Mapping Fintech and Financial inclusion: trends, themes, and global research networks

Abstract
The relationship between Fintech and Financial inclusion has emerged dramatically in the last five years as this study presents detailed bibliometric research on the interactions between Fintech and financial inclusion. The major goal of this study was to map the intellectual trends, influential work, and current research topics in this fast-developing field. Based on the data obtained from the Scopus database (2020–2025) and processed using VOSviewer, this study elaborates on descriptive, keyword co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling analyses. The most important findings are that there has been immense growth in Fintech-FI research since 2020, and the research is mainly concentrated in China, India, and the USA, where most research and articles have been published. This study identified nine thematic clusters such as decentralized finance and AI in banking and the significance of financial literacy. The fast increase in publication but a gap appears between the number of publications and the number of publications that are impacted, which means that there is still a necessity to make some significant, long-lasting contributions. It would be curious to explore the use of behavioral finance, regional comparisons of the regulatory environment, EFT application in empowering SMEs and embracing ESG, and the significance of ethics in the context of digital finance in improving fair and sound financial systems in the world in future.