Stateside investments in FinTech soared to $9.89 billion during 2014, up from $3.39 billion in 2013, according to a new report by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City. In New York, FinTech deal values grew by 32 per cent in 2014, to a new high of $768 million.

The report, Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation, also shows that global FinTech investment tripled in 2014, to $12.2 billion, from $4.05 billion in 2013. “This past year marked a paradigm shift in how financial services companies approach and embrace FinTech innovation, as they recognise the vast potential that this strong network provides,” says Robert Gach, managing director at Accenture Strategy Capital Markets. “An increasing number of banks and insurers are investing in connecting into the FinTech ecosystem, whether through accelerator or incubator labs, venture investments or in other ways. We believe this explosive growth in FinTech will help drive innovation within some of the world’s largest financial institutions.”

Hot areas in 2014 included payments, lending, trading technologies and wealth management. Payments accounted for the largest number of FinTech deals in the US in 2014, 29 per cent. Strong growth is expected over the next 18 months in blockchain. As a stand-alone technology, it has the potential to help banks, credit card companies and clearinghouses collaborate to create safer, faster accounting and optimise use of capital by reducing counterparty risk and transaction latency, the report notes. Investment in cyber security is also likely to increase significantly in the coming year, especially in light of broad media attention surrounding recent large-scale data breaches.

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