Existing literature examining the impact of digital finance development on corporate operations has overlooked the role of traditional financial institutions’digital transformation or bank fintech in influencing enterprises. This study constructs a digital finance development index for traditional financial institutions at the prefecture-level city level and combines it with foreign direct investment (OFDI) data from A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2019 to investigate the effect of digital finance development on corporate OFDI. Key findings include: (1) Digital finance development significantly enhances corporate OFDI levels. (2) Digital finance enhances banks’credit allocation capabilities. By alleviating corporate financing constraints and boosting total factor productivity, it increases firms’OFDI willingness, with more pronounced effects on private enterprises and those with higher information transparency. (3) Enterprises in eastern regions and manufacturing firms exhibit more pronounced effects from these mechanisms. In summary, enterprises should leverage the digital transformation of traditional financial institutions to fully harness the catalytic role of digital finance in the real economy. This will inject new momentum into foreign direct investment and further advance high-quality corporate“going global”.