Asia remains at the forefront across the globe when it comes to using financial technology services, according to the Capgemini World Fintech Report.

Findings from the 2016 World Fintech Report place China at the head of the game for fintech usage, with 84.4 per cent of citizens engaging with fintech services or platforms, slightly ahead of India, with 76.9 per cent.

Across the globe, 50.2 per cent of customers say they engage with financial services from at least one alternative source, with the statistics highest in the Asia-Pacific, which recorded a 58.5 per cent engagement level.

Behind China and India, the next biggest users of fintech offerings were the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong, followed closely by Singapore and all ahead of the UK, the USA and Australia.

Despite high adoption rates, the report made mention of regulatory and funding difficulties stifling entrepreneurs as well as the threat of in-house innovation in traditional firms.

“[It] may reflect the industry’s backdrop of regulatory constraints, legacy systems and branch networks; changing customer expectations, particularly among millennials, are forcing the industry to more fully address the need for digital solutions,” the report said.

“Leading traditional firms are not far behind and many are directing their innovation efforts towards exploring new services.”

In the case of technology growth across the Asian region, research from the report suggested the traditional services may one day play second fiddle to fintechs and be left providing basic services for their utilisation. The report said: “Traditional firms could be reduced to providing back-end core processing services to fintech firms that would own the front end customer relationship.”

“This platformication…would result in a much lower profile for financial institutions.”