A PACT to Promote Resilience

The role fintechs have played since the COVID-19 pandemic is clear. We have data about the growth of fintechs during the pandemic, on how much capital they have attracted from investors, and many anecdotal stories about how individuals and firms using fintechs have experienced direct benefits from moving to digital solutions. But while there are many stories of the positive relationships between fintechs and their customers during the pandemic, we need data, metrics, and measurement standards to better understand and move the needle on measuring resilience.

This research was conducted to better understand fintechs, their resilience, and the impact they have on the resilience of low-income customers. The result is a proposed framework, PACT, which measures resilience as a combination of abilities and access to resources across four dimensions: Preparedness, Access, Capability, and Ties (Networks). This publication explains each of these four dimensions and how fintechs support customers within them. It concludes with actions that investors, donors, and fintechs can take to support customer outcomes in times of adversity.