Report says India is about to overtake China’s fintech

At more than twice the global average, China is currently the world leader in fintech service adoption, but current second-place India is expected to surpass its neighbor according to a report by EY (formerly Ernst & Young), a global accounting and consulting firm. This is not something for Chinese fintech firms to be concerned about—because they’re already heavily invested in their counterparts across the Himalayas.

The EY FinTech Adoption Index 2017 covers five categories of fintech: money transfer and payments, borrowing, savings and investment, financial planning, and insurance. The categories are rather broad in the 2017 report. For example, insurance now covers comparison sites for picking premiums. Providers can be start-ups through to maturing firms.

China excels in most categories and has a total adoption rate of 69%, far ahead of India at 52%. Adoption is based on the Rogers’ innovation adoption curve which spans five categories from “brave pioneers” to “early adopters” through to “laggards”. The survey—based on 22,000 interviews across 20 markets—found that 33% of those surveyed have moved from “early adopters” into the “early majority.” The whole world has made progress, but only China and India have moved into the fourth category, “late majority.”

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