A poll held by Startupbootcamp FinTech shows that the next wave of financial technology startups should focus on financial inclusion, instead of serving consumers already catered to by companies.

The poll findings suggest the biggest business opportunity for FinTech startups is to focus on growing the overall market by allowing unserved customers to benefit in the same way, especially the low-income and disadvantaged clientele.

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"While many of us consider banking as common practice, there are still many people across the globe who don’t," said Nektarios Liolios, managing director of Startupbootcamp FinTech. "Figures published last year suggest that there are as many as 1.4m Britons who, for whatever reason, do not have access to a regular bank account, and that figure is even greater in different parts of the world. This is a situation which can be tackled with the right technology.

"Technologies like smartphones can help consumers better manage their money, whilst online tools could prove invaluable aids to budgeting. The message from financial professionals is clear – the next growth opportunity for companies in this area is to massively grow the base of customers who can enjoy these services."

Asked what should the next wave of FinTech startups focus on, almost one third of respondents (31%) said financial inclusion – ahead of back-office improvements (21%), wealth management (17%), insurance (11%) and other areas (20%).

Other views expressed in the poll by financial services professionals around the world include:

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– London, regarded as a world financial hub, is also considered the global leader in FinTech (48%), far ahead of New York (26%), San Francisco (20%) and Singapore (1%).
– Amazon is expected to add banking services by 33% of respondents, whilst the entries of Google (26%), Apple (11%) and Facebook (13%) are also awaited.
– Inertia is the top reason (33%) given for the inability of financial institutions to innovate themselves.