Economic Resilience During COVID-19

Economic Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic – The Role and Significance of FinTech

Executive Summary

FinTech, the delivery of financial services via digital mediums, has since the 2010’s been an area that
has attracted the attention of consumers, businesses, investors, and regulators alike. The benefits have been repeated ad nauseum – equitable access to capital and services for underserved market
segments, ease of use and convenience, added security measures to protect people from fraudulent
activity – the list goes on. Simply put, FinTech has the potential to make using finance easier, quicker,
and cheaper. It is no wonder that it has remained a hot button topic for the better half of the last decade.
It seemed to be on a never-ending upward trend, continuing even today with analysts projecting the
FinTech sector to grow at a CAGR of 26.2% through to 2030.
In that time, however, the world also contended with the most far reaching and severe pandemic it had
witnessed in recent memory. COVID-19, which spread to become a global pandemic in early 2020, held
the world at gun point. Border restrictions, quarantine measures, nationwide lockdowns – policies
implemented to curb the spread of the virus – invariably brought booming post-GFC economy to a
screeching halt. Businesses shuttered, stock prices plummeted, people were retrenched in the
thousands – overnight, the world was at a standstill. The unequivocal pessimism was pervasive. But just
as quickly as the world retreated, bright spots slowly started to emerge and the long road to recovery
had begun. By 2021, several countries had rebounded admirably to almost pre-pandemic levels even as
the pandemic raged on; of course, in no small part thanks to the sweeping vaccination policies most
countries implemented. Though vaccines were available on a global scale, one could quickly notice that
not all countries recovered at an equal pace or extent. Why was this so?
Therein lies the heart of our report, which examines the different factors that could either have a positive
or negative impact on economic recovery. Did FinTech, for all its accolades, play an important role in a
country’s economic recovery? To that end, we studied the impact FinTech had on determining the
resilience of a country’s economy, using GDP growth and unemployment rate as proxies for economic
resilience. The following was observed:
Countries with more developed FinTech industries had more resilient GDP growth
Countries with stronger FinTech development prior to the pandemic experience higher GDP growth in
the face of COVID-19. Other factors considered, namely, better education, economic development,
lower average population age, and less reliance on the tourism industry, also positively impacted
changes in GDP growth.

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Executive Summary
Countries with more developed FinTech industries had more resilient employment levels
Countries with strong FinTech development prior to the pandemic are associated with strong
employment recovery notwithstanding the pandemic, albeit to a lesser extent compared to its impact on
changes in GDP growth. Instead, the maturity of a country’s digital infrastructure, prior GDP per capita,
stringency of social distancing policies, and population size are the five factors which influence changes
in employment rates in a positive manner more so than FinTech.

Mobile payments, a segment of the FinTech industry, had a strong positive impact on economic
resilience
Mobile payments have a positive impact on both GDP growth rates and employment rates.
Notwithstanding lockdown protocols, people could continue to access daily necessities through online
channels. COVID-19 fundamentally reshaped consumption habits and accelerated the development of
the contactless economy – an unsurprising development as contactless payment methods are
meaningful tools in helping reduce the spread of the virus – which is enabled primarily by mobile
payments. Other components of FinTech were also conducive to economic resilience. Digital
investments have a positive impact on GDP growth rates, while digital banking has a positive impact on
changes in unemployment rates.

There has been an aggregate uptick in demand for FinTech services since the pandemic, based on
Google search volume data
Two observations are apparent. First, there was an overall spike in search volume for FinTech-related
terms following the outbreak of COVID-19, and these levels had remained since. The main driver for this
persistent high-level of interest has been demand for mobile payments. Second, developing countries
and those with underdeveloped FinTech industries exhibited a higher increase in demand for FinTech
services compared to countries with more developed FinTech industries, save for mobile payments,
which exhibited similar rising demand in both matured and developing FinTech ecosystems.
FinTech demand in SEA is representative of the global trends
In SEA, it was observed that there was a 50% increase in demand for FinTech services from 2019 to
2020, coinciding with the outbreak of the pandemic. Moreover, the interest in mobile payments increased
to 80% in the same period – indicating that the trend in SEA is in line with the global trend that mobile
payments is driving overall demand for FinTech services.

6

INTRODUCTION
In December 2019, the world was introduced to a novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – a pathogen that
causes COVID-19. Arguably the most severe pandemic in recent history given the extremely
interconnected world we live in, the world quickly found itself scrambling to contain the spread of the
virus by imposing strict controls of movement and extensive social distancing protocols. While
different nations approached the pandemic with varying degrees of decisiveness and constraints on
personal freedoms, each invariably leaned towards some semblance of limiting social interactions
and racing to vaccinate populations to bring the virus under control. As much as we tried, however,
many had fallen to the virus’ grip.
In just under three years since the first reported case of COVID-19, the World Health Organization
reported more than 615 million cases and 6.5 million deaths globally, notwithstanding the
administration of more than 12 billion doses of the vaccine, as of early October 2022. Experts,
however, have commented the total case and death count is likely to have exceeded these official
reported numbers because of the lack of reliable health statistics in many developing nations.
While the toll on human life remains the fundamental priority, a study on the economic cost is a timely
and worthwhile endeavour as it continually impacts the lives of the billion others who have been
fortunate enough to survive the pandemic.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the impact of the pandemic on the global economy has
been nothing short of a catastrophe – it plunged the global economy to its deepest recession since
the Great Depression, pushing millions into poverty as businesses closed and jobs were lost.

7

400 million

10% decline

US $3.5 trillion

Full-time jobs lost between
April to June 2020

Overall worldwide worker
income between January to

Loss due to decline in worker
income

September 2020

Source: International Labor Organization Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work

While past studies have analyzed this unprecedented economic downturn and relative recovery amid
COVID-19, the ambition of this report is to build on the work of these past studies towards the
following ends:
How fast does an economy recover from the pandemic shock?
This report develops an economic resilience measure to capture both the speed and strength of
economic resistance and recovery in response to the pandemic shock.
To what extent did developed FinTech industries help economies recover?
Examine the role and significance of FinTech in building economic resilience.
Was there an uptick for demand for FinTech services during the pandemic?
Analyze the change in demand for FinTech services during the pandemic by relying on the 62 most
frequently searched terms that related to FinTech.
What are the other factors that drive a country’s economic recovery?
An expansive report, it considers 16 country-level determinants across technological, economic,
political, social, and healthcare factors in 86 countries.

8

WHAT IS ECONOMIC RESILIENCE
Economic Resilience measures a country’s capacity for its economy to recover
In the context of COVID-19, “Resilience” could either refer to a country’s capacity to resist the
spread of the virus save human lives, or for a country’s capacity for its economy to recover. This
report focuses on the latter.
More precisely, we analyzed economic resilience vis-à-vis two proxies for economic development:
(i) change in GDP growth and (ii) change in unemployment rate.
GDP & Unemployment Rate
(G&UR)

G&UR

G

G

G&UR

Figure: Conceptual Economic Resilience Model

The curve simulates changes of either GDP growth or Unemployment Rate change over time. This curve
can apply to each country.
Contraction period is defined as the period at the time point of the beginning of the pandemic shock (t1)
to the time when it reaches its trough of economic development (tmin).
Recovery period is defined as the first rebound period following tmin to 6-months after (t2).
If GDP growth (unemployment rate) at t2 is above (below) that at t1 when the pandemic shock
happened, it indicates that the country’s economy has recovered to above pre-pandemic levels.
Conversely, it indicates that the country’s economy was recovering more slowly and yet to bounce back
to pre-pandemic shock levels.
The resilience value is the sum of the negative orange area and the positive blue area in the figure.

9

How Long Does it Take
to Hit Rock Bottom?
Based on the 86 countries and regions
surveyed, most reached the trough of their
change in GDP growth relatively faster than
that of their unemployment rate potentially
due to stimulus policies such as subsidies
and tax reductions to prevent loss of jobs.

Average time taken for a country
to reach the lowest point of their
economic development level
after the first reported case…
3 months

7 to 8 months

For a country to reach
the lowest GDP growth
rate

For a country to reach the
lowest employment rate

The study conducted to support this report was

… and considered countries across the

geographically diverse…

spectrum of economic maturity

Samples

Regions

41

Europe & Central Asia

15

Latin America and the Carbbean region

13

East Asia and the Pacific region

9

Middle East and North Africa

4

Sub-saharan Africa

2

North America

2

South Asia

This report was based of a research paper “The Demand for Fintech and its Impact on Economic Resilience

：

Cross-Country Evidence during the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Cen Cai, Xin Chang, Xin Deng, Yu He, Jiaxin Peng, Zhuozhen Peng, which analyzed
an extensive dataset, sampling 86 countries and regions between 2018 and 2021. Data relating to each country’s GDP growth and unemployment
rate were based on statistics published by the IMF. Country-level determinants, also referred to as factors (each defined Appendix [x]), were
collected from the Statista database, World Bank, the International Country Risk Guide Dataset, and other global indexes available online.

10

Hitting rock bottom, however, is only one part of the equation… Countries which ranked higher on the
economic resilience ranking also exhibited faster recovery to pre-pandemic levels
The following countries exhibited relatively stronger GDP growth resilience based on the economic
resilience measure: Vietnam, Ireland, Turkey, Kenya and China.
However, unemployment rate resilience based on the economic resilience measure, exhibits different
patterns from GDP growth resilience. With regards to unemployment rate resilience, Mongolia, Italy,
Greece, France and Kenya perform relatively better. The data suggest that Mongolia fared best. This
could perhaps be explained by the fact that it is a heavily nomadic society.

11

FINTECH AND ECONOMIC RESILIENCE
FinTech facilitates access to financial services
via digital mediums. The maturity of the
FinTech industry in a country is one of the two

Transaction value in digital payments market over its GDP. Also
referred to as FinTech Payments.

Mobile Payments

technological factors we consider, alongside
the other 15 factors across economic,
political, social, and healthcare categories,
when measuring economic resilience. It
generally refers to four essential FinTech
segments covering P2P and Online Lending,
Mobile Payments, Digital Banking, and Digital

Automated investment services, known as robo-advisors, and
online trading services, known as neobrokers. Also referred to as
FinTech Investment.

Digital Investments

Investments.
P2P and Online
Lending

In which way and to what extent did a more
developed FinTech ecosystem influence
economic resilience?

Digital lending over its GDP, where the digital lending market
segment includes alternative lending for MSMEs and freelancers,
online market places for personal loan applications and private
investors, and peer-to-peer loans with interest rates depending
on internal credit scoring of the platform provider. Also referred to
as FinTech Lending.

Digital financing over its GDP, where the digital financing market
includes alternative financing from MSMEs and freelancers,
equity-based crowdfunding, reward-based crowdfunding. Also
referred to as FinTech Financing.

Digital Banking

Figure: FinTech Industry Segments Defined

12

Impact and Significance of Factors in relation to change in
GDP Growth

The
above
is
a
generalization for FinTech
services on an aggregate.
A more nuanced analysis
on each individual FinTech
industry segment reveals
more particularly that:
Mobile Payments and
Digital
Investments
positively impact changes
on GDP growth

Positive / negative impact refers to whether the factor increases or decreases
change in GDP growth in a positive manner. A score of zero would indicate the
factor has no impact, while a higher positive value will indicate an increasingly
positive impact, vice versa.
Statistical significance refers to the probability for which the result was derived by
chance; the lower to percentage, the less likely for rejection and greater likelihood
the conclusion is correct.

13

Mature FinTech Ecosystems and Established Digital Infrastructure
have a Compounding Positive Impact on GDP growth resilience
Strongly related to the maturity of FinTech

We

observed

that

developed

FinTech

ecosystems is the other technological factor
considered – Infrastructure, which refers to the
level
of
development
of
technological
infrastructure related to digital networks, social

ecosystems and countries with established digital
infrastructure kept economies running, to the
extent they have a compounding and
complementary positive effect on GDP growth.

networks, and technological innovations. This
factor considers the availability of latest
technology, internet access, use of virtual social
networks,
and
investment
in
emerging
technology as indicators of maturity.

Notwithstanding lockdown protocols, people
could continue to access daily necessities
through
online
channels.
COVID-19
fundamentally reshaped consumption habits and
accelerated the development of the contactless
economy which relies on digital infrastructure as
the core tenet.

14

Impact and Significance of Factors in relation to change in
Unemployment Rate

Similarly, albeit to a lesser
extent, the data suggests that
more developed FinTech
ecosystems
positively
influence the change in
unemployment rates – framed
in another manner, the more
developed
the
FinTech
ecosystem of the country, the
lower the unemployment rate.
Mobile Payments and Digital
Banking positively impact
changes on unemployment
rates.

Positive / negative impact refers to whether the factor increases or decreases change
in GDP growth in a positive manner. A score of zero would indicate the factor has no
impact, while a higher positive value will indicate an increasingly positive impact, vice
versa.
Statistical significance refers to the probability for which the result was derived by
chance; the lower to percentage, the less likely for rejection and greater likelihood the
conclusion is correct.

15

Example of mature FinTech ecosystems in Asia that
exhibited strong GDP growth resilience
Digital payments ensured people in quarantine had less disrupted access to
goods and services. Long before COVID-19 struck, China already had the
world’s largest and most developed FinTech ecosystem – the transactions

China

volume of China’s non-bank online payment platforms had reached
approximately US$35 trillion in 2019.
Testament to the pervasiveness of FinTech in the country, local governments
in China have distributed free digital vouchers through online payment
platforms such as Alipay and Wechat Pay to deliver stimulus funds.

Due to its limited medical resources, large population and densely

Vietnam

populated cities, Vietnam implemented a series of strict border restriction
and lockdown measures early at the onset of the pandemic.
Within SEA, Vietnam’s 100 million population places it a close 3rd in size
and is also the 2nd fastest growing FinTech market in the region with a
projected market size of US$18 billion by 2024, having exhibiting strong
FinTech adoption in the years prior to the pandemic.

A much smaller market compared to China and Vietnam, Singapore
nonetheless achieved strong GDP growth resilience rankings given its
position as one of SEA’s most developed FinTech ecosystem – even as the

Singapore

pandemic resulted in a fall in overall FinTech funding globally, the funding
landscape in Singapore has been less volatile. Despite the initial dip in
funding, the investments in FinTech quickly rebounded by the second
quarter of 2020. This is testament to the unrivalled confidence investors and
entrepreneurs have in Singapore as the regional FinTech hub. This
confidence is largely due to active regulatory support, tax treatise, political
stability, adherence to free market economics, and availability of talent.

Countries which fared well in economic resilience adopted different approaches to pandemic prevention.
Some imposed strict measures, while others took a light-touch pandemic strategy. For instance,
Sweden, considered technologically advanced, adopted a light-touch pandemic strategy but has fared
well since. Denmark, too, slowly started re-opening its society and industry by April 2020, mere weeks
after it declared a national lockdown and border closures. Despite the difference, we observed that the
key ingredient to developing resilience economic shocks was to be technologically advance.

16

Other factors’ impact on GDP growth

Economic factors were key to building GDP growth resilience. Countries with better economic
fundamentals or more open economies are associated with higher economic growth during the
pandemic. The domestic credit provided by the banking sector, the last economic factor
considered, however, has a marginally negative impact, suggesting more domestic lending is
counter productive to GDP growth.
The positive impact of having a larger population and the negative impact of an older age structure
imply that countries with larger populations and a younger age structure will recover faster. This is
a reasonable conjecture as larger local populations will support local demand despite global supply
chain disruptions to a certain extent, and aging populations are generally associated with higher
tax burdens on people of working age.
Education has a substantial positive impact. This is not a surprise, given that higher education
levels, which imply better education overall, have traditionally been shown to promote the
rehabilitation of economies.
More urbanized countries are associated with slower GDP recovery. This is consistent with the fact
that cities are densely populated and therefore, often hotspots for spreading the virus.
With the international travel restrictions, countries that relied more heavily on the tourism industry
will invariably see their GDP recover at a slower pace.

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Technologically advanced countries have strong
unemployment rates resilience

Higher educational attainment was an even more influential factor in maintaining
strong resilience against increasing unemployment in most countries. Populations
with higher education was a key factor influencing people’s willingness to get
vaccinated, with those with high education levels more likely to be vaccinated.
Unsurprisingly, the combination of high education and high vaccination rates,
resulted in a faster return to unemployment rates at pre-pandemic levels upon the
relaxation of lockdown measures.
Countries with greater levels of economic development and financial activity, as
measured by the availability of credit from the banking sector, promote
unemployment rate resilience, implying that economic and financial strength during
the pandemic enables countries to avoid severe unemployment.
Countries with stricter laws have stronger labour market resilience to shocks, as
they potentially facilitate a more disciplined business operating environment and
quicker integration in the local economy.

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A SURGING DEMAND FOR FINTECH
Search Volume on a Global Level
The surging demand for FinTech is an unsurprising development given the use of contactless
payment methods are meaningful tools in helping reducing the spread of the virus. That said, how can we
quantify or ascertain this growth? We approach the issue by studying the global trends of Google search
volumes of FinTech-related terms.

P2P and Online Lending
crowdfunding
p2p
online loans
loan apps

peer to peer lending
p2p lending
crowdlending

open bank account online
online bank
online banking
digital banking
mobile banking
open banking

Digital Banking

Mobile Payments
digital money
google pay
mobile wallet
apple pay

Google Search
Word List
Categorized
online trading
robo advisors
regtech

samsung pay qr code
android pay
qr codes
digital wallet
cash app
wallet app
amazon payment
contactless payment
near field communication
fintech
fintech companies
insurtech
financial technology
online investment
trading account

Digital Investments

19

Search Volume on a Global Level
Since 2016, there has been a general increase
in search volume for all four FinTech segments
on a global aggregate level. The first spike was
seen in mid-2018, before dipping back to a
steady state in early 2019. The second spike
was right at the beginning of the pandemic in
early 2020. Unlike in 2018 and 2019 when the
search volume receded, the high volume of
search remained following the 2020 spike.
A further question becomes apparent: is there an equal interest in FinTech across all four segments? To that,
the data suggests that mobile payments is the major category driving demand for FinTech services. Unlike
digital banking, digital investments, and P2P and online lending categories which saw a spike at the onset of
COVID-19 before receding, interest in mobile payments remained at the level of the spike, following a similar
trend to FinTech services generally. This suggests then, that mobile payments is driving the overall
increased interest in FinTech services.

20

On a more granular level, we noticed that while there was a general global increase in interest
as evidenced by the Google search volumes, not all countries exhibited a similar trend.
Some countries and regions exhibited a similar
spikes in Google search volume for Fintechrelated terms to that of the global trend…
– United States
– South Korea
– Singapore
– Malaysia
– Vietnam

… but some others did not exhibit any obvious
surge in the Google search volume at all…
– United Kingdom
– Hong Kong SAR, China
– Indonesia
– Thailand
– Japan

… and some others exhibited similar trends but with a lagged reaction
– Australia
– Canada
– the Philippines

The data further suggests that developing countries and those with underdeveloped FinTech
industries exhibit a higher increase in demand for FinTech services after the outbreak of COVID19. This observation was apparent from the Google search volumes for terms relating to digital
investments, digital banking, and P2P and online lending. However, countries with both
developed and undeveloped FinTech industries exhibited similar rising demand for mobile
payments, perhaps further explaining why mobile payments is the main driver of the persistent
high level of interest in FinTech measured by Google search volume since 2020.

In Southeast Asia in particular, we observed that there was a 50% increase in demand for
FinTech services from 2019 to 2020, coinciding with the outbreak of the pandemic. What is
more telling still, is that interest in mobile payments increased 80% in that same period. This,
therefor indicates that the trend in Southeast Asia is in line with the global trend that mobile
payments is driving overall demand for FinTech services.

21

SEARCH VOLUME – SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Search Volume on Mobile Payment

Indonesia

Malaysia

the Philippines

Thailand

Singapore

Vietnam

Indonesia and Thailand exhibited a steady increase in demand for mobile payments since 2017,
accelerating during the pandemic. Interest has since remained high with no indication of slowing in
both countries.
Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines lagged in comparison, with each country exhibiting a flat level
of interest in mobile payments from 2017, and only exhibiting a significant spike in interest during
the pandemic. While demand has since waned from their peaks, they remain higher than before
the pandemic.
Vietnam exhibited a unique trend, with its first peak in interest for mobile payments sometime in
2018. Interest then dropped as quick as it rose, plateauing between 2018 to 2020, before it once
again saw increasing demand during the pandemic. Interest has since remained high.

22

SEARCH VOLUME – SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Search Volume on Fintech & Digital Investment

Indonesia

Malaysia

the Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

Vietnam

The Philippines and Vietnam exhibited a
general increase in demand for digital
investment services since 2017.

Similar to Malaysia, Thailand also exhibited a
steady demand for digital investment services
prior to the pandemic before seeing a huge
spike in demand during the pandemic.

The other SEA countries, however, exhibited
unique trends. Interest for digital investment
services in Indonesia peaked in 2019 and was
on a downward trend during the pandemic. It
has since steadied at a relatively consistent
level which is higher than that of 2017. In
Malaysia, there was a steady demand for such
services prior to the pandemic but showing a
significant spike during in late 2020. Demand
has since dropped but remains at a higher level
than before the pandemic.

However, the trend in Thailand is different from
that of Malaysia in that while interest dropped
quickly after its peak, demand has bounced
back upwards quickly. Singapore exhibited an
interesting trend, seeing peaks in each of 2018,
2019, and 2020. A cyclical pattern, the interest
for digital investment services probably
coincided with the market performance. Since
the pandemic, however, we have not seen a
similar peak, but instead, a steady increase in
demand over time.

23

SEARCH VOLUME – SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Search Volume on Digital Banking

Indonesia

the Philippines

Malaysia

Singapore

Thailand

Vietnam

Malaysia and the Philippines exhibited a general increase in demand for digital banking services
since 2017, seeing their peak in demand at the onset of the pandemic. While demand has since
dropped slightly from these peaks, they remain at a level higher than before the pandemic.
Indonesia trended differently, with demand for digital banking services peaking in 2019, before
dropping significantly since to a steady level of interest. The pandemic had no discernable
influence in demand. Interest in Vietnam, too, did not appear to be affected by the pandemic.
Thailand and Singapore exhibited spikes in interest at the onset of the pandemic before quickly
tapering off. Singapore, however exhibited a second peak in 2021.

24

SEARCH VOLUME – SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Search Volume on P2P & Online Lending

Malaysia

Indonesia

Singapore

the Philippines

Thailand

Indonesia exhibited a general increase in
demand for P2P and online lending services
since 2017. The Philippines exhibited a similar
trend pre-pandemic, but diverged postpandemic, dropping quickly at the onset of
COVID-19. However, interest has increased
over time.
Malaysia and Singapore exhibited almost
identical trends, with interest in such services
peaking in late 2018 and early 2019. Demand in
both countries, however, has decreased since,

Vietnam

with the pandemic having no discernable
impact on demand either upwards or
downwards. Demand in Thailand, too, did
not appear to be influenced by the pandemic
– instead, interest peaked later in mid 2021.
In Vietnam, interest in these services was
high in 2018. While demand tapered off in
2019, it was on an uptrend when the
pandemic struck,
remained strong.

and

has

generally

25

Conclusion

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, society has returned to a
semblance of normalcy. The virus is relatively under control with the
widespread use of vaccines, and the loss of human life has tapered of
CONCLUSION
tremendously since the peaks of the pandemic. Human liberties once
restricted in the name of social responsibility and virus containment have by
and large since been restored almost to pre-pandemic times – but how
Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, society has returned to a semblance of normalcy. The

have economies fared?

virus is relatively under control with the widespread use of vaccines, and the loss of human life
has tapered off tremendously since the peaks of the pandemic. Human liberties once restricted

answering
this question,
propose
an economic
to
in theIn
name
of social responsibility
andwe
virus
containment
have by andresilience
large sincemeasure
been restored
understand
the times
extent
tohow
which
technological, political, social,
almost
to pre-pandemic
– but
haveeconomic,
economies fared?
and healthcare factors played a role in relation influencing changes in GDP

In answering
we proposed
an in
economic
to understand
the
growth this
andquestion,
unemployment
rates
either aresilience
positivemeasure
or negative
manner.
extent to which economic, technological, political, social, and healthcare factors played a role in

Particularly, FinTech had a significant positive influence on both GDP

influencing changes in GDP growth and unemployment rates in either a positive or negative

growth and unemployment rate resilience. On closer inspection, we observe

manner. Particularly, FinTech had a significant positive influence on both GDP growth and

that mobile
unemployment
rate payments,
resilience. one of the four FinTech industry segments, was the
main driver of the FinTech industry’s significance. It was unsurprising then,
On closer
inspection,
we overall
observedincrease
that mobile
payments,for
one
of the services
four FinTech
industry
that there
was an
in demand
FinTech
because
segments, was the main driver of the FinTech industry’s significance. It was unsurprising then,

of the pandemic – a trend that will potentially continue the rise for years to

that there was an overall increase in demand for FinTech services because of the pandemic – a

come.

trend that will potentially continue the rise for years to come.

26

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