RAJESH AGRAWAL, LONDON DEPUTY MAYOR FOR BUSINESS, TO OPEN LONDON FINTECH WEEK 2016

China, Australia & New Zealand see dramatic investment increase over the last 12 months

Newly appointed Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, will officially open London Fintech Week on Monday 18 July. London Mayor Sadiq Khan tasked Rajesh Agrawal, fintech entrepreneur and CEO of Xendpay, with championing London’s interests following the EU referendum and protecting jobs and growth while the negotiation process takes place.

Rajesh Agrawal will appear alongside other key speakers from the political fintech community including:

• Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital and British Treasury’s Special Envoy for Fintech
• Christopher Woolard, Board Member and Director of Strategy and Competition at the Financial Conduct Authority

As part of the conference, taking place from July 18 – 22July at the Grange Hotel, William Garrity Associates Ltd once again releases their annual global fintech investment figures.

This year’s figures from July 2015 – 2016 show that China has seen a surge in fintech investment to the tune of $8.8 billion, a 252% increase on entire investment from 2010 to 2015.

An infographic depicting this year’s investment increase is here.

Other key findings include:

• Australia and New Zealand have seen a 343% surge in investment, moving from a total of $300 million between 2010 and 2015 to $1.36 billion in the last year alone.
• In the last twelve months, China has overtaken the UK, Europe, USA South & USA East in terms of size of fintech investment.
• Whilst the UK remains ahead of Europe in terms of scale ($7.2 billion to $6.8 billion), the increase over the last year is only 33% in comparison to 55% in the rest of Europe.
• Investment by category in year to June 2016, show ‘payments’ and “loans peer to peer lending (P2P) and direct lending” are the biggest area of investments at $5.3 billion each (66% of total investment). Breaking down ‘Loans’ into its constituent parts direct lending is $3.3 billion (21%) and ‘Peer-to-peer lending’ $2 billion (12.3%).
• Loans in total have seen a decrease in investment compared to 2015 (2015 $8bn down to $3.3bn first half 2016 a yearly rate of $6.6bn). This is as a result of institutional investors being more cautious in placing funds on to direct lending and P2P platforms in 2016. Note: investment values include debt funding commitments to loan and P2P platforms. 

Sponsors of Fintech Week 2016 include Lloyds Banking Group, Pinsent Masons, Western Union and Linklaters.

Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor for Business, said: “London Fintech Week is a fantastic annual opportunity to showcase London’s strength in this vital and vibrant sector. As a fintech entrepreneur myself, I know that London is the best place in the world to do business.  Even in these uncertain economic times, fintech shows us that there are real reasons to be confident about London’s future as a global capital of innovation.”

Luis Carranza, founder of Fintech Week said: “Despite the upheaval of the EU referendum, we know that London and its investors have been pivotal to the innovations in fintech that we have seen over recent years and this is at the heart of what Fintech Week is all about. Rajesh Agrawal giving the opening remarks highlights the importance for London’s finance community to pull together and successfully overcome the barriers that have been put in place. The investment forecast shows that areas like China & Australia have seen a dramatic increase in investment, however, London and its investors have been pivotal to the innovations in fintech that we have seen over recent years – and we’re not expecting this to disappear any time soon.”