EY launched the first global EY FinTech Adoption Index in 2015 to study and provide a global perspective on FinTech. The study suggests that FinTech has reached early mass adoption. In contrast to the assumption that FinTech firms struggle to translate innovation and great customer experience into meaningful numbers, the findings reflect considerable consumer appetite for new and innovative financial service products based on technologies such as mobile and cloud.

In 2015 one in seven digitally active consumers were FinTech users. EY found that in 2017, the adoption has risen to one in three. Also, on an average one in three digitally active consumers use two or more FinTech services. In 2017, the study covered 20 markets and over 22,000 online interviews. The 20 markets are Australia, Belgium and Luxembourg (considered as one market for the analysis), Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. China and India are leading FinTech adoption across the study.

The report mentions that FinTech firms have reached a tipping point, and are poised for mainstream adoption across the studied markets. These firms seem to possess a sharp focus on customer proposition and are willing to apply technology in novel ways. Consumers are drawn to FinTech services because propositions are simpler, more convenient, more transparent and more readily personalized. Consumers in turn have started expecting these characteristics in all financial products – in retail banking, wealth management and insurance, and from service providers.

Highlights from the 2017 EY FinTech Adoption Index:

• The first mobile application executed by a computer processor on a mobile device determining that the second mobile application is present on the mobile device;
• Receiving, from a user, permission for the first mobile application to access data from the second mobile application;
• The first mobile application executed by the computer processor requesting data from the second mobile application; and
• The first mobile application receiving the requested data from the second mobile application.