China: 2016’s top FinTech destination

  • Tuesday 20 June 2017
  • Asia

Over the course of last year, the Chinese mainland became the top investment destination in financial technology or FinTech.

According to the Citi GPS research report, China accounted for over 50% of total FinTech investments globally just in the first nine months of 2016. China dominates in Asia, accounting for nearly all large FinTech investments, especially in the 50$ million and above size range.  And not only: China was the only major region where FinTech investments increased in 2016, with Europe and US both declining for 38% and 27% respectively.

Out of 27 FinTech billion dollar private companies in the world, eight were born in China.

The Citi GPS report attributes the skyrocketing of the Chinese FinTech investments to a number of factors such as incredibly rapid digitalisation, poorly prepared financial institutions facing off against entrepreneurial ecommerce and social media ecosystems as well as rapid growth in internet users and middle class.

Banks are fighting back by arming themselves with FinTech. In fact, the Bank of China has been working on the utilization of blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data analysis and vein recognition technology in its banking business.