London’s share of overall fintech funding fell slightly in the first half of this year, as hubs, including the Scottish and Northern Irish capitals, made gains.
According to research by data intelligence platform Tracxn Technologies, London accounted for 94% of the fintech funding in the UK during the first half of 2026, compared with 99% in the second six months of 2025. The company described this as “modest, but notable”.
But the Trancxn report recorded a 35% drop in overall UK fintech funding, which was $1.5bn in the first half of this year, compared with $2.3bn in the second half of last. It was also 25% less than the first half of last year.
Trancxn said the decline was due a fall of 45% ($830m) in late-stage funding, with seed funding (early stage) actually rising 93% to £145m.
While London’s share of funding saw a small reduction, Edinburgh was the second biggest fintech hub in terms if funding at $13.2m in the first half of this year. Belfast received $12m, while Cambridge and Manchester received $8m and $3m respectively.
In his early promises, Burnham said power will increasingly be decentralised from London, which would give regions more scope for investing in their own priorities.
“We will take power out of [London] and carry it into every postcode in the land so that they can do more,” he said.
Sarah Jones, CEO at FinTech Wales, said the UK has an opportunity to become a truly national fintech success story. “But that will only happen if investment, innovation and decision-making are distributed evenly across the country,” she added.
“London will always be a global financial centre, but thriving regional ecosystems like those we have in Cardiff and other regions in Wales are already proving they can develop world-class fintech businesses, attract international investment and create highly skilled jobs,” said Jones.
“We welcome the new prime minister’s commitment to spreading power, opportunity and investment across the UK, and fintech has a vital role to play in delivering that vision.”
She called for regional fintech ecosystems to be backed with long-term investment, “supporting local skills and talent pipelines, improving access to scale-up capital, encouraging public sector adoption of innovative technologies, and ensuring regional businesses have opportunities to work with major financial institutions”.
Jones added that strengthening regional fintech clusters won’t compete with London’s success, but rather complement it.
Chris Skinner, fintech industry expert and CEO at The Finanser, said the fintech industry is finding its way into every corner of the UK.
“People think fintech is all about London, but I’ve been involved in many fintech groups,” he said. “Fintech Scotland, Fintech Wales and smaller groups in Belfast, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester. Britain is fintech.”
Skinner gave the example of Atom Bank, which he described as “one of our brightest fintech challengers”.
He said the company was set up in Durham and has just recently moved to the Pattern Shop in Newcastle, where in the 1800s, Robert Stephenson – son of George Stephenson, known as the “father of the railways” – had a workshop where he built steam locomotives.
