This article surveys research on the effects of digitalization on access to finance. We focus the review on access through fintech. We review the growth of three main fintech technologies, fintech lending (incl. peer-to-peer lending), crowdfunding and initial coin offerings. We discuss existing evidence on how fintech affects access to finance for firms and investors and consider the regulatory challenges it poses. We incorporate the papers in this special issue, underlining their significant contributions to our understanding of the digitalization of finance and its effects. Finally, we discuss the challenges of research in the digital finance area and propose some new avenues for future research.

本文对数字化对金融获取的影响进行了调查研究。我们将重点放在通过金融科技的访问上。我们回顾了三大主要金融科技技术的增长，即金融科技借贷（包括点对点借贷），众筹和初始代币发行。我们讨论了有关金融科技如何影响企业和投资者获得融资的现有证据，并考虑了金融科技带来的监管挑战。我们将这些论文纳入本期特刊中，强调它们对于我们对金融数字化及其影响的理解做出了重要贡献。最后，我们讨论了数字金融领域研究的挑战，并为将来的研究提出了一些新途径。