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The Genesis of Fintech

An overview of the history of fintech, its global impact, and the trends shaping the next decade.


Technology and money have been dancing together for centuries, sometimes waltzing, sometimes sprinting. Today we call that dance fintech. But where did it all begin and why does it matter so much to the world? Let’s take a quick trip through its origins, milestones, and what the next decade might bring.


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From Quills to Quick Taps

The roots of fintech stretch far deeper than smartphones or banking apps. Long before “digital” was a word, people were already finding ways to pair technology with finance.

  • In the 18th century, London bankers swapped cheques at informal gatherings, creating the earliest version of clearing houses.

  • By 1853, New York had formalised the clearing house system, standardising how money moved between banks.

  • The transatlantic cable in 1866 shrank oceans to seconds, allowing financial information to travel almost instantly between London and New York.


These may sound analogue compared to PayPal, Revolut or crypto, but they were radical steps towards making money more efficient, secure, and scalable.


When “Fintech” Got Its Name

Fast forward to the early 1990s: Citicorp (today Citigroup) formed the Financial Services Technology Consortium to explore how tech could reshape finance. Internally, it became known as “fintech.” The term stayed low-key for years, but when smartphones and apps entered the scene in the 2010s, fintech suddenly became the buzzword for a global revolution that changed how people engaged with money.


What Is Fintech?

Fintech, short for financial technology, refers to the use of technology to deliver and enhance financial services. It bridges the worlds of finance and innovation, powering everything from payments, lending, and investing to online banking and mobile wallets. Put simply: fintech makes money move faster, smarter, and more accessible than ever before.



Timeline Highlights: The Early Genesis of Fintech

Era

Milestone

Why It Mattered

Early Banking

Cheques & Clearing Houses (17th–18th c.)

The Bank of England used pre-printed forms (~1717), and by the 1770s London bankers met daily to exchange cheques — an analogue precursor to fintech.

Ledger Transfers

Giro systems (medieval Italy, though roots trace back to ancient ledgers)

Value was shifted by book-entry rather than physical currency. A proto-fintech model.

Central Clearing

New York Clearing House (1853)

Standardised and centralised cheque settlements, replacing risky ad hoc runner systems.

Near-Instant Global Info

Transatlantic Cable (1866)

Allowed banks and traders to transmit financial information across the ocean almost instantly.

Electronic Money Transfer

Fedwire (1918)

Enabled transfers over telegraph and Morse code, an early version of wire payments.

First Credit Card

Diners Club (1950)

Launched after Frank McNamara’s “forgotten wallet” moment; the world’s first multipurpose charge card.

Credit Card Era

BankAmericard (1958, later Visa) & AmEx (1958)

Introduced revolving credit and globalised the idea of plastic money.

24/7 Banking

Barclays ATM, London (1967)

The world’s first ATM enabled cash withdrawals outside banking hours.

Automated Clearing

UK BACS (1968), US ACH (1972)

Electronic bulk clearing of payments became possible.

Electronic Stock Market

NASDAQ (1971)

Moved trading from pits to digital quotes.

Secure Bank Comms

SWIFT (1973)

Standardised secure communications between international banks.

First Online Bank

Stanford FCU (1994) & NetBank (1996)

Internet-only banking pioneers paved the way for digital finance.

Digital Payments

PayPal (1998–2001)

Born as Confinity, merged with Musk’s X.com, then became PayPal,  kickstarting the online payments era.

Mobile Money

M-Pesa (Kenya, 2007)

Transformed financial inclusion, bringing banking-by-phone to millions.

App Payments

Venmo (2009), Google Wallet (2011)

Popularised mobile-first, peer-to-peer finance.

Decentralised Finance

Bitcoin (2009)

Introduced blockchain-based currency, fuelling a new era of digital assets.



Why Fintech Is Vital for Global Economies (with Global Examples)

Boosts Efficiency

  • The right technology can shave days off financial processes.

    • Example: In the UK, the Faster Payments Service (launched in 2008) reduced settlement times from three business days to just seconds, enabling individuals and businesses to move money in real time.


Expands Financial Inclusion

  • Fintech brings banking to people who’ve never had access before.

    • Example: In Kenya, M-Pesa (2007) gave millions without bank accounts the ability to send, save, and spend money via mobile phones. Today, it serves over 50 million users across Africa.


Lowers Costs & Barriers

  • Digital-first solutions remove traditional overhead and reduce fees.

    • Example: Revolut and Wise (formerly TransferWise) disrupted costly foreign exchange transfers by offering low-fee, transparent rates—undercutting legacy banks’ expensive remittance services.


Encourages Innovation

  • Fintech creates ecosystems where new financial tools thrive.

    • Example: In China, Ant Group’s Alipay pioneered the concept of the “super app,” seamlessly combining payments, lending, investing, and wealth management into a single platform



What the Next 10 Years Might Hold

  • AI-powered finance: Personalised AI assistants for saving, investing, and borrowing.

  • Invisible payments: Transactions integrated seamlessly into apps, devices, and even cars.

  • Crypto & central bank digital currencies (CBDCs): Wider adoption of blockchain-based money, including central bank-backed currencies.

  • Open Banking & Banking-as-a-Service: APIs enabling third-party innovation atop traditional banks.

  • Emerging markets leapfrogging: Mobile-first finance continuing to scale across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

  • Biometric ID: Face, voice, and fingerprint verification as the standard for secure financial access.


Fun Facts

  • The idea for Diners Club was born at Major’s Cabin Grill in New York in 1950, when Frank McNamara forgot his wallet. His wife covered the bill, and he resolved never to face that embarrassment again. A year later, Diners Club launched the world’s first multipurpose charge card.

  • Before clearing houses, New York banks hired runners to literally carry cheques across town, sometimes in satchels worth millions, until the Clearing House solved the chaos in 1853.

  • The nickname “neobank” wasn’t coined by the banks themselves. It was used by early critics who thought these startups were “wannabe” banks. The name stuck. 


Our next post - Branches of Fintech

This post looked at the genesis of fintech, how we went from handwritten ledgers to Bitcoin. In the next post, we’ll zoom into the branches of fintech: PayTech, InsurTech, Robo-advisers, Open Banking, RegTech, and more.



References

  • Arner, Douglas W., Barberis, Janos, and Buckley, Ross P. The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm? University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law, 2015.

  • McKelvey, Jimmy. The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time. Penguin Random House, 2020.

  • Servon, Lisa. The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

  • Kuo Chuen, David L. (ed.). Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion. Academic Press, 2017.

  • Independent Banker. “The World’s First ATM.” Independent Community Bankers of America, 2017.

  • The Payments Association. “The History of Digital Payments.” 2021.

  • Plaid. “What is a Neobank?” Plaid Blog, 2020.

  • Wired. “PayPal Puts Dough in Your Palm.” Wired, October 1999.

  • New York Clearing House Association. The Operation of the City Clearing House. Yale University Press, 1910.


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