General Information

Population

69.5M

Online Population

67,8M

Currency

GBP

Market overview

Population - 69.5M

At the start of 2025, 85% of the UK’s population lived in urban centres, while 15% lived in rural areas.

Internet penetration - 97.8%

There were 67.8M internet users in the UK at the start of 2025, and internet penetration stood at 97.8%.

FinTech Outlook: Trends, Insight & Technology

The UK fintech scene continues to evolve in 2025, driven by robust policy support, AI adoption, and fast-growing challenger banks:

• 📈 Market Expansion: According to Mordor Intelligence, the UK fintech market is projected to reach USD 16.2 billion in 2025 (up from USD 14.6 billion in 2024), maintaining a healthy 10% CAGR through 2030.
• 💡 Regulatory & Tech Push: The Financial Conduct Authority is piloting a “supercharged sandbox” with Nvidia AI to help traditional banks enhance fraud detection, risk modelling, and automated compliance — testing begins in October 2025.
• 🏦 Challenger Banks Thrive: UK mainstays like Revolut, Monzo, Starling, and Zopa reported strong FY 2024 results — combined pre-tax profits exceeded £60 million, with executive payouts totaling over £15 million, underlining rising maturity and profitability.
• 🏛 Public–Private Collaboration: UK Finance has also reported that HM Treasury is finalizing its Financial Services Growth Strategy—including provisions for crypto regulation, stablecoins, and tokenised finance—demonstrating proactive coordination with the private sector.
• 🤩 The New Payments Architecture (NPA): The NPA is a **next-generation clearing and settlement system** being developed to replace the UK’s aging infrastructure — primarily the Bacs and Faster Payments Service (FPS) — with a single, modern, flexible platform.

Banks

• High-street banks continue reshaping their branch footprint: Santander plans to close 95 branches, while NatWest is shuttering 55, citing rising digital adoption (over 60% growth in mobile usage since 2019).