Fintechs are still largely unknown: a study by Asufin shows that only 32% know about them, although the percentage is higher among young people.

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Fintechs in recent years have been trying to find their place on the financial game board. But they are still not as well known as the traditional banking giants. A study by the consumer association Asufin accessed by Business Insider Spain shows that only 32% know about fintech activity.

That means that almost 7 out of 10 people do not know about this alternative to traditional banking.

"They are very unknown," explains Patricia Suárez, president of Asufin, who assures that many of the new technological functionalities reach the majority through the innovations of banks, as in the case of aggregators or payment systems, with the outstanding example of Bizum, the alliance of banks to create a solution for small payments just by knowing the recipient's mobile number.

Payments are precisely the activity most used by fintech users. "If we look at the services specifically offered by Fintechs, those that facilitate payments and transfers, such as those offered by firms like PayPal or Transferwise (with multi-currencies) are the most widely used, with a percentage that rises to 89%," they conclude in their report.

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Behind this activity are finance aggregators, with 38%, financial product comparators with 26%, cryptocurrency platforms (25.9%), and neobanks (25.1%).

"Banks are the known. It is the fear of the unknown, but little by little they will be introduced," Suárez points out.

38.5% of young people between 18 and 25 years of age use them.

The results of the study show a digital divide in the financial field, which means that it is in the youngest segment where these new financial platforms are taking off.

Among young people between 18 and 25 years old, 38.5% of them use fintechs. This is the highest percentage of all age groups. Among those under 55, the percentage is around 30%.

But, as we move up in age, usage decreases. In the over-65 age bracket, only 19.9% know about and use fintech; while in the 55-65 age range, 25% do.

"In general, they are more digitized, although they are not more financially educated," explains Suárez when talking about the reasons why young people use them more, who explains that in some cases younger people start using them who then explain it to other generations.

Suárez considers that these innovations are reaching the population more through banks or big technology companies such as Google than through fintechs.

However, what is important, explains the president of Asufin, when using a financial platform is to see the part that has to do with security, to know if it is regulated and, in the case of investments, to be aware that you can lose all your money.

What do they think about the transfer of data: the role of BigTech?

The Asufin report recalls that a good part of fintech services is based on the availability and use of personal data to offer more personalized services. This will increase when the big tech companies, known as GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon), enter the financial market.

But are users aware of this? Just over half, 52.4% to be precise, know that by using the technology of these large tech companies they are providing usage and personal data, and 21.2% think that they are only providing usage data.

Compared to these data, if we compare the percentage of traditional banking, 73.4% say they know that their bank uses personal and usage data from the online tools it makes available to them, compared to the previous 52%.

Banks defend their data management as one of their strengths in their battle against Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook.

The conclusions of the study also show that although we do not like to give up data, we would give it up for cheaper services. Thus, 76.5% say they would not give more data to the big technology companies, but 84% say that one of the reasons for giving them is to have cheaper services.

In terms of trust, traditional operators such as banks and insurance companies are the ones that generate greater trust in data management than large technology companies. The percentage of those who trust in the proper treatment of the information provided to technology companies is 37.2%, a percentage that rises to 51.6% in the case of conventional banking and 48% in the case of insurance companies.

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