Articles

UPI and Consumer Spending Behaviour in India: A Narrative Synthesis of Secondary Data and Existing Survey Evidence

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The system with annual processing of over 24,000 crore transactions and making up a significant proportion of real-time global payments. Despite the existence of many studies on the factors contributing to UPI adoption, little academic scrutiny has been directed towards how UPI usage, which is effortless and invisible, relates to the psychological and behavioral aspects of consumer behavior. In this regard, this paper presents a narrative synthesis of the connection between UPI usage and consumer behavior in India, drawing on secondary data sources based on official transactional level records (NPCI, RBI, PIB) and a review of five earlier survey studies conducted between 2024 and 2025, involving over 800 participants in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and India-wide surveys. The discussion is grounded in concepts from behavioral finance, especially the ‘pain of paying’ theory and mental accounting, along with technological adoption theories including UTAUT and Diffusion of Innovation theory. The results demonstrate a clear trend Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which came to fruition in 2016 under the aegis of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has become the bedrock of India’s retail payments among independent research studies where usage of UPI has been shown to be associated with greater transaction volumes, reduced average ticket value, and an admitted rise in expenditure by the majority of users, especially among young and tech-savvy users in cities, although the extent of this trend differs from study to study (from 58 percent to over 74 percent of those who admit increased expenditure). The paper ends with some policy recommendations for regulators, banks, and fintech developers regarding the trade-off between the benefits of financial inclusion and the dangers of overspending and lack of savings discipline.

Impact of FinTech Adoption on Financial Inclusion among Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka: A Mediated Moderation Analysis of Digital Financial Literacy and Perceived Regulatory Support

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Despite the increasing number of available digital financial technologies, the financial inclusion of Small and Medium Enterprises has remained a problem in developing countries, including Sri Lanka. Based on this, the paper assesses various factors influencing the adoption of FinTech as per the Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Security, and Trust on the financial inclusion of SMEs in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka, as well as the moderating effects from Digital Financial Literacy and Perceived Regulatory Support. The sample comprised 160 SME owners and managers who were purposively selected to ensure their prior knowledge of FinTech services. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection, while descriptive statistics, correlation, regression analysis, and PROCESS macro for mediation and moderation were performed. The results indicated that all the factors that influence FinTech adoption have a positive significant effect on SMEs financial inclusion: PEOU (β = 0.253, p < 0.01), PU (β = 0.167, p < 0.01), PS (β = 0.422, p < 0.01), and T (β = 0.167, p < 0.01). Nonetheless, DFL at 95% CI = –0.3817 to –0.0309 with an effect = –0.2097 did not have any significant moderating effect, as did PRS, β = –0.0466, p = 0.119. The study concludes that FinTech adoption is indeed a strong driver of financial inclusion, and neither the perceptions of regulatory support nor DFL significantly alter this relationship either positively or negatively. Practical implications of the findings are addressed to the FinTech providers, regulators, and managers of SMEs, since they will be capable of devising friendly and safe digital financial solutions, and further engage the less-than-fully-engaged FinTech platform users, thus pushing the needle on financial inclusion in underbanked areas forward.

Empowering Women through Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion: Lesson Learned From Pandemic Impact

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This study examines the impact of financial literacy and financial inclusion on women’s empowerment, since it is crucial for gender equality and sustainable development. This research method involves collecting primary data through questionnaires distributed to a sample of housewives who live in West Java. Secondary data is also used to support the analysis. Variables analyzed include women’s financial literacy, planning, decision-making, crisis, financial inclusion, and women empowerment. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings will shed light on the role of financial literacy and inclusion in women’s empowerment, aiding policy efforts to enhance access to financial services and increase women’s economic participation.

E-Wallet Application Penetration for Financial Inclusion in Indonesia

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Indonesia is an archipelago country with more than 270 million inhabitants spread across urban and rural regions. This makes digital payment penetration a challenge in itself. Private and government e-wallet service providers have sought to increase the use of cashless services to address structural deficiencies in the country’s economy, such as poor financial inclusion and heavy reliance on manual remittances. This study discusses penetration problems that occur in the e-wallet industry and formulates the strategy so that the use of digital payment platforms can be carried out evenly in all regions of Indonesia. This study notes that technology enablement such as smartphone and internet penetration does not correlate with e-wallet penetration. Many underlying factors affect the penetration, such as key driving forces, infrastructure readiness, and people’s perception of the safety and security of mobile transactions. Bank Indonesia and e-wallet providers are responsible to educate people about the advantages along with possible risks of adopting e-wallet as a non-cash payment method.