there are now 22 FinTech companies
around the world that are worth more
than a billion dollars and banks are
getting increasingly worried that these
rapidly growing upstarts are going to
put them out of business should they be
worried yes so far FinTech has been just
about nibbling around the edges of the
banking sector addressing niche
functions such as making foreign
exchange transactions less expensive or
providing bank accounts to people who
previously had no access to finance last
year a peer-to-peer lenders made 19
billion dollars worth of loans in the US
but to put that into perspective a big
bank lends more than that amount every
month so why are banks worried banks
have always had a couple of advantages
they have long-standing relationships
with their customers the bank is a good
place to keep money many people go
through their whole life with the same
bank and they control all the customer
data but the EU has proposed legislation
that would force the banks to open up
their customer data to third parties if
the customer wants them to the banks are
worried that under this open banking
regime they will suffer the same fate of
telecoms companies they would become
just utilities moving the money around
in the background while the FinTech
startups have the relationship with the
customer that's why we're seeing them
scrambled to develop their own FinTech
products and to partner with startups
according to a PwC study 42% of banks
now have a joint partnership with a fin
tech company so far the banks have kept
their fin tech rivals at bay but in 2016
global fin tech investment total twenty
four point seven billion dollars fuelled
by record venture capital investment of
thirteen point six billion dollars
increasingly it's a case of beat them by
them or watch them eat your business
you