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Global remittance costs have fallen from ~10% in 2009 to 6.36% in 2025, but progress has stalled above the 3% target despite cheapest services at ~3.3%. Costs remain uneven—~5% in MENA vs. 8.46% in Sub-Saharan Africa—while digital transfers (~4.6%) are far cheaper than banks (~15%). As prices compress, fintechs face rising pressure to compete beyond cost.

Importers are where fintechs make money – but the UK market is far more selective than it appears. Beneath the headline figure of 63,000 importers lies a constrained landscape, where growth is limited and only a fraction of businesses offer meaningful opportunity. This piece breaks down where fintechs should focus – and where they shouldn’t.

At the heart of this shift is a market that looks very different from the outside. Behind the headline growth numbers lies a highly fragmented ecosystem of micro-SMEs – the vast majority operating with under £1 million in assets, constrained not by ambition but by access to capital. Most show near-zero growth. A small, capital-enabled cohort dramatically outperforms. The gap between the two is a financing gap – and a fintech opportunity.

Meanwhile, UK online businesses are international by default. A large share rely on imports for sourcing and export regularly to global markets, making cross-border complexity a daily reality rather than an edge case. Post-Brexit friction around tax, duties and FX has only widened the space for fintech to add value.

The article argues that the next wave of fintech winners will not be point solutions. They will be platforms that embed payments, credit, treasury, and data intelligence directly into the fabric of commerce – making financial infrastructure as invisible as it is essential.

Read the full article to explore the data behind UK e-commerce and what it means for fintech providers.

We have put together 7 lists of typical clients for fintech

The UK road transport sector is under significant pressure, with the number of companies falling by 7% in 2025. The downturn is widespread, hitting logistics-heavy regions like the West Midlands hardest, while London and the South East show only modest growth.

We’ve identified 7,048 eCommerce companies in the UK that are prime candidates for trade finance and working capital solutions.

In cross-border payments and FX for SMEs, outbound sales were 30–50% cheaper than inbound—while converting faster, driving higher revenue, and reducing churn.