Chapter 8: Technology and Its Impact on Microfinance

With the advent of technology like blockchains, artificial intelligence, and mobile banking, the domain of microfinance has changed completely. More and more peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and community-based crowdfunding lending programs are making their inroads in microfinancing. Besides that, technology can also be used to improve the coordination and monitoring the microfinance operations in India. This chapter will cite the important case studies such as Drone Didi and Bank Sakhis present in digital gains of Akodara, Jhattipur, and Surakhpur and their role in promoting financial inclusion through microfinance. The theory of technological change and acceptance will be used to highlight the impact of technology in improving the supervision and monitoring of microfinance institutions and community lending programs. This chapter will use the qualitative method of case study to discuss the impact of technology on microfinance. The primary data will be collected by using the semi-structured interview. The secondary data will be collected using the existing published literature. For data collection, the samples will be selected using purposive random sampling. This chapter will explore case studies from Bangladesh, China, India, and European countries of Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Belgium.