for this work
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection
- State attorneys general consumer-protection units
- Small Business Administration
- Consumer-finance researchers and practitioners
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