Written by:
Hirotaka Tanaka for Digital
Business Research Corp.
Recent developments in
technology have introduced dramatic changes to the practice of the accounting
profession. This paper provides a comprehensive review of current developments
in fintech.
General Fintech
Statistics
The nature of fintech leads
analysts to categorize it into two sectors. These are the “fins”, which are
fintech companies with a B2B model, and the “techs”, which are B2C fintech
companies. Fins that offer online lending receive the most funding—42%.
In general, fintech market data
shows growth, though it has encountered a hiccup in 2018. Its growth rate seems
slower than anticipated because any new innovation will always encounter
resistance. There are also concerns about fraud that force industries to update
cybersecurity measures. A movement to blockchain, which decentralizes financial
processes, can beef up security in this sense, though some banking CIOs—77% of
them, according to recent data—are still hesitant in using blockchain
technology.
How much is the fintech industry
worth?
- The global financial services market is
projected to reach $26.5 trillion by 2022. (The Business Research Company,
2020)
- Fintech market share across 48 fintech
unicorns is worth over $187 billion as of the first half of 2019, or
slightly over 1% of the global financial industry. (CB Insights, 2019)
- Fintech reached $55.3 billion in
investments in 2019. To this figure, China contributed a total of $25.5
billion, of which more than half ($14 billion) is from Ant Financial of Alibaba
Group, known for its Alipay mobile payment service. (Accenture, 2018)
- In the first half of 2020, global
fintech investment reached 1,221 deals or a total of $26.5 billion. Many
of the completed deals were carried over from 2019 as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic. (KPMG, 2020)
- Up to 28% of banking and payment
services will be at risk of disruption due to new business models brought
about by fintech. (PwC, 2020)
- Up to 22% of companies in the insurance,
asset, and wealth management sector will be at risk of disruption due to
new business models brought about by fintech. (PwC, 2020)
- Companies that use robotic process
automation for banking tasks see a return on investment of 100% within
three to eight months. (Medium, 2020)
How
much is the fintech industry growing?
- The global fintech market is expected to
grow at a CAGR of 23.58% from 2021 to 2025. (Research and Markets, 2020)
- Artificial intelligence is one of the
leading technologies in the fintech market, with a market share of 38.25%
in 2019. (Research and Markets, 2020)
- Blockchain and regulatory technology
(regtech) are the fastest-growing segments of the fintech industry. (Grand
View Research, 2019) (Transparency Market Research, 2018)
- Blockchain is worth $70 to $75 million
in 2018, with a CAGR of 50% in the next six years. (IndustryArc)
- This puts Blockchain technology on track
for a $20 billion worth by 2024. (Transparency Market Research, 2018)
- Blockchain can cut regtech costs by as
much as $4.6 billion annually. (Quinland and Associates, 2016)
- Regtech is estimated to be worth $120
billion in 2020 with a CAGR of 52.8% (Grand View Research, 2019)
- Peer-to-peer (P2P) or digital lending,
another segment of fintech, is worth $43.16 billion in 2018 and expected
to rise to $567.3 billion in 2026 with a CAGR of 26.6%. (Reports and Data,
2019)
- In a survey, 56% of participants said
that they recognize the importance of blockchain technologies. (PwC, 2020)
- Even if they recognized its importance,
57% of participants said they are unsure about how to respond to blockchain
technologies. (PwC, 2020)
Fintech Market Share by
Region Statistics
Fintech market research shows
that venture capital investment is growing year after year, but investors are
becoming more selective as the industry matures. Recently, as the slight dip in
2018 shows, they point toward choosing to fund fintech companies with a
scalable model and demonstrated revenue, especially those in personal finance,
payments, banking, lending, and insurance sectors.
Some incumbents, like JPMorgan
& Chase Co., Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, are highly active in fintech
funding, but other investors are also looking to inject funds in emerging
fintech solutions like robotic process automation, AI, and machine
learning. Moreover, studies show that the machine learning industry will
be worth $80 million in 2025.
- As of 2021, there are 8,775 fintech
startups in the Americas. (Statista, 2021)
- Asia-Pacific fintech startups were
numbered at 4,765 in 2020. (FinTech Control Tower, 2021)
- Europe, Middle East, and Africa had a
combined total of 7,835 fintech startups in 2020. (FinTech Control Tower,
2021)
- In the United States and Canada, the
biggest fintech segment is digital payment, valued at over $1.2 trillion
in 2021. (Statista, 2021)
- 60% of credit unions and 49% of banks in
the U.S. believe that fintech partnership is important. (Tipalti, 2020)
- Fintech market report in Asia,
particularly China and India, shows that the region has the fastest growth
in fintech consumer adoption. (Bloomberg, 2019)
- In Q2 of 2019, India had 23 VC deals
representing $350 million while China only had eight, but valued at $375
million. (CB Insights, 2019)
- 61% of Chinese SMEs have adopted at
least one fintech service. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- By 2024, mainland China and the U.S.
will account for more than 61% of the global fintech transaction value.
(Statista, 2020)
- Contrast this to the next market, the
United States, with only 23% of their SMEs embracing financial technology
platforms. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- Asia-Pacific regions have a 40% fintech
lending market share. (Reports and Data, 2019)
- In 2021, the value of the fintech credit
in the Asia-Pacific region excluding China is $1.76 billion. (Statista,
2021)
- North America is next, with 28%, Europe
at 27.7%, and ROW at less than 5%. (Reports and Data, 2019)
- Cash is no longer king in China, with
cash ATM withdrawals dropping in 2017. (Bloomberg, 2019)
What are examples of fintech companies?
- PayPal is one of the most well-known
fintech companies, with a transaction volume of $333.8 billion in 2019. (Paypal,
2020)
- Venmo is another, which reached its
first $1 billion transaction volume in January 2016. (Venmo, 2016)
- Stripe is the biggest fintech company in
the United States and one of PayPal’s biggest competitors, worth $22.5
billion. (Forbes, 2019)
- China’s online payment market is
dominated by three services that make up 66% of all digital transactions
made in China (Alipay, Chinapay, and Tenpay), which make up 29%, 19.5%,
and 17.6% of the market, respectively. (Bloomberg, 2019)
- Ant Financial is the biggest fintech
company globally, with an estimated worth of $150 billion in 2020. (CNBC,
2020)
Fintech Consumer
Adoption Statistics
Ernst
& Young’s biennial fintech consumer adoption report shows that consumers
worldwide are adopting fintech services much more quickly than anticipated. The
last report in 2017 predicted that only 52% of consumers worldwide would have
adopted fintech services in 2019, but the estimate proved to be too
conservative as the actual figure overshot it by 12 points.
This,
coupled with the insight that 27% new adopters are concerned with fees and
rates—as they would in any traditional financial institution—suggests
that fintech market size is not only growing but also maturing. The
most telling is the swift adoption of payment gateway service
providers such as Stripe.
- In 2019, 64% of consumers worldwide have
used one or more fintech platforms, up from 33% in 2017. (Ernst &
Young, 2019)
- 96% of global consumers are aware of at
least one fintech service. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- 60% of consumers want to transact
business with financial institutions with a single platform, such as
social media or mobile banking apps. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- COVID-19 spurred the adoption of fintech
such that 73% of Americans view fintech as “the new normal.” (Plaid, 2020)
- 71% of consumers say that they leverage
services of fintech companies such as PayPal or Venmo for payments. (MX
Technologies, 2020)
- 39% of consumers report that the current
pandemic has made them more likely to trust fintech companies for banking
services. (MX Technologies, 2020)
- 52% of U.S. consumers say that
they wish their financial institution would invest more in mobile banking.
(MX Technologies, 2020)
- Although, as of 2019, 25% of global SMEs
have already adopted fintech services for use in banking, financing, and
financial management. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- The biggest market for consumer adoption
of fintech is China (87%) and the lowest is Japan (34%). (Ernst &
Young, 2019)
- The United States’ consumer fintech
adoption is at 46%. (Ernst & Young, 2019)
- The consumer fintech adoption rate for
global money transfers and payments is 75%. (Statista, 2021)
- The adoption rate for banking and
payment SMEs worldwide is 56%. (Statista, 2021)
- One
in three millennials in the U.S. are open to switching banks in the next
90 days. One in three millennials also think that they will not need a
bank in the future. (PwC, 2020)
What are fintech products?
- In the first half of 2019 alone, digital
payment has reached $4.1 trillion. (Statista, 2021)
- A big driver of mobile payment growth is
consumer spending on mobile apps, which is valued at $106 billion in 2018.
(TechCrunch, 2018)
- 75% of global consumers have used at
least one fintech service to pay online or using a mobile application.
(Ernst & Young, 2019)
- 80% of the millennial cohort have used a
smartphone at least once to shop online or pay bills. (NASDAQ, 2017)
- 70% of U.S. consumers say that mobile
banking will represent the future. (MX Technologies, 2020)
- By 2020, it’s estimated that 90% of
mobile users worldwide would have made at least one mobile payment.
(Bluebird)
- Mobile payment services process an
average of $1 billion worth of transactions every day. (Mordor
Intelligence, 2021)
- On average, a consumer using mobile
payment will move $188 a month. (Mordor Intelligence, 2021)
- About 36% of global smartphone users was
expected to use proximity mobile payments in 2019. (eMarketer, 2018)
- 42% of consumers say that since the
pandemic started, they have used mobile banking apps as their primary
banking solution. (MX Technologies, 2020)
- In 2021, it’s estimated that 1 in 2
people in the world will have access to mobile banking. (Juniper Research,
2017)
- P2P lending has processed $9 billion in
payments in 2014. This amount is expected to be close to $1 trillion in
2050. (Statista, 2015)
- There are 54 million P2P lending users
in 2014 in the United States and it was expected to more than double in
2020 to 126 million. (Statista, 2015)
Fintech Blockchain
Statistics
Data in blockchain is practically
immutable, which makes this technology attractive to regtech companies
for KYC solutions, among other things (The Fintech Times, 2018).
Additionally, because financial transactions use a clearing authority to track
and authorize these transactions, widespread adoption of blockchain can make
incumbent financial establishments obsolete. Banks are beginning to invest in
blockchain technology for their processes, particularly in authenticating
digital transactions like mobile payments and remittances and tracing such transactions
with absolute proof of ownership (International Trade Administration, 2016).
- Blockchain’s net value is around $20
billion in 2015, or 0.025% of the world’s $80 trillion GDP. (World
Economic Forum, 2015)
- It’s expected to rise to 10% of the
world’s GDP by 2027. (World Economic Forum, 2015)
- Blockchain investment in 2017 increased
by 79% compared to the previous year. (PwC, 2017)
- 84% of business executives believe that
blockchain technology will eventually become mainstream. (Deloitte, 2018)
- 77% of incumbent financial institutions
plan to use blockchain as part of their core strategy in the next 3–5
years. (PwC, 2019)
- 90% of American and European banks are
investing in blockchain for security. (Fortunly, 2020)
- There is projected funding of over
$425.5 million for blockchain startups in Europe in the next 12 to 18
months. (Crunchbase, 2021)
- Blockchain technology can reduce 30% of
investment banks’ infrastructure costs, or about $8–10 billion.
(Accenture, 2017)
- 40 million users now have a blockchain
wallet as of June 2019, up from 25 million in June 2018. (Mordor
Intelligence, 2021)
- As of January 2021, there have been over
600 million blockchain transactions in total. (Blockchain.com, 2021)
How many bitcoins are there?
- Bitcoin is the world’s first and most
widely adopted cryptocurrency, with a share of 62.42% as of January 2021.
(CoinMarketCap, 2021)
- There are over 8,000 active alternative
cryptocurrencies or “altcoins”. (CoinMarketCap, 2021)
- 17.7 million Bitcoins have been mined,
which leaves only 3.3 million Bitcoins left. (CoinSutra, 2019)
- Bitcoin miners have earned a total of
over $33.7 million as of January 2021. (Blockchain.com, 2021)
- 42% of Bitcoins traded in 2016 was
purchased by Japanese yen (JPY). (BTCWires, 2020)
- 60% of the world’s Bitcoin mining and
50% of the world’s Bitcoin computing power is in China. (CoinShares
Research, 2019)
- Antpool mined 20% of the Bitcoins in
2016 to 2017. (BTCWires, 2020)
- Ethereum has four times more developers
than Bitcoin, with 18% of all open-source crypto developers working in the
system. (Consenys, 2019)