Everyday Financial Resilience in Pacific Island Economies: Remittances, Payment Connectivity, and Household Agency

Abstract

Pacific finance is often examined through government balance sheets, climate-finance flows, and public investment. Those lenses 
are important, but they do not explain the financial infrastructure through which households meet daily obligations and recover from disruption. This critical integrative review examines remittances, community risk sharing, financial inclusion, digital payments, correspondent banking, and crossborder payment connectivity in Pacific Island economies. It synthesises peer-reviewed research and verified institutional evidence through a three level framework: household and community finance; domestic financial systems; and international financial connectivity. The review finds that these levels are often studied in isolation, even though households 
experience them as a single chain. Remittances are most useful when they are affordable, rapid, and usable at the receiving end; digital services strengthen resilience only when access, trust, consumer protection, and operational continuity are present; and correspondent banking is a public interest infrastructure because it enables remittances, trade payments, aid flows, and foreign-exchange settlement. The article identifies a Pacific-centred agenda for research and policy that measures usable financial 
capability, examines gendered agency and communal obligations, safeguards payment continuity during shocks, and strengthens proportionate cross-border compliance. The analysis is deliberately separate from sovereign debt, climate finance, or capital-market design. Its concern is the everyday financial infrastructure that supports household dignity, agency, and recovery.