Can FinTech Law Help Countries Achieve Their Sustainable Development Goals?

New financial technologies (FinTech) may not represent a new era for sustainable development -- at least not as currently conceived. Many of the gains espoused by the UN and other cheerleaders come from rebranding the online equivalents of traditional savings, investment and tax payment activities. Most of these claims have no supporting evidence, beyond ad hoc anecdotes and stories. Our paper tests the likely effects of FinTech policies on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We find limited support for boosters’ claim that FinTech will help improve developing countries’ SDG scores. Government will still likely pay a determining role in countries’ sustainable development. FinTech will likely have the same U-shaped effect on sustainable development as other policies and practices. Such effects likely will impact on social/environmental goals more than economic ones. We show that abstract and nebulous advice on changing countries’ payments, banking, securities, and others’ laws helps explain why such advice will likely have little effect on promoting financial inclusion, saving, and mobile payments