When EY launched the first global EY FinTech Adoption Index in 2015, FinTech was still in its relative infancy. We found that one in seven digitally active consumers were already FinTech users. In 2017, we find that adoption has risen dramatically to one in three.

In 2017, our research includes 20 markets and over 22,000 online interviews, providing a global perspective on FinTech. We now find that on average one in three digitally active consumers use two or more FinTech services. That is significant enough for us to suggest that FinTech has reached early mass adoption.

A common assumption is that FinTech firms struggle to translate innovation and great customer experience into meaningful numbers. In contrast, our findings reflect considerable consumer appetite for new and innovative financial service products that take advantage of new consumer technologies, such as mobile and cloud. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the historically underserved emerging markets, with China and India leading FinTech adoption across our study.

In this report, we lay out our findings from the EY FinTech Adoption Index and also present some fascinating stories of FinTech entrepreneurs who have reached real consumer adoption. We encourage other FinTech firms and traditional financial services companies to consider how these examples, as well as other firms including their own, are driving change and innovation within financial services.

We have observed a host of new FinTech firms, business models and consumer propositions entering the market, including entrepreneurial start-ups, major technology firms, and branchless mobile banking services. We can also see the seeds of the next evolution of financial services, with further FinTech adoption facilitated by the move toward data sharing, open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), biometrics, and the application of artificial intelligence and robotics.

We believe that the financial services industry has considerable unexplored potential, and are excited to continue monitoring how FinTech and financial services evolve in future years. In the meantime, we hope this report provides a holistic view of FinTech adoption around the world, as well as provide insight and inspiration to FinTechs, financial services firms and policymakers alike.