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Asian giants such as China and India will help the region overtake the US as the fintech hub of the world by 2030, with the EU and UK expected to bag the third spot.
Despite fintechs losing on average more than half their value in 2022, analysts believe this to be only a temporary dip in a long-term upwards trajectory that could see the sector become at $1.5trn industry by the end of the decade.
That’s according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and QED Investors, which projects the global fintech sector to grow more than sixfold by 2030. Currently, fintech is valued at $245bn and accounts for 2pc of the $12.5trn in global financial services revenue.
Published last week, the report estimates fintech will make up 7pc of this share by the end of the decade. What’s more, banking fintechs are expected to take centre stage and constitute nearly a quarter of all banking valuations worldwide.
Fintech challenger banks such as Revolut already giving traditional banking a run for its money. In the first half of this year alone, the UK-based neobank has launched Irish IBANs, introduced credit cards and car insurance in Ireland, and even reported its first annual profit.
Meanwhile, other fintech giants in the payments sector have also seen a surge in demand. Irish-founded Stripe, for instance, raised more than $6.5bn in March (even though it halved its $100bn 2021 valuation) and reported it processed more than $800bn in transactions last year.
“The fintech journey is still in its early stages and will continue to revolutionise the financial services industry as we know it,” said Deepak Goyal, BCG managing director and senior partner who co-authored the report.
“Customer experience remains poor. More than half the world’s population remains unbanked or underbanked, and technology continues to unlock new use cases in leaps and bounds. All stakeholders must therefore seize the moment.
“Regulators need to be proactive and lead from the front. Incumbents should partner with fintechs to accelerate their own digital journeys.”
Asia-Pacific to dominate fintech
And while the US certainly dominates the fintech space today, the report has found that the future of the sector lies more towards the East, with the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region expected to overtake the US and become the world’s biggest fintech market by 2030.
The projected compound annual growth rate for APAC is a whopping 27pc, and the report expects this growth to be led by emerging economies in the region such as China, India and Indonesia because of their large fintechs combined with “voluminous underbanked populations”.
Countries like China and India, which together account for more than a third of the world’s population, have a high number of SMEs and a rising tech-savvy youth and middle class, all of which create the perfect breeding ground for fintechs to flourish.
North America, however, won’t be far behind, worth an estimated $520bn by 2030 – unsurprisingly spearheaded by the US. Closer to home, the UK and EU will be the third largest fintech hub in the world, expected to grow around fivefold over 2021 figures.
“Fintech sits within financial services which is a massive, profitable industry, and the opportunity ahead of us to democratise access to these services on a global scale is tremendous,” said Nigel Morris, QED Investors managing partner and co-author of the report.
“We expect to see continued growth not only in developed markets in the US and Europe, but also in developing fintech markets in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the inertia and friction is even greater.
“QED remains more bullish than ever about the future of fintech and its promise to improve the lives of billions of people across the world.”
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