Philippines, Indonesia lead Mobile FinTech Adoption in Southeast Asia

By Gloria Methri

Mobile FinTech penetration in six Southeast Asian countries has tripled since 2019, reaching 49% in May 2024, research from UnaFinancial revealed. The Philippines leads with 63%, followed by Malaysia (55%), Indonesia (49%), Thailand (45%), Singapore (45%) and Vietnam (32%).

The study shows that the mobile FinTech app penetration in Southeast Asia reached 49% in 2024 and is expected to grow to 60% by 2030. The highest levels will be observed in the Philippines (72%), Indonesia (64%) and Malaysia (61%). This is supported by the growing super-platform economy, conducive regulatory frameworks and favourable economic conditions.

“The Philippines’ leadership is due to several factors, including the large share of the unbanked population, regulatory efforts to develop digital financial technologies, a large proportion of the young and tech-savvy population and a growing level of mobile and Internet penetration,” explained a UnaFinancial Analyst.

According to a Kepios analysis, there were 86.98 million internet users in the Philippines in January 2024. The country’s internet penetration rate stood at 73.6% of the total population at the start of the year.

Meanwhile. Indonesia also stands out with the highest growth rate of FinTech users over the past 5 years. As per UnaFinancial, “The level of mobile FinTech app adoption increased from 9% in 2019 to 49% in 2024. Like the Philippines, Indonesia is actively developing FinTech, supported by government efforts and a large share of the unbanked population.”

The leading segments of FinTech apps are digital wallets and payments (35%) and mobile banking (18%). The fastest-growing segment is lending apps, which showed an increase from 1% in 2019 to 5% in 2024. The lowest penetration levels are seen in investing and cryptocurrency trading apps (2% each), likely due to decreased investment activity amid the unstable global economic situation.

FinTech App adoption set to surge by 2030

UnaFinancial expects the share of FinTech app users in Southeast Asia to grow to 60% by the end of 2030. The Philippines will continue to lead with 72%. Indonesia will take second place with 64%, followed by Malaysia (61%), Thailand (50%), Singapore (48%) and Vietnam (41%).

The analysts considered data from data.ai on the number of active users of FinTech applications starting from May 2019. In total, the sample included 8,740 apps (IOS + Android) across six countries in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam).