Frequently asked fintech questions

The GFI will help the market understand where to focus innovation efforts, position where and in what to invest, and what it takes to build a thriving fintech ecosystem.

It is:

neutral in outlook: a proprietary algorithm creates the ranking that is unvarnished by the Findexable team

real-time: it makes use of open data architectures and data sharing

global: it opens up the ability for comparison and benchmarking between cities, regions, countries and companies against a standard set of metrics and

easy to use digital first: a modern, inviting user experience and interface

The GFI is for:

entrepreneurs and early stage companies – where location influences their chances to succeed and scale

financial institutions – to benchmark centres of innovation, talent, partnerships and growth opportunities

policy makers and regulators – to understand their position as a hub for job creation and innovation – and assessing if their programmes are paying off

investors – to benchmark performance and make better informed funding decisions

educational institutions and trainers to establish gaps in knowledge and talent

For the purposes of launching the world’s first Global Fintech Index we’ve based the index on the definition used by the Financial Stability Board which puts the focus on the impact of the innovation over the underlying technology provider – with the express clarification that the innovation must have a component with the specific aim of changing the way financial services are developed, distributed or accessed.

Definition of Fintech:

“a technologically enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on financial markets and institutions and the provision of financial services”

– Financial Stability Board

Five years of researching the evolution of financial services, culminating in 17 reports, speaking to 100s of industry experts and surveying 15,000 professionals every year revealed the need for a global benchmark to help integrate markets and regions, improve transparency and drive access to progressive financial services. the world’s first index of countries and cities based on the scale of their fintech activity and the development of their local fintech ecosystem.

It’s the first step to what we believe is sorely lacking – a fully working, living record of fintech.

We collate tens of thousands of data points related to cities and integrate the data with analytics tools to determine the average quality of entities per location. Data is verified through alliances with leading insights and strategic partners around the world and through a data governance and validation process.

Data is provided by a consortium of data partners:

StartupBlink, the world’s most comprehensive startup ecosystem map and research centre – 70,000+ member community

Crunchbase, leading platform used by 55m professionals to assess innovative companies globally – 650,000+ web crawlers capturing relevant financial information from news articles, regulatory filings, websites, press releases

SEM Rush, a competitive intelligence solution & award-winning SEO suite used by 4 million marketers globally

Vast network of strategic and insight partners of national government and local agencies, fintech and growth hubs across the world.

The scores are determined by measuring three key criteria:

Quantity – Size of fintech ecosystem and supporting structures – number of fintechs, fintech hubs, co-working spaces, accelerators, global influencers and population (countries only)

Quality – Impact/performance – size and growth of fintechs (eg number of unicorns), investment, events, value generation, international collaboration, website ranking

Environment – ease of doing business, critical mass, regulatory environment – regulatory interventions to improve competitive environment (PSD2, open banking), incentives for start-ups, internet censorship, payment portals, fintech courses