Fintech is a portmanteau of Financial Technology.
Wikipedia defines it as
FinTech, is an economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial services more efficient. Financial technology companies are generally startups trying to disintermediate incumbent financial systems and challenge traditional corporations that are less reliant on software.
Banking industry was at the forefront of technology.
It’s first recorded use was way back when in the 1980’s by Peter Knight [1], the editor of a business newsletter in the Sunday Times. He used it to describe a bot which had altered his mailbox.
Before long, the phrase was commonplace in specialist financial magazines and newspapers. However, it wasn’t until the 2007 financial crash when ‘fintech’ became a common term outside of the finance world. This was due to various venture capitalist firms making huge investments into fintech businesses which would serve as an alternative to the failed financial institutions.
Fintech nowadays encompasses any new finance related tech venture and is one of the biggest growth industries in the world