FinTech, Financial Inclusion, and Economic Development: A Bibliometric Mapping of the Global Research Landscape

Abstract

Financial technology (FinTech) has emerged as a critical enabler for expanding access to formal financial services and for connecting digital transformation to other development outcomes. This study visualizes the knowledge landscape of FinTech, financial inclusion, and economic development on a global level based on 212 Web of Science records from 2020 to 2026. A bibliometric design with performance analysis and science mapping was applied in Biblioshiny/Bibliometrix, with complementary interpretation of country productivity, citation impact, source influence, Bradford source concentration, keyword co-occurrence, thematic mapping and trend topics, multiple correspondence analysis, three-field linkages, and co-citation structure. The publication trajectory reveals a significant rise from 2020 (two records) to 2025 (82 records) followed by a lower number of records for 2026 (due to incomplete publication year). China is the leader in terms of scientific publications and influence, with India, Pakistan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States also in the limelight. The source base is organized both in journals related to sustainability and in journals related to finance, reflecting a highly interdisciplinary literature. The keyword and thematic analyses reveal that financial inclusion and FinTech are the basic organizing concepts, digital finance, sustainable development, innovation, access, and economic growth are the principal connecting themes. Thematic mapping also reveals an environmental-development area of emissions, renewable energy and panel data which suggests that the field is not just about access anymore, but sustainability and macro-development issues. The study provides a refreshed post-2020 map of the FinTech-financial inclusion-development nexus and pinpoints areas of potential future research related to digital inequalities, causal development impacts, institutional quality, vulnerable groups, responsible AI-enabled finance, and cross-country comparability.