By Adelia Rahmawati, Programme Officer and Dr Giulia Ajmone Marsan, Head of Startups and Digital Inclusion: Fintech start-ups are expanding at an exceptional pace, and their role in the global financial system can no longer be overlooked. Their number increased almost fivefold between 2008 and 2024, while market capitalisation doubled between 2019 and 2023. In 2025, global venture funding rebounded to exceed pre-pandemic levels, reaching US$51.8 billion.

Beyond scale, fintech firms have been widely championed for their ability to reach historically underserved communities, including youth, low-income groups, women, and small businesses, placing them at the centre of financial inclusion agendas.

Across emerging markets, this momentum is reinforced by rapid internet expansion and a strong shift towards mobile-first behaviour, driven in part by young and digitally native populations. At the same time, an estimated 1.3 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, representing substantial untapped demand for fintech solutions.

Leading examples of fintech ecosystem development can be found across regions. In Brazil, the central bank launched PIX, a national instant payment system that processed 57 billion transactions in 2024 alone, alongside open banking regulations that promote data sharing and personalised financial services. Together, these initiatives accelerated the growth of Brazil’s fintech ecosystem.

In Africa, Kenya’s M-PESA is a widely cited example of telecom-led fintech innovation, while Egypt and Nigeria illustrate the importance of collaboration with traditional financial institutions. Egypt’s national payment scheme, Meeza, emerged from a partnership between Fawry—the country’s first fintech unicorn—and Banque Misr, one of its oldest banks.

India offers another compelling model through its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), built around Aadhaar digital identity, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and Account Aggregators for secure data exchange. Facilitating around 20 billion transactions per month, UPI is now among the world’s largest payment networks and has been adopted or licensed by countries from Singapore to Peru.

For ASEAN, the lesson is clear: coordinated policies centred on integration, infrastructure, interoperability, and inclusion are essential. Southeast Asia’s fintech landscape is shaped by data-driven super apps offering integrated services, often anchored by proprietary e-wallets. Alongside QR payments and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) models, digital payments lead regional innovation, with gross transaction value reaching US$1.4 trillion in 2025 and projected to rise to US$2.4–2.6 trillion by 2030.

Introduced in 2022, the ASEAN Regional Payment Connectivity (RPC) initiative enables cross-border transactions through standardised QR codes. Eight ASEAN economies are now connected through bilateral QR payment linkages, with expansion underway to partners including Hong Kong, India, and Japan.

Another critical pillar is the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). By advancing a unified and secure digital economy, DEFA supports fintech growth through five key pathways: infrastructure, investment, interoperability, innovation, and inclusion. Its emphasis on digital infrastructure expansion and regulatory alignment is expected to deepen market integration, harmonise cross-border data frameworks, reduce transaction costs, and stimulate investment.

DEFA also promotes collaboration through regulatory sandboxes, pilot programmes, and policy dialogues—an increasingly important mechanism for testing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, which is shaping fintech investment priorities. Crucially, DEFA places strong emphasis on inclusive digital transformation, combining skills development, trust-building mechanisms, and tailored financial products for underserved communities.

These regional initiatives must be complemented by sustained knowledge sharing, technology transfer, and deeper cross-border partnerships. The renewed Memorandum of Understanding on fintech cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore offers a useful illustration, with both countries committing to joint pilots and regulatory sandbox collaboration in digital assets and AI-enabled financial services. While Indonesia records the region’s highest digital payment transaction value, Singapore remains ASEAN’s largest fintech hub due to its progressive ecosystem and focus on frontier technologies.

Fintech holds powerful potential to advance inclusive growth in ASEAN by bringing millions into formal financial systems. Realising this potential, however, will depend on deliberate strategies that promote equitable digital participation, foster competition, support innovation, and strengthen trust—while learning from successful models beyond the region.

This opinion piece was written by Adelia Rahmawati, Programme Officer at ERIA and Dr Giulia Ajmone Marsan, Head of Startups and Digital Inclusion at ERIA. It was published in East Asia Forum.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.