Faten Ben Bouheni

1 Introduction Financial inclusion, according to the concept defined by the World Bank (2022), signifies individuals and businesses having access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs—transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance—delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

Submitted: 10 February 2026 You are already at the latest version We examine the relationship between ESG initiatives and corporate performance using 360 S&P 500 firms from 2010 to 2018. Employing MSCI ESG ratings and controlling for industry and time effects, we find that environmental initiatives positively correlate with profitability (ROA), while gender diversity associates with growth prospects (Tobin's Q).

You are already at the latest version This paper explores the effectiveness of an innovative risk scoring FinTech model to predict the risk appropriate return of short-term credit sales. The risk score serves to mitigate the information asymmetry between the seller of receivables (“Seller”) and the purchaser (“Funder”), at the same time provides opportunity to the Funder to earn returns as well as diversify their portfolio on a risk appropriate basis.