FinTech by numbers Global investments in FinTech reached
1.8
billion
5
in 2013 – more than tripling the £545 million invested globally in 2008
Deal volume in the UK has been growing at an annualised rate of
74%
since 2008, compared with 27 per cent globally and 13 per cent in Silicon Valley
From 2010 to 2013, the value of FinTech investment in the UK and Ireland increased nearly eightfold to £155 million. The annualised growth rate (51 per cent) was nearly twice the global average (26 per cent) and more than twice that of Silicon Valley (23 per cent)
in 2013,
the UK and Ireland represented more than half (53 per cent) of Europe’s FinTech deals and more than two-thirds of Europe’s FinTech funding (69 per cent)
London has the highest density of start-ups in the world Investment in FinTech leapt 177 per cent in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter last year. First-stage funding rounds increased by an astonishing
1,227% Source: The Boom in Global Fintech Investment, a new growth opportunity for London, Accenture, April 2014, accenture.com
40
THE CITY MAGAZINE | August 2014
technologies that will change everyday banking within the next five years
Chris Skinner fsclub.co.uk / balatroltd.com Chris Skinner is chairman of the Financial Services Club, CEO of Balatro and author of the bestselling book Digital Bank.
T
here are always ideas about the future, and that’s all they are: ideas, but there are some equally darned obvious things that will come true. Much of these are based around technologies, as the embryonic technologies of today are the ubiquitous technologies of tomorrow. It’s just a question of how long? So what are the hot technologies that will change banking between now and the end of the decade? 1. Biometrics Biometric banking has been played around with for years. Back in the 1990s, the Nationwide Building Society had irisrecognition ATMs. However, none of these have taken off yet because they are too tricky, too intrusive and just too unreliable. That’s all about to change. Barclays recently introduced voice biometrics when using mobile banking, while PayPal recently teamed up with Samsung to use fingerprints for payments verification. By the end of the decade, all banking services will be subject to some form of biometric authentication with my personal favourite being Nymi, a wrist strap that uses your heartbeat to open your bank account. 2. Wearables Talking of wrist straps, we will all be wearing technologies soon. Rather than devices, your glasses, watch, handbag and suit will all have some form of intelligence on the internet embedded. In fact, many of these are here today: Google Glass has payments apps available, while Heritage Bank in Australia recently launched a