FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES: FACTORS OF REGIONAL PENETRATION

Abstract

The socio-economic development of countries and regions in the present and especially in the future will increasingly be determined by the prevalence of financial technologies (mobile banking, fast payment systems, personalized financing, insurance, investment, etc.). The benefits of fintech in the form of increased business activity, economic growth and welfare in general are realized to a greater extent in megacities and in countries with a high standard of living. The problems of developing countries and remote and sparsely populated regions are the low penetration of financial technologies and the growing digital divide. The consideration of fintech development factors showed the predominantly macroeconomic and political nature of the factors of direct impact on the process of spreading innovations in the financial sector. A comparative analysis of median incomes and the share of the population below the poverty line in Russia, a macroregion and a separate region showed their direct and inverse relationship with the level of penetration of financial technologies. Measures are proposed to increase incomes by paying an unconditional basic income to the population of remote villages and ensuring the availability of financial services to the population and businesses in regions with a low level of their development through state subsidies to mobile operators.