Neobanks and digital asset businesses have become key growth drivers for fintech companies, which have reported record profitability with average EBITDA margins of 20%, and 74% of major public players reported profits in 2025, according to a new report.
Summary
- Fintech revenues surpassed $500 billion in 2025, with digital assets, AI adoption and the expansion of financial services helping to fuel the sector’s growth.
- Major neobanks are moving into lending, wealth management, insurance and cross-border payments, increasing competition with traditional banks.
- Fintech companies made more acquisitions than banks in 2025, with digital assets, compliance and AI becoming the main drivers of deals.
According to the Global Fintech Report 2026, published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and FT Partners, fintech revenues surpassed $500 billion last year following growth of 22%, a pace that the report said was more than four times faster than that of traditional financial institutions.
Drawing on data from BCG’s FinTech Control Tower platform, executive interviews and market research, the report says the sector’s recovery has been driven by operational performance rather than easy access to capital.
New investor interest accompanied this improvement. BCG and FT Partners reported that fintech companies attracted $58 billion in equity funding in 2025, an increase of 53% from the previous year. Exit activity also accelerated, with fintech IPOs increasing 50% to 42 deals, while annual M&A volume increased from $105 billion in 2023 to $251 billion in 2025.
Digital assets and AI emerge as key battlegrounds for growth
Beyond payments and lending, the report identifies digital assets as one of the areas increasingly attracting strategic attention from fintech acquirers. According to BCG and FT Partners, companies are turning to acquisitions to strengthen their capabilities in digital assets, artificial intelligence and compliance, as competition intensifies and internal development timelines become less practical.
M&A activity has also taken on a different character. The report finds that large fintech companies made 659 acquisitions in 2025, surpassing the 589 deals made by banks and other incumbents. Outside of 2023, BCG and FT Partners said this is the first time fintech buyers have outpaced traditional financial institutions in trading.
Artificial intelligence is also becoming a differentiator in the sector. BCG’s analysis found that fintech companies using AI effectively achieved up to five times higher developer productivity, with notable gains across engineering, underwriting, compliance and customer support functions. The report indicates that the most compelling results come from redesigning workflows around AI rather than simply deploying new tools.
Neobanks are expanding beyond their original strategy
Elsewhere in the report, BCG and FT Partners highlighted the evolution of neobanks as one of the most important developments that will shape the next phase of the sector. The companies said leading digital banks are moving beyond payments and customer acquisition to create multi-product financial platforms.
Wealth management, insurance, lending, investments and cross-border payments have become key areas of expansion. Consumer credit, in particular, was identified by the report as a major opportunity as it allows neobanks to deepen their customer relationships while applying alternative underwriting approaches.
Across Europe, the report notes that several leading neobanks have added investment services, trading products and mortgage offerings. In Latin America, expansion has focused on credit products and personal loans in several markets.
In the United States, the situation remains more difficult. According to BCG and FT Partners, high customer acquisition costs, a fragmented regulatory structure, established incumbent banks and a heavily banked population make large-scale disruption difficult for foreign entrants.
As a result, the report concludes that foreign neobanks are more likely to succeed in targeted market segments than through broad expansion across the country. Domestic fintech companies, meanwhile, are preparing for increased competition by targeting higher value-added customer segments.
Regulatory developments are also becoming increasingly important for growth strategies. BCG and FT Partners said the gap between banking and fintech regulation is narrowing in the US, UK and EU, with licensing and chartering pathways becoming more accessible despite ongoing compliance requirements.
The report notes that a growing number of fintech companies have sought U.S. federal banking charters to gain financing advantages, increase control over product offerings and take direct ownership of customer relationships.
“Fintech has not just bounced back from the years of reset, it has come out the other side as a fundamentally more mature industry,” – Inderpreet Batra, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG and global leader of the company’s Payments and Fintech business.
Batra said leading companies in the sector now combine profitability with expansion into new products and markets.
Looking at the current state of the industry, BCG and FT Partners estimate that fintech now represents around 4% of global financial services revenues.
