Two hands with medical gloves handing over a banknote, representing fintech during the corona year of 2020

How 2020 Changed the Fintech Industry – Trends and Developments

What a year… good thing, we have a new one in replacement. 

Last December, when putting together our annual industry recap articles (you can find some of them here if you are in for nostalgia), we could not have guessed that the fintech scene would be on the brink of profound change. Many predictions, fintech and banking experts had made for 2020, did not occur – or did not occur for the reasons that we assumed would provoke them. 

Everything considered, though, the financial industry got off cheaply in 2020, when compared to other industries. Some branches could even step up their game. 

The question now is, if the fintech trends of 2020 will continue in 2021 or if they will “return to form”, once the restrictions in worldwide trade, business and retail loosen again. A look in the rear-view mirror will give us some implications. 

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A world map with a paper ship, symbolizing the world of payment.

Payment Around the World – Part 3

This article was published on April 30, 2019.

But since the payment landscape is constantly evolving, we wrote a new article based on research not available at the time of the creation of this article.

You can read the new article here. Please consult it, if you want an updated overview of payment methods around the world: 

A Voyage Through the World of Payment Methods: How Customers Pay

Enjoy your reading!


Asia, India, the Middle East

Payment around the world – where were we? In the previous articles of this series, we devoted ourselves to different payment landscapes of the globe. And with the trends and challenges, we found there.

But no matter which region we looked at: All of them stood on the verge of digital transformation or have crossed that line. China and the USA press ahead in terms of payment innovation, as we have seen in our second article. In other countries, digital payments are still in the process of taking hold in the populace. The changes they bring have already become apparent. Digital payment services play the role of an equalizer, especially for the unbanked people. Developments in Africa‘s and Latin America’s payment landscape, as detailed in the first article of this series, stand as an example for this.

We will see if those tendencies manifest in the last waypoints of our journey, too. So, let’s move on, shall we?  

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A compass resting on a world map, symbolizing the world of payment

Payment Around the World – Part 2

This article was published on April 15, 2019.

But since the payment landscape is constantly evolving, we wrote a new article based on research not available at the time of the creation of this article.

You can read the new article here. Please consult it, if you want an updated overview of payment methods around the world: 

A Voyage Through the World of Payment Methods: How Customers Pay

Enjoy your reading!


USA, Canada, Australia, China

When exploring the payment preferences of the world, you have to go places. In the first part of our article series, those places were Europe, Russia, Latin America, and Africa.

The takeaway: Hard cash dies hard in many parts of the world like Germany, Hungary, Russia, and Brazil. But digital payment services have taken up the fight. They give new options to emerging countries with vast numbers of unbanked people. Mobile access to finances and digital-only money accounts help integrate the unbanked, so they can become proactive contributors to the financial system.

But it’s a large world with a great number of payment landscapes still waiting to be sketched. In this article, we will take a good look at the clashing fintech forerunners USA and China, as well as Canada and Oceania. So, let’s go!

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A modern globe, symbolizing the world of international payments

Payment Around the World – Part 1

This article was published on March 11, 2019.

But since the payment landscape is constantly evolving, we wrote a new article based on research not available at the time of the creation of this article.

You can read the new article here. Please consult it, if you want an updated overview of payment methods around the world: 

A Voyage Through the World of Payment Methods: How Customers Pay

Enjoy your reading!


Europe, Russia, Latin America, and Africa

Since those times, worldwide payment habits have aligned with each other a bit. But technological disruptions have different impacts in different countries. And the global financial system cannot complain about a lack of disruptive tech.

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