Fintech licences issued yearly remain below 10 on average
Number of fintechs in operation averages just over 60
Central banks approved less than 10 fintech licences over the past 12 months, data from the Fintech Benchmarks 2026 shows.
Nineteen of 34 respondents submitted data on the number of fintech licences issued in the past year, for an average of 8.6 issues. In the 2025 benchmark, respondents from a somewhat different sample reported an average of 8.4 issuances.
In the 2026 benchmark, an upper-middle income central bank from the Americas issued 76 licences, making it the greatest number of issuances
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