FinTech Report
Highlights | 11 November 2020 FinTech Report

The first part of the report looks at the FinTech ecosystem in Portugal and Spain (Iberia) to shed some light on the size and characteristics of the FinTech market in this geography. The report starts by presenting the Global and European FinTech ecosystems to then dive deeper into the Iberian FinTech ecosystem, containing information regarding sectors, market share and financial data, as well as presentations of the top players from Portugal and Spain and interviews with FinTech’s and financial institutions. The goal of this report is to understand the Iberian FinTech ecosystem and the future of FinTech’s in the region.

The second part of the report analyses the financial system in Africa, where over 60% of the sub-Sharan African adult population is unbanked. The opportunity for FinTech in Africa is immense. African demographics are exploding and the rate of mobile phone penetration is extremely high. FinTech is an opportunity for leapfrogging and closing gaps in several areas. South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria lead sub-Saharan Africa as FinTech hubs, according to the Findexable (2020) FinTech Global Index. Portuguese-speaking African countries have lagged behind most other sub-Saharan African countries. Among these countries, Mozambique has been at the forefront of mobile and online financial innovation – with an enabling regulatory ecosystem. Angola still does not have any mobile money service at work, but there is a growing consensus about the desirability of supporting the introduction of mobile enabled FinTech services. Cape Verde is the Portuguese-speaking African country with the most developed financial system. Paradoxically, there is however no mobile money service available in the country, and movements towards FinTech payment initiatives are not yet formalized.

The Fintech Report is part of the Fintech Initiative of Social Equity Initiative, a partnership between NovaSBE, Banco_BPI and Fundação "la caixa" that aims to promote the social sector in Portugal in the long run, sketching a portrait of the sector and developing research and empowerment programs to support Portuguese social organizations.

Access to the Report here.

More about the Social Equity Initiative, here.

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