and banks are getting increasingly worried

that these rapidly growing upstarts are going to put them out of the business.

Should they be worried?

Yes!

So far, fintech has been just about nibbling around the edges of the banking sector

addressing niche functions, such as making foreign exchange transactions less expensive

or providing bank accounts to people who previously had no access to finance.

Last year, peer-to-peer lenders made 19 billion dollars worth of loans in the US.

But to put that into perspective, a big bank lends more than that amount every month.

So why are banks worried?

Banks have always had a couple of advantages.

They have long-standing relationship with their customers.

The bank is a good place to keep money.

Many people go through their whole life with the same bank，

and they control all the customer data.

But the EU has proposed legislation

that would force the banks to open up their customer data to third parties

if the customer wants them to.

The banks are worried that

under this open banking regime,

they will suffer the same fate as telecom companies.

They would become just utilities.

Moving the money around in the background

while the FinTech startups have the relationship with the customer.

That's why we're seeing them scramble to develop their own fintech products

and to partner with startups.

According to a PwC study,

42 percent of banks now have a joint partnership with a FinTech company.

So far, the banks have kept their FinTech rivals at bay.

But in 2016, global FinTech investment totalled 24.7 billion dollars,

fueled by record venture capital investment of 13.6 billion dollars.

Increasingly, it's the case of beat them, buy them,

or watch them eat your business.