Global FinTech Hub Report 2026: Global South rises as technology reshapes city competitiveness

The Global FinTech Hub Report 2026, released on Wednesday at the 2026 Financial Street Forum, shows the Global South playing an increasingly prominent role in the global FinTech landscape. 

Ben Shenglin, president of the Beijing Frontier Institute of Regulation and Supervision Technology, which published the report, said the findings are based on an analysis of 500 leading FinTech companies worldwide.

Payments remain the most crowded track, reflecting their role as a basic function of finance and critical infrastructure for the Global South. China, India, Brazil and Africa are all gaining ground. 

The report divides 50 cities into three tiers: comprehensive global hubs including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, London, New York and Singapore; specialized hubs such as Frankfurt, São Paulo and some Indian cities; and regional hubs like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Lagos.

Technology now carries growing weight in the evaluation framework. "There's no finance without technology, and no entrepreneurship without technology," Ben said, noting that tech capability is essential for companies seeking scale, influence and sustainability.

Cooperation is equally vital. In the AI era, making data "usable but invisible" – protecting privacy and security while unlocking value – especially for cross-border data, is not just a technical issue. 

Ben said Europe and the US offer lessons in governance, model certification and bias handling, while China's advantage lies in applying FinTech and AI more directly to the real economy, with applications deeply embedded in supply chains and consumption scenarios. Greater China-US and China-Europe cooperation, he added, could release even greater energy in the global integration of finance and AI.