Microfinance has long been seen as a remedy for global poverty, although it has had mixed success, as the literature demonstrates. While poverty remains, with the introduction of digital technology and the relaxation, in many areas, of the regulations controlling banking following the financial crisis of 2008, innovations in the financial services sector, known as fintech, could have a significant impact. This article examines the research literature on the topic and provides a case study from Egypt before making recommendations on policy change, and how fintech and microfinance might develop if they are to have an impact on poverty both globally and within Egypt.

Adam, H. (2021) ‘Fintech and entrepreneurship boosting in developing countries: a comparative study of India and Egypt’. In M.A. Abdalmuttaleb and M. Al-Sartawi (eds), The Big Data-Driven Digital Economy: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, pp. 141–56, Springer.

Ajzen, I. (1991) ‘The theory of planned behaviour’, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes 50: 179–211 <https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T>.

Amer, D.W., Barberis, J. and Buckley, R.P. (2018) ‘The evolution of fintech: a new post-crisis paradigm’, Georgetown Journal of International Law 47(4): 1271–319.

Annim, S.K. (2018) ‘Outreach and the poverty reducing effect of microfinance in Ghana’, Enterprise Development and Microfinance 29(2): 145–71 <https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.17-00020>.

Apiah-Otoo, I. and Song, N. (2021) ‘The impact of fintech on poverty reduction: evidence from China’, Sustainability 13: 5225 <https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095225>.

Ashan, M. (2020) ‘Entrepreneurship and ethics in the sharing economy: a critical perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics 161(10): 19–33 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3975-2>.

Banerjee, S.B. and Jackson, L. (2017) ‘Microfinance and the business of poverty reduction: critical perspectives from rural Bangladesh’, Human Relations 70(1): 63–91 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726716640865>.

Bateman, M., Duvendack, M. and Loubere, N. (2019) ‘Is fin-tech the new panacea for poverty alleviation and local development? Contesting Suri and Jack’s M-Pesa findings published in Science’, Review of African Political Economy 46(161): 480–95 <https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2019.1614552>.

Carse, D. (1999) ‘Keynote speech: the regulatory framework of e-banking’, presented at the Symposium on Applied R&D: Enhancing Global Competitiveness in the Next Millennium, 8 October 1999 [pdf] <https://www.bis.org/review/r991012c.pdf> [accessed 28 February 2022].

Dan, T.T. and Vu, H.Q. (2020) ‘Fintech in microfinance: a new direction for microfinance institutions in Vietnam’, Journal of Business Economics and Environmental Studies 10(3): 13–22 <https://doi.org/10.13106/jbees.2020.vol10.no3.13>.

Dimble, V. and Mubarak, A.M. (2019) Saving Microfinance through Innovative Lending, Growth Brief, 13 March, International Growth Centre, London.

Ehrentraud, J., Ocampo, D.G., Garzoni, L. and Piccolo, M. (2020) Policy Responses to Fintech: A Cross-country Overview, Financial Stability Institute FSI Insights on Policy Implementation No. 23, Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland.

El-Hadidi, H. (2016) ‘Microfinance and its role in women empowerment’, Arab Journal of Administration 36(4): 377–92 <https://doi.org/10.21608/aja.2016.17865>.

El-Hadidi, H. (2018a) ‘The impact of microfinance on poverty reduction in Egypt: an empirical study’, Enterprise Development and Microfinance 29(2): 172–81 <https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.16-00033>.

El-Hadidi, H. (2018b) ‘Impact of micro finance on entrepreneurial development: the case of Egypt’, International Journal of Business and Social Science 9(9): 68–76 <https://doi.org/10.30845/ijbss.v9n9p7>.

El-Hadidi, H. and Kirby, D.A. (2019) University Technology Transfer in a Factor-driven Economy: Egypt, Lambert Academic Publishing, Chisinau, Moldova.

Elkington, J. (1999) Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, Capstone, Oxford.

Etzkowitz, H. (2003) ‘Innovation in innovation: the triple helix of university-industry-government relations’, Social Science Information 42(2): 151–60 <https://doi.org/10.1177/05390184030423002>.

Farghly, B., Saleh, A., Youssef, A. and Barry, A.A. (2018) ‘The impact of microfinance on sustainable growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs): an empirical study on Egypt’, The Business and Management Review 9(4): 420–30.

Friedman, M. (1970) ‘The social and ethical responsibility of business is to increase its profits’, New York Times, 13 September.

Hickel, J. (2016) ‘The true extent of global poverty and hunger: questioning the good news narrative of the Millennium Development Goals’, Third World Quarterly 37(5): 749–67 <https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1109439>.

Hussein, H. (2020) ‘The impact of financial technology on financial inclusion: the case of Egypt’, IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance 11(6): 35–51.

Iqbal, F. and Riad, N. (2004) ‘Commercial microfinance in Egypt: the case of the National Bank for Development’, paper presented at the Scaling Up Poverty Reduction: A Global Learning Process and Conference, Shanghai, 25–27 May 2004.

Irhoumah, A.H., Ayedh, A.M. and Echchabi, A. (2020) ‘Determinants of microfinance factors affecting women’s empowerment: evidence from Egypt’, FWU Journal of Social Sciences 14(4): 1–11 <https://doi.org/10.51709/FW12721>.

Jones, L. (2018) ‘Guest editorial: poverty reduction in the fintech age’, Enterprise Development and Microfinance 29(2): 99–102 <https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2018.29-2.ED>.

Kamel, S. and Ismail, A. (2013) ‘EIP@AUC: a case study of a university-centred entrepreneurship eco-system in Egypt’, paper presented at the ICIE 2013 International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Amman, Jordan, 4–5 March 2013.

Meager, R. (2019) ‘Understanding the average impact of microcredit’, Micro Economic Insights, 17 July [online] <https://microeconomicinsights.org/understanding-the-average-impact-of-microcredit/> [accessed 28 February 2022].

Murdoch, J. and Haley, B. (2002) Analysis of the Effects of Microfinance on Poverty Reduction, NYU Wagner Working Paper No. 1014, New York University.

Nisser, A.H.I. and Ayedh, A.M.A. (2017) ‘Microfinance and women’s empowerment in Egypt’, International Journal of Business and Economic Affairs 2(1): 52–8 <https://doi.org/10.24088/IJBEA-2017-21007>.

Philip, D. and Rayhan, M.I. (2004) Vulnerability and Poverty: What Are the Causes and How Are they Related? Centre for Development Research, Universitat Bonn.

Rasmussen, E. and Rice, M.P. (2012) ‘A framework for government support mechanisms aimed at enhancing university technology transfer: the Norwegian case’, International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation 11(1/2): 1–25 <https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTTC.2012.043934>.

Santosdiaz, R. (2020) ‘Egypt’s new banking laws’, The Fintech Times, 11 October [online] <https://thefintechtimes.com/egypts-new-banking-laws/> [accessed 28 February 2022].

Schueffel, P. (2016) ‘Taming the beast: a scientific definition of fintech’, Journal of Innovation Management 4(4): 32–54 <https://doi.org/10.24840/2183-0606_004.004_0004>.

Suri, T. and Jack, W. (2016) ‘The long run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money’, Science 354(6317): 1288–92 <https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309>.

Von Bertalanffy, L. (2015) General Systems Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications, George Braziller, New York.

Williams, A., Kennedy, S., Philippine, F. and Whitman, G. (2017) ‘System thinking: a review of sustainability management research’, Journal of Cleaner Production 148: 866–81 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.02.002>.