Steven Zenios“The FinTech industry in India is rapidly expanding, and the adoption rate is growing faster than anticipated. One of the reasons for strong growth is that traditional financial services companies have entered the fray in a big way” said Mahesh Makhija, Partner and Leader of Digital and Emerging Tech at EY. The increased awareness in India is also due to the government’s plan to decrease the amount of paper currency in circulation, it implemented in 2017.
Globally, an average of 89% of consumers are aware of the existence of in-store mobile phone payment platforms and 82% are aware of peer-to-peer payment systems and non-bank money transfers. Availability of these FinTech services is even more accentuated in both India and China with 99.5% of consumers aware of money transfer and mobile payment services.
According to the report, customer expectations have evolved, and traditional banks, insurance providers and wealth managers are switching to digitally accessible and technology-forward services. Among the factors that encouraged or discouraged users from switching to a Fintech service, the report claims, 27% of the respondents chose a Fintech service for its pricing, while 20% chose services that had a simpler process for opening a bank account. In Japan, France and Chile, trust was the main factor for not choosing a FinTech service over banks.
Insurtech services have also expanded rapidly, with an average of nearly half of global consumers using a premium comparison site, feeding information into an insurance-linked smart device or buying products such as peer-to-peer insurance. Meanwhile, people around the world are increasingly willing to use Fintech services from retailers (45%) and telecoms (44%).
“No longer just disrupters, FinTech challengers have grown into sophisticated competitors, with an increasingly global reach. The interactions between challengers, incumbents and players from outside the financial services industry are forming FinTech ecosystems that are replacing traditional bilateral partnerships” adds Makhija.
