Paper Title
Determinants of Fintech Adoption Among Urban Poor Households: The Role of Financial Literacy and Trust

Abstract
Despite the rapid proliferation of financial technology (Fintech) services across India, their penetration among urban poor households residing in informal settlements remains disproportionately low, raising questions that conventional technology adoption frameworks have been ill-equipped to answer. This study develops and empirically tests a novel integrated framework that combines the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with Trust Theory and Financial Literacy constructs to investigate the determinants of Fintech adoption among low-income urban households in Mumbai's slum clusters. Drawing on primary survey data from 412 respondents across five major informal settlement zones in Mumbai — Dharavi, Kurla, Govandi, Mankhurd, and Chembur — we employ Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine how Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Social Influence (SI), Institutional Trust (IT), and Financial Literacy (FL) interact to shape adoption intention and actual Fintech usage behaviour. Our findings reveal that trust operates not merely as a direct predictor but as a critical mediating variable that amplifies the effect of financial literacy on adoption intention. Social influence, channelled through community networks and peer demonstration, exerts the strongest direct effect on adoption behaviour, underscoring the centrality of relational trust in resource-constrained environments. Financial literacy exhibits a significant positive effect on perceived usefulness but a surprisingly weaker direct effect on adoption intention, suggesting that knowledge alone is insufficient without a corresponding trust infrastructure. Collectively, the model explains 67.4% of the variance in Fintech adoption intention. These findings carry significant implications for financial service marketers, product designers, and policymakers seeking to drive inclusive financial technology adoption in emerging market urban contexts. Keywords - Fintech Adoption; Financial Literacy; Institutional Trust; Perceived Ease of use; Perceived Usefulness; Social Influence; PLS-SEM; Urban Poor; Mumbai; Financial Inclusion; TAM; UTAUT2