The Intersection of Regulation, Innovation, and FinTech in Accelerating Green Finance: Insights from Bangladesh

Abstract

The paper addresses the current situation and discusses the trends of innovation, challenges and opportunities of green finance in Bangladesh, including FinTech, regulation, product development and customers’ awareness. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change and requires a robust green finance plan to ensure that it grows in a sustainable way without dependent heavy reliance on carbon intensive and polluting resources. The study adopted a mixed methods design that consisted of a questionnaire survey of 250 respondents, semi structured interviews with practitioners and a review of secondary data to explore green finance and its challenges. Despite having policies, green finance is not taking off, there is a lack of clarity; products are scarce, awareness low and FinTech solutions are not as advanced as they could be. A multiple linear regression (MLR) found that cost rhetoric (such as regulatory and fiscal incentives) have a significant positive relationship with green finance adoption whereas FinTech and market preparedness have no significant relationship. The main idea of thematic analysis was lack of skills and lack of knowledge about customers. The regression model was found to be significantly significant (F = 2.497, p = 0.023), which implies that regulation and finance have an influence on adoption. As a result, the paper recommends to use coordinated reforms to promote a green transformation in Bangladesh targeting explicit regulation, increased products, awareness creation and facilities. All these changes will be a means to connect the financial system to the Global Sustainable Development Goals and pave the way to inclusive green growth.