Financial Literacy in the FinTech Era: A Study of Scheduled Tribes in Kerala

Abstract

Financial technology (Fintech) is revolutionising the banking and finance sector at an inimitable pace. The concept of market and consumer has shifted dramatically to a new level as technology emerged in financial services industry. However, such service is not familiar among the marginalised people as it involves technology and cost. Scheduled tribes in India have been viewed as the most distraught social group subject to age-old financial and social hardships. Financial literacy on financial services has been shown to be a crucial factor in making effective decisions and choices regarding finance. This paper tries to examine both overall and category wise financial literacy of scheduled tribes in Kerala with special emphasis on gender. It uses primary data of 393 tribal respondents from seven tribal communities across the most three tribally populated districts. It observed that, there are disarrays in the use of fintech services among tribes.  The tribal community has not been able to find satisfactory literacy in fintech services. But they have a healthy knowledge on other basic financial and banking services, and women often outperform men in this regard

Keywords: Financial literacy, Fintech, Financial Services, Banking Services, Tribes.