Fintech firms, AI allied for more progress

As artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and blockchain technology sweep across the globe, experts believe that financial technology (fintech) enterprises are entering a new era driven by generative AI and quantum computing, with technological transformation reshaping the financial ecosystem.

The Beijing Frontier Institute of Regulation and Supervision Technology released its Global FinTech Hub Report 2025 on Wednesday during the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2025. The report has been published for nine consecutive years.

According to the 2025 Global Top 50 FinTech Hubs ranking, China accounts for 11 of the top 50 hubs and five of the top 10. The top 10 hubs are Beijing, New York, San Francisco (Silicon Valley), London, Shanghai, Shenzhen (Guangdong province), Hangzhou (Zhejiang province), Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris. Asia continues to lead the global fintech landscape.

Since 2023, with the rapid development of financial technology and changes in the global economic landscape, the competitiveness of global fintech hubs has been shifting. Among the top 50 global fintech hubs, 14 have seen their rankings rise consecutively, half of which are from emerging markets — reflecting their rapid economic growth and increasing financial openness. Hong Kong, the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), and Milan have climbed the rankings for three consecutive years, demonstrating distinctive advantages amid intense market competition.

From the perspective of the fintech sector, China and the United States remain the dominant forces. In the 2025 Top 20 FinTech Industry Hubs ranking, four Chinese mainland cities and Hong Kong are home to 121 listed fintech companies with a combined market capitalization of $375.4 billion, and 328 highly funded unlisted fintech firms that have raised a total of $108.07 billion.

In the 2025 Global Top 20 Fin-Tech Hubs by Ecosystem ranking, those in developed countries occupy 65 percent of the seats, benefiting from more advanced financial and technological environments, abundant high-end talent and mature regulatory experience. Notably, by learning from developed countries' experiences in regulation, research and development, and talent cultivation, four Chinese hubs — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong — entered the top 10 in the ecosystem ranking.

Ben Shenglin, president of the Beijing Frontier Institute of Regulation and Supervision Technology, said that AI is restructuring various models in the financial sector — from customer service to risk management, and from deposit expansion to credit, investment, and investment banking businesses.

AI is no longer just an assistant. In many areas, it has already become truly embedded, Ben said on the sidelines of the Annual Conference of the Global FinTech Hub Network 2025, which is part of the forum.

"For China, which has the world's largest banking system and sizable insurance and securities markets, integrating fintech and AI into financial transformation carries major implications for the economy, consumers and clients — and can serve as a global example," he said.

"Given China's large economic scale, the country has developed world-leading fintech practices driven by its domestic market. Going forward, China should pursue higher-quality opening-up, enabling its successful experiences to reach the world, particularly to contribute to the Global South."

In a keynote speech at the conference, Fan Wenzhong, vice-president of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The era of intelligent finance has a key advantage. It not only reduces transaction costs and enables more people to participate in financial activities, but also lowers information asymmetry, making the world more transparent. We can better distinguish good companies from bad ones, honest individuals from dishonest ones, and solid underlying assets from weak ones."

Fan predicts that future investment decisions will increasingly be made by AI rather than human experts or investment committees, as the efficiency and accuracy of large models will far surpass human capabilities.

"We believe that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the goal of China's financial development will shift from asset scale and institutional quantity to the efficiency of resource allocation and the transparency of the financial system," he said.

"The competitiveness of financial institutions will no longer depend on asset size or branch networks, but on the scale of their databases, the precision of their expert knowledge, the strength of their computing power and the efficiency of their large models."