San Francisco, London and New York are the best FinTech hubs in the world

Further behind are Montevideo (Uruguay), Hangzhou (China) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) which are quickly moving up the rankings. The creators explain: “Two years ago we set ourselves the challenge of investigating where FinTech innovation is taking place. The result was to generate the first global ranking of FinTech ecosystems based on hard data. And an easy way to find out where innovation comes from ”. FinTech spreads around the world and its impact will be to ensure services such as access to financial services for millions of people, offer speed and simplicity at lower costs, grow the ecosystem by fueling innovation in cities and towns. nations, bring economic growth. To enter our rankings, a country or city must host the headquarters of at least 10 privately owned FinTech companies. Despite 15 months of pandemic, 50 new cities and 20 new countries have reached this milestone and debuted in the Index. The Global Fintech Index now covers 264 cities in 83 countries. With over 10,000 cities worldwide, “the 264 ecosystems in our rankings represent only 3% of the entire urban population in the world.” Ten years ago, when private fintech firms began to emerge, it was easy to dismiss them as irrelevant, but the pandemic has shown that digital financial services are critical to the smooth running of an economy. The number of FinTech unicorns went from 61 in April 2020 to 108 a year later, according to CB Insight. The combined valuation more than doubled to $ 440 billion. FinTechs now account for more than 20% of the total value of all technology industry unicorns, up from just 15% a year ago. Dr. Angela Lyons of the University of Illinois used last year’s index. to show how “a country’s level of FinTech development is closely related to improvements in financial inclusion in emerging economies”. In other words, as FinTech solutions develop in a country, “more and more people have access to essential financial services such as bank accounts and the ability to save”. The study found that the availability of financial services “does not necessarily lead to an increase in the demand for and use of these services, especially among vulnerable populations.” Fintechs are an accelerator of inclusion, but not a sufficient condition. “As a survey by our partner, Mambu found this year, consumers expect financial service providers to educate them on the best use of financial products. FinTech’s role as enabler is well understood ”.