The region’s latest quarterly fintech tally surpassed the US$2 billion raised in North America and about US$500 million in Europe during the same period. The global total was US$5.2 billion over 251 deals.

Signage for Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding. The urgency to prepare regulatory environments for fintech is growing as banks begin offering digital services such as biometric authentication and as mobile-payment systems such as Apple Pay and AliPay are introduced around the region. Photographer: Bloomberg

“Globally, we talk to our clients about being the disruptor, not the disrupted, and we’ve found across Asia, that this isn’t a hard sell to communicate. The big institutions get it,” Piyush Singh, Accenture’s head of financial services business in Asia-Pacific, told the South China Morning Post.


“So it should come as no surprise that Japanese and Chinese firms are investing in the region to improve payment services, peer-to-peer lending and drive efficiencies in the back office.”

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Seven mainland Chinese deals were ranked among Asia’s 10 largest fintech transactions in the second quarter, according to CB Insights.

It should come as no surprise that Japanese and Chinese firms are investing in the region to improve payment services, peer-to-peer lending and drive efficiencies in the back office Piyush Singh, Accenture’s head of financial services business in Asia-Pacific

It estimated fintech investment activity on the mainland reached nearly US$1 billion over 27 deals – the market’s highest number of transactions in the past five quarters.

“The market remains very focused on fintech,” KPMG China partner Egidio Zarella said in a statement.

Asia’s top-ranked fintech deal, however, was the US$1.4 billion investment made in May by Japanese telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp for a minority stake in One97 Communications, the parent of Indian digital payments giant Paytm.

That was followed by the US$292 million Series D, or fourth round, fundraising by mainland peer-to-peer lending platform operator Tuandaiwang in the same month. The backers of this deal were Shanghai-based China Minsheng Investment Group, Beijing Yisheng Innovation Technology and Beihai Hongtai Investment.


Tuandaiwang was valued at US$1.5 billion after that investment round, joining the ranks of the world’s 26 fintech unicorns – start-ups with a US$1 billion valuation.

Tencent Holdings The region’s third-largest fintech deal was the US$145.5 million Series-C funding raised last month by Hong Kong online brokerage firm Futu Securities International. The investment was led by online games titan, which was joined by Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital China.


The mainland is also home to the world’s largest venture-backed fintech unicorn by valuation, according to CB Insights.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company An associate of, Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange, the mainland’s biggest online lender known as Lufax, had an US$18.5 billion valuation as of June 30.