Pioneering Perception of Green Fintech in Promoting Sustainable Digital Services Application within Smart Cities

The emergence of fintech has revolutionized the traditional financial landscape, offering fast and efficient services to consumers while reducing costs for financial institutions. With the continuous advancements in technology, the fintech industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, providing greater access to financial services and increasing financial inclusion across the globe. The main question explored in this study was: What is the impact of green Fintech on sustainability and consumer behavior within smart cities? The objectives of this study included analyzing the perceptions of consumers in the Middle East concerning green fintech’s impact on sustainability and examining green fintech policies and initiatives to identify how they shape consumer behavior. The current study employed qualitative methods, where eight participants were sampled and interviewed regarding the topic and six primary articles were sampled and analyzed. The interviews were conducted online, recorded, and later transcribed for analysis. The results show that green fintech promotes sustainability by encouraging companies to invest in renewable energy as a strategy for accessing more funds at lower interest rates. Moreover, green fintech was realized to enhance financial inclusion as small businesses and startups could easily access funding for innovating technologies that promote sustainability. However, a major challenge hindering the extensive adoption of green fintech identified was the limitation imposed by current regulatory framework. A conclusion from this study is that increasing consumer awareness of green fintech products and their benefits can help increase the rate of implementation of sustainable practices in organizations.