Finance tech sees increase in investments across APAC

Investments in financial technology (fintech) across Asia Pacific skyrocketed in 2015 - from about $880 million in all of 2014 to nearly $3.5 billion in just the first nine months of 2015, according to a new report by Accenture. The largest share of 2015 Asia Pacific fintech investment deals were in payments (40 per cent) and lending (25 per cent), which have traditionally been the sole domain of banks.

"We are seeing the convergence of two trends: venture capitalists are clearly signaling fintech is a growth opportunity and simultaneously financial services companies are waking up to the vast opportunities created by the current wave of fintech," says Jon Allaway, senior managing director of Accenture's Financial Services group in ASEAN and executive sponsor of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific. "Financial services institutions are embracing cloud technology, mobile wallets and blockchain to fundamentally redefine their business and operational models. We are seeing this in the increased investments from banks in fintech venture capital funding, incubators and start-ups," says Allaway.