Mobile fintech penetration in six Southeast Asian countries has more than tripled since 2019, reaching 49 per cent in May 2024, a recent UnaFinancial research showed.
The Philippines leads with 63 per cent, followed by Malaysia (55 per cent), Indonesia (49 per cent), Thailand (45 per cent), Singapore (45 per cent), and Vietnam (32 per cent).
According to this report, the penetration of mobile fintech apps is expected to grow to 60 per cent by 2030. The highest levels will be observed in the Philippines (72 per cent), Indonesia (64 per cent) and Malaysia (61 per cent).
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“The leadership of the Philippines is due to several factors, including the large share of the unbanked population, regulatory efforts to develop digital financial technologies, a large proportion of the young and tech-savvy population and a growing level of mobile and Internet penetration,” analysts at UnaFinancial explained.
“Indonesia also stands out with the highest growth rate of fintech users over the past five years. The level of mobile fintech app adoption increased from 9 per cent in 2019 to 49 per cent in 2024. Similar to the Philippines, Indonesia is actively developing fintech, supported by government efforts and a large share of the unbanked population,” they added.
The leading segments of fintech apps are digital wallets and payments (35 per cent) and mobile banking (18 per cent). The fastest-growing segment is lending apps, which increased from 1 per cent in 2019 to 5 per cent in 2024.
The lowest penetration levels are seen in investing and cryptocurrency trading apps (2 per cent each), likely due to decreased investment activity amid the unstable global economic situation.
The analysts considered data from data.ai on the number of active users of fintech applications starting in May 2019. In total, the sample included 8,740 apps (iOS + Android) across six Southeast Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam).
Also Read: A new breed of fintech payment is here to slay the game
UnaFinancial is a group of companies developing digital financial solutions across Asia and Europe. Since its foundation, UnaFinancial claims to have served over 14 million clients and granted access to over US$1.5 billion in loans.
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