Online Lending Tops Asia's Digital Finance Needs
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is driving up the usage of digital financial services in Asia with online lending leading cited as the leading need, according to a survey.
Online financing solutions were cited as the top digital services representing 23 percent of respondents in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and India, according to a report by micro-lending firm Robocash.
In the midst of a pandemic, the need for cash has become increasingly urgent. In the Philippines, Google Trends signaled sustained high demand ever since March 16 due to quarantines in several regions of the country, the report added.
Coronavirus Tailwinds
«The pandemic has drawn the lights to the digital space and the opportunities within,» said Sergey Sedov, founder and CEO of Robocash Group. «Thus, finance sees one of the highest online traffic growths these days. It has smoothed the negative effect on fintech to some extent and granted the industry a chance to show itself to full advantage.»
Overall, 41 percent of respondents claimed to use digital financial services more often since the pandemic began.
Behind online financing, e-commerce (16 percent) ranked second followed by digital payments of bills and other services (13 percent), banking apps (13 percent) and mobile wallets (10 percent).
