Mascots of Ant Financial, the country's leading fintech company, is displayed during the launching of an integrated wealth management app. (Photo : Getty Images)
Five of the 10 spots in the world's leading financial technology (fintech) companies were taken by China, making it a global leader in the financial services sector, based on the annual list compiled by U.K.-based advisory firm KPMG and Australian investment company H2 Ventures, China Daily reported.
Top in the list of the 100 Leading Fintech Innovators 2016, which was released on Monday, Oct. 24, is Ant Financial, which operates China's largest online payment platform Alipay, and four other Chinese companies.
Then Qudian, a student microloan site while Lufax, an Internet-based lending and wealth management platform, was fourth place.
Online insurance business ZhongAn took the fifth place, and JD Finance, a risk management company, is in the 10th place.
Only two companies made it to the top 10 last year: ZhongAn on the top spot and Qufengi, an electronics retailer, in the fourth place. But this year, eight Chinese companies made it to the top 100, while only seven made it to top last year.
Analysts noted that U.K.'s status as the world's leading fintech center is now threatened by China's emergence in the sector, which may be attributed to rising competitiveness from emerging markets and the effect of Brexit to funding. From 18 companies in the top 100, U.K. only got 13 this year, with Atom, a banking app, solely in the top 10, compared to two firms last year.
"The continued dominance of China, which rapidly rose last year to take the top spot, tells only part of the story," Toby Heap, founding partner of H2 Ventures, said. "We are seeing the emergence of exciting fintech players in countries across the world--from India to Israel, from Portugal to the Philippines."
In ranking Fintech companies, four groups of factors are being considered. They are: total capital raised, rate of capital raising, location and degree of sub-industry disruption.
In the first quarter of this year, about $2.4 billion were made by fintech companies in China, which came from venture capital firms in nine deals. This accounts for about 49 percent of the $4.98 billion global investment made in the sector.
In April, Ant Financial, the country's leading fintech company, made a record-breaking $4.5 billion in a fund-raising drive.
