Fintechs generated $504bn over the past year as sector emerges from “reset year”
Global fintech revenue hit a record $504bn as the sector bounced back from a “reset year,” according to the Global Fintech Report 2026, from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and FT Partners.
The rate of growth among fintechs was four times that of incumbents, now accounting for 4% of global financial services revenues.
The report outlined that the fintech sector has become an environment based on new technologies that are reshaping the economics of financial services, resulting in profitable growth, following the 2023/2024 reset which saw lower valuations and funding.
Overall, fintech revenues grew by 22%, led by trading and investments, and deposits, at 38% and 30% year-on-year, respectively.
AI, unsurprisingly, is playing a large role within the sector, sparking a five-fold uplift in developer productivity at fintechs using AI.
Dr Janet Bastiman, chief data scientist at Napier AI, commented: “Fintechs are built on speed, innovation and the ability to solve complex challenges at scale, making them key drivers of economic growth. In financial crime prevention, this is particularly true as criminals are adopting AI tools and automation faster than ever before in order to evolve their tactics.
As the fintech sector continues to expand, it’s crucial that organisations prioritise compliance and risk management to ensure innovation keeps pace with regulation. However, AI alone is not enough. Firms need to be targeted in how they deploy AI technologies, as many organisations are now discovering that broad, general-purpose AI implementations can create significant costs without delivering meaningful value.
The real opportunity lies in purpose-built AI engines designed for specific financial crime and AML use cases, where AI is embedded into the core intelligence and decision-making capabilities rather than layered on top of existing systems. For fintechs without legacy infrastructure challenges, implementing AI-ready AML platforms can help address underlying risks directly while enabling orchestration across customer data, payment processes, KYC and onboarding workflows.
Fintechs that successfully combine technological advancement with robust governance will be best placed to support sustainable growth and protect customers from increasingly sophisticated financial crime.”
The sector’s growth was also marked by $58% in fintech equity funding in 2025, up 53% year-on-year, as investor appetite returned.
In total, the number of fintech IPOs hit 42 last year, up 50% each year.