Digital financial infrastructure and SME credit access: Systemic evidence across financial inclusion and economic growth channels

Kalilla Abdullayev, Nataliia Lokhanova, Hanna V. Strokovych, Olena Serhiivna Zhuk, Mkhitar Aslanyan, Oleksiy O. Dzenis, Dina B. Kanagatova

2026

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.21511/imfi.23(3).2026.39
Data confidence 85 high
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractDigital financial infrastructure serves as a key structural correlate of small and medium enterprise (SME) credit availability and systemic financial development across post-Soviet transition economies. This study evaluates the empirical associations between technological connectivity, institutional policy readiness – specifically Digital ID and ISO 20022 standardization – and SME credit access (CreditLine) as the primary outcome of interest, alongside auxiliary supporting analyses of population-level financial inclusion (Ic_Y_norm) and macroeconomic output (lnGDPperCapita). Utilizing a panel dataset for 14 post-Soviet countries from 2011 to 2023 (N = 182) sourced from the World Bank WDI, Global Findex, and official central bank reports, the empirical framework relies on One-Way Country Fixed Effects (FE) specifications with Driscoll–Kraay robust standard errors to account for spatial and temporal dependence, supplemented by a Two-Way Fixed Effects (TWFE) sensitivity analysis. Mobile connectivity demonstrates a positive baseline association with SME credit availability, while internet penetration is identified as a primary empirical correlate of population-level financial inclusion across specifications. The protection of legal rights correlates with enhanced SME credit access, whereas strict AML/CFT compliance shows a strong negative association. Institutional messaging standardization via ISO 20022 exhibits heterogeneous structural differential associations: while positively correlating with SME credit access, it reflects a statistically significant negative association with broader population inclusion. Robustness estimations indicate that exogenous regional shocks (COVID-19, geopolitical conflicts, and energy crises) and macroeconomic slack (inflation, unemployment) correspond to systemic contractions in credit availability.