Michael R. King is co-director, Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab at Ivey Business School, Western University

According to the search tool Factiva, the term “fintech” appeared close to 90,000 times in the global print media this year versus fewer than 300 in 2007, with many more references on social media. Its usage has actually declined since 2014, suggesting the fintech hype may have peaked.

An influential study by Citigroup reported that fintech investments topped $19-billion (U.S.) in 2015, a tenfold increase from 2010. The consultancy McKinsey & Co. is reportedly tracking more than 2,000 fintech startups, with the global estimate around 12,000. The numbers in Canada are sketchy, but reported to be around 250 and growing. Fintech startups are typically classified by their main business, such as payments (e.g., digital wallets, cryptocurrencies), financing (e.g., peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding), investments (e.g., robo-advisers), insurance (e.g., insurtech) and infrastructure (e.g., blockchain).