The download of financial apps has grown by 132% over the last two years - from Q1 2019 to Q1 2021.

In total, fintech apps have been installed 4.7 billion times globally in the mentioned period. Kommersant writes that this statistics is presented in the report on financial applications market, prepared by the analytical marketing firm AppsFlyer.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the area of fintech services, radically transforming the way users interact with financial institutions and the way the institutions themselves operate. Mobile applications play a central role in the development of financial technologies, especially in large emerging markets focused on mobile-first or even mobile-only models, where hundreds of millions of users do not have sufficient access to banking services,” the report says.

While in the first half of 2020 the growth slowed down in many countries during the first lockdowns, in the second half of the year the number of downloads of fintech apps began to increase actively again. In the period from Q1 of 2020 to Q1 2021, the number of downloads increased by 20%.

In 2020 and early 2021, the demand for investment applications grew: throughout last year, the average increase of the number of downloads made 17-18% per quarter, and in Q1 of 2021, the growth index reached 28.7%.

There has been a particularly significant growth in the number of downloads of digital banking apps - financial institutions operating exclusively or mainly online, without physical offices. Last year, the number of downloads grew by 45% in 2020 and by another 24% in Q1 of 2021.

Growth was not as significant but steady in the number of downloads in the financial services sector (applications for mobile transfers, money payments, budget management, etc.). From Q1 of 2020 to Q1 of 2021 inclusive, the number of downloads increased by an average of 20% per quarter.

Installations of traditional banking apps grew by 15% over the past year, and the growth accelerated up to 22% in Q1 of 2021. Lending apps grew very actively in early 2020 (growth in the first quarter was 32%), and then the growth slowed significantly in the second quarter with the spread of COVID-19 and the introduction of lockdowns.
 
India leads by the number of downloads done in Q4 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021. Brazil has the second-most and is followed by Indonesia, the USA, and Russia.

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