Page 16 - ASSET MANAGER 9 (EN)

16 • IFZ STUDY
FINTECH FROM THE HYPE
TO THE REALITY
The Institute for Financial Services Zug IFZ of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts has conducted a comprehensive survey of the Swiss FinTech market for the third time.
Author: Prof. Dr. Thomas Ankenbrand, Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietrich and Denis Bieri
The study shows that thanks to optimal conditions for the FinTech sector, Switzerland has developed into a leading global FinTech centre, especially es- pecially for blockchain and cryptocurrency compa- nies.
The latest "IFZ FinTech Study 2018" by the Lucerne Uni- versity of Applied Sciences and Arts provides a compre- hensive overview of the Swiss FinTech sector. This shows that the FinTech-industry in this country, as in the previous year, finds very good framework conditions: In a global comparison of 30 cities investigated, Zurich and Geneva are again in second and third place, and only Singapore achieves even higher values. "Switzerland has not yet fully exploited its potential," says Thomas Ankenbrand, head of the study. Above all, it places air in the technological field. The ranking is based on 72 indicators that reflect the framework conditions of the political and legal, economic, social and technological environment.
"Crypto Valley" in Zug is no coincidence
The excellent framework conditions, together with the ac- cumulation of innovative entrepreneurs, the proactive au-
thorities and leading research institutes, have led to the blossoming of the so-called Crypto Valley. This centre al- lows Switzerland to benefit from the global ICO boom: 271 million Swiss Francs were received by FinTech companies here in 2017 through this alternative form of financing (see Figure 1).
However, investments via the traditional form of venture capital also increased significantly in 2017, to a total of around 130 million Swiss Francs.
FinTech companies: Growth and maturity
"The FinTech sector has grown steadily over the last three years," says Thomas Ankenbrand. At the end of 2017, 220 companies were active in this country, which corre- sponds to growth of 16 percent compared to the previ- ous year. The 6 FinTech areas "Analytics", "Banking In- frastructure", "Distributed Ledger Technology", "Deposit & Lending", "Investment Management" and "Payment", which are distinguished in the IFZ study, are distributed fairly evenly. Start-ups have the largest share in the two areas "Investment Management" and "Banking Infrastruc- ture" (see Figure 2).
PROF. DR. ANDREAS
DIETRICH
Member of the Institute Management, Head of Competence Center Financial
Services Management
PROF DR. THOMAS
ANKENBRAND
Head of Competence Center Investments
DENIS BIERI
Researcher Co-worker, PhD student