Fintech Innovation, Digital Maturity, and Responsible Financial Behaviour: Panel Evidence from Developed and Transition Economies
The active spread of digital financial technologies is changing financial decision-making mechanisms and creating new behavioural risks. At the same time, the issue of combining financial efficiency, responsibility and digital maturity remains insufficiently empirically substantiated. This article aims to assess the impact of fintech innovations on balanced financial behaviour and responsibility at different levels of digitalisation. The research methodology is based on a fixed-effects panel econometric analysis for the period 2020–2024.
The sample covers a group of countries with developed and transitional financial markets. An integral BFRI index has been formed, combining indicators of financial behaviour and responsibility. The key explanatory variables are the indices of fintech innovation and digitalisation, as well as their interaction effect. To ensure the robustness of the estimates, macroeconomic control variables and robust standard errors were employed. The empirical findings indicate a consistent positive impact of fintech innovations on the BFRI level. During the study period, the BFRI index increased from 0.52 to 0.67, reflecting a strengthening of responsible financial behaviour. The fintech innovation coefficient is statistically significant, with the estimated marginal effect ranging from 0.016 at DIGI = -1 to 0.040 at DIGI = +1. The interaction effect confirms that digitalisation significantly amplifies the behavioural impact of fintech. The highest effects were recorded in digitally mature financial systems. The overall conclusions confirm the system-forming role of fintech innovations in transforming financial behaviour. Digital infrastructure is a key catalyst for responsible financial practices. The results are of practical importance for regulatory policy and digital transformation strategies for the financial market.
Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article’s History: Received 27th of July, 2026; Revised form 4th of September, 2026; Accepted 17th of September, 2026; Available online: 30th of September, 2026. Published as research article in the Volume XXI, Fall, Issue 4(94), 2026.
Onyshko, O., Mozharovska, N., Yehorycheva, Torlopov, A., & Vovchenko, O. (2026). Fintech Innovation, Digital Maturity, and Responsible Financial Behaviour: Panel Evidence from Developed and Transition Economies. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Volume XXI, Fall, 4(94), 1109 – 1131. https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.4(94).02
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement: Onyshko, O.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Mozharovska, N.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Yehorycheva, S.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Torlopov, A.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Vovchenko, O.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Acknowledgments/Funding: The authors did not receive financing for the development of this research.
Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Ethical Approval Statement: This study is based exclusively on secondary, country-level aggregate data and did not involve direct interaction with human participants, collection of personal data, or animal subjects. Therefore, ethical approval was not required.
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