Mapping sustainable finance in financial services through bibliometric and systematic literature review

This bibliometric–systematic literature review studies the evolution of sustainable finance research within the financial services sector, focusing mainly on the interconnection of Fintech and digital innovations on sustainable finance. Publications indexed from 2014 to October 31, 2025, were used to analyse 1010 documents extracted from the Scopus database. A Systematic Literature Review of 26 studies ( n = 3010) validates the bibliometric patterns, advancing the literature through a financial service focus, Fintech-ESG integration and coverage through October 2025. Bibliometric methods, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny were used to find the most important authors, institutions, countries, and journals that are shaping the field. These methods were also used to map publication trends, co-authorship and keyword networks. The SLR component in this paper analyses 26 empirical studies. The analysis shows that there are seven main groups of themes: Financial inclusion, Green-finance, ESG performance, Regulation impact, Risk management, Banking Stability and Global synthesis. The reviewed studies indicate that Fintech-ESG correlations are strongest in BRICS policy contexts than in OECD investor frameworks, with evidence suggesting that Banks have the upper hand over SMEs, and these studies show the evolution of methodology from panel regression to advanced tools like EGARCH, GMM, etc. It also points out gaps in the insurance sector and in the use of advanced methodology to analyse how risk changes over time. As a result, the paper proposes a research agenda that calls for more papers to be written regarding the under-addressed topics of insurance and SME finance, as well as the incorporation of highly developed econometric and time-frequency methodology, such as wavelet analysis. The review offers a clear and organised presentation of the major thoughts and new trends in the convergence of sustainable finance, Fintech, and digital innovation. This paper is a manual that will be beneficial to anyone aiming to move sustainable finance in the digital financial world.