With China playing catchup with the U.S., these 3 charts show the top countries for fintech in 2023

cnbc.com:

From the U.S. to China, countries around the world are battling it out to lead on financial technology, a heavily lucrative industry that has grown over the years taking everything from retail banking to wealth management online.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, thousands of new firms have been set up with the aim of taking on the financial incumbents and providing more accessible services to both consumers and businesses alike.

In the U.K., startups like Monzo and Starling took the banking world by storm with their digital-only offerings, while in China, Alibaba and Tencent launched their own respective mobile wallets, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

In August, CNBC, in partnership with Statista, launched a list of the world's top fintechs. To choose the top global firms, Statista used a rigorous method that evaluated a few key business metrics and fundamentals, including revenue and number of employees.

Statista identified 200 of the top companies globally, across nine categories including neobanking, digital payments, digital assets, digital financial planning, digital wealth management, alternate financing, alternate lending, digital banking solutions, and digital business solutions.

Using additional data provided by Statista, CNBC analyzed the top nations overall when it comes to financial technology, splitting the analysis into three main areas of focus:

So, which countries are at the top of their game when it comes to fintech? In three charts, here's what we found.

The U.S. is home to most valuable financial technology companies in the world in 2023, according to Statista data — but China isn't far behind with mega-payments firms like Tencent and Ant Group making the country a solid second.

The valuation data is up to date