In recent decades, the transformative power of information technology, innovation progress, and big data has propelled Fintech services to a central role amongst various financial services. This sustained growth results from rapid financial digitalisation, evolving customer preferences, increasing support from investors and regulators, and significant expansion in the banking sector. Fintechs, with their innovative, customer-centric value propositions and data-driven business models, have revolutionised several areas of financial services. As a result, new markets have emerged, populated by innovative start-ups and tech giants operating alongside traditional banks and insurance companies.

The term ‘Fintech revolution’ is a testament to its disruptive qualities and innovative capabilities that have profoundly altered the financial ecosystem and society. At the core of Fintech, there is a resolute commitment to inclusivity and empowerment, democratising qualities that are reshaping the finance value chain and offering hope for a more sustainable financial evolution. This is a primary need amongst mature and emerging markets that address all three pillars of Sustainability (Environmental, Social and Governance). Making financial services available to larger communities can make Fintechs a catalyser of the sustainability transition. In addition, financial institutions are facing increased pressure from consumers and regulators to adopt transparent decision-making processes. Fintechs can be essential in helping those institutions with their sustainability challenges, as this requires data, statistical models and technology solutions.

The seven papers in the special issue cover various aspects of Fintech and its impact on society, including blockchain, decentralised finance, smart contracts, SME financing, sentiment analysis and surveillance capitalism with applications to big data and complex data structures.

In the general framework of using smart contracts to mitigate climate change impacts, Fernando Alves Silveira and Silvio Parodi de Oliveira Camilo propose blockchain technology for implementing a low-cost infrastructure to foster financial instruments to hedge weather-related losses. Nimbark Hardik focuses on the credit evaluation process of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), which account for a large proportion of economic activity, especially in developing economies; the paper illustrates how the use of digitalisation, soft information and big data is helping to improve SME financing in the financial Indian market. Raphael Auer, Bernhard Haslhofer, Stefan Kitzler Pietro Saggese and Friedhelm Victor focus on Decentralised Finance (DeFi), a new paradigm that is quickly gaining interest in society with respect to traditional centralised financial intermediaries; the paper offers an overview into the overall architecture, the technical primitives, and the financial functionalities of DeFi protocols. Ioana-Florina Coita, Maria Iannario, Alfonso Iodice D’Enza and Codruţa Mare propose a hybrid statistical model for tax compliance to measure common latent traits, given the components of feeling and uncertainty in the response to individual blocks of items in a survey. Ewelina Osowska and Piotr Wójcik use sentiment analysis and some popular and well-established machine learning models to examine the impact of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statements on stock and foreign exchange markets, showing how FOMC is an important predictor to measure financial market reaction after the event. Deborah Miori and Mihai Cucuringu use social network analysis to cluster liquidity takers with equivalent behavioural patterns that can be interpreted regarding trading attributes. Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju, A. S. Aparna, Jency Treesa and N. K. Nikhil study how data-driven business models may influence companies’ future financial performance and ensure sustainable growth with a specific focus on the impact of the power of surveillance capitalism and information technology on the economic growth of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FAANG).

Finally, I wish to thank the Guest Editors who have compiled an amazing set of relevant studies in the field. The insights shared in this special issue will be highly valuable to anyone interested in Fintech, its impact on society and in pursuing sustainable finance targets, from researchers and academics to practitioners and policymakers. I look forward to the new development of this field and the exciting new possibilities that Fintech will bring to the financial industry and society in general.