Nov82022

Innovative fintech companies are driving competition and giving consumers, small businesses, and investors lower-cost, easy-to-use, and transparent alternatives to legacy products. 

Improving Financial Wellbeing 

Fintech helps put American consumers at the center of their finances and manage their money responsibly.

    • Fintech makes it easier for 77% of consumers to pay for their purchases and build better financial habits. [Source: Morning Consult; Harris Poll 2022]
    • Four in ten say they understand their finances better due to fintech, including 58% of budgeting app users. [Source: Harris Poll 2022]
    • Nearly half of fintech users save more than $50 a month on interest and fees [Source: Harris Poll 2021]

Securing High Trust with Users

Trust is high among fintech users. Consumers who know and use fintech brands like and trust them. As awareness of fintech brands increases, trust is on the rise too, particularly among the people using fintech services. 

Fintech is the New Normal

Fintech reached a mass adoption moment because consumers prefer speed, convenience, and transparency. Across demographics and income groups, consumers are turning to fintech companies as a better alternative to manage their money. 

    • 8 in 10 American consumers will use fintech to manage their money in 2022, with younger generations leading the way. [Source: Harris Poll 2022]
    • Fintech adoption rates are equalizing across demographic groups, gender, and income levels, showing that fintech serves all Americans. [Source: Harris Poll 2022]
    • Half of Americans use fintech apps to manage their finances daily, and the average consumer uses three fintech apps. [Source: Harris Poll 2022]
    • Fintech made up the majority of finance app downloads in 2021, accounting for 7 out of ten apps and 77% of downloads. [Source: Data.ai]

Making Money Management Easier 

Consumers use fintech to access preferred financial services like a favorite budgeting app, payment method, investing platform, or early access to their earned wages. Fintech helps people save time and money, make better financial decisions, and reduce stress. 

    • Nine in ten consumers (93%) say they benefit from using fintech tools. [Source: Harris Poll 2022]
    • Fintech saves people time (93%) and money (78%), helps them make better financial decisions (73%), and reduces financial stress (71%). [Source: Fintech Effect 2021]
    • Consumers’ top reason for using fintech: “I want to be able to access my financial information in real-time from anywhere.” [Source: Harris Poll 2022]

Expanding Access to Financial Services

Fintech drives financial inclusion by giving unbanked and underbanked Americans access to low-cost, easy-to-use financial products that help them avoid revolving debt traps and take control of their financial lives. 

    • An estimated 4.5% of Americans were unbanked in 2021, and 14.1 % were underbanked, lacking access to mainstream financial services. [Source: FDIC]
    • During the pandemic, Black-owned businesses were 12% more likely to obtain PPP loans from a fintech lender than a traditional bank. [Source: New York University’s Stern School of Business]
    • Fintech can help mitigate financial health and wealth racial gaps that hamper Black and Latino or Hispanic families’ financial security through product offerings and policies. [Source: Brookings Institute]

Streamlining Payments 

Payment apps and digital wallets are becoming a critical part of consumers’ everyday lives, making it easier and safer to transfer money to friends and family. Transactions that used to be overly complex, manual, or on paper can now happen with the push of a button. 

    • Today, more than three in four Americans use a payment app like PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App. [Source: Pew Research]
    • 61% of consumers say ease of use is a major reason to use payment apps. [Source: Pew Research]
    • Almost half (47%) say they use payment apps because it makes sending money to people safer. [Source: Pew Research]

Helping Everyday Investors Build Wealth

Digital advisory platforms increase access to investment opportunities previously only reserved for the wealthy. They help everyday Americans save for retirement or college, build wealth, and make informed choices about their money. 

    • Fintech investment apps are low-cost compared to legacy advisors, which charge a 1 percent annual fee or require a high minimum balance.  
    • Fintech investment apps are increasingly popular: over 3.5 million Americans used a digital advisor to build wealth. [Source: Insider Intelligence]
    • Fintech makes long-term planning more accessible, with more than half of consumers starting to invest for the first time with a digital app (53%). [Source: Harris Poll 2022]

Helping Small Businesses Succeed

Small businesses are the engine of the American economy. Yet, many lack access to the capital and financial tools they need to start and grow their businesses. Fintech fills the gaps by extending access to capital and arming small businesses with powerful tools.

    • Fintech underwriting helps extend credit to small businesses who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for loans, and often at lower rates than traditional credit options. [Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia]
    • Fintech lending reached 20% of all PPP loan amounts, serving as the third-largest source of loans approved. [Source: NY Fed; SBA]
    • Fintech arms small businesses with the financial tools for success, including low-cost banking services, digital accounting services, and better benefits packages for employees. 

Fintech helps small businesses attract new customers on e-commerce sites and give customers access to their preferred payment method to shop online or on the go. 

    • Financial services embedded into e-commerce platforms accounted for $2.6 trillion, or nearly 5%, of total US financial transactions in 2021, and by 2026 will exceed $7 trillion.  [Source: Bain]
    • More than 35 million businesses use PayPal’s platform to accept or process payments. Millions of active sellers use the Square app to process payments. [Source: PayPal; Square]
    • 51% of customers are more likely to complete a purchase if buy now, pay later methods are offered, a service liked and trusted by 83% of users. [Source: Stripe; Morning Consult]
    • Small businesses offering Buy Now Pay Later payment options to accrue billions of dollars in net benefits driven by new sales [Source: Accenture]
Download the fintech impact report