Today, leading app and data analytics company, App Annie, has published its newest Mobile Finance Report, highlighting the major shifts in the financial landscape, driven by mobile-first innovators.

With Amazon’s recent announcement to block UK Visa credit cards, it will be interesting to see how this effects the end users and if this signals a long-term shift in market power away from established card companies to other payment systems, such as Buy Now, Pay Later – a payment method that has proved immensely popular and only seems to be gaining traction.

The report includes a breakdown of:

• The top finance, neobank and traditional retail banking apps by average MAUs worldwide and on a country-by-country basis
• With crypto gaining more attention than ever, a deep dive into the most popular cryptocurrency apps and what crypto apps are favoured by consumers in 16 key markets
• The rise of Buy Now, Pay Later apps, PayPal’s foray into BNPL and its mission to become a ‘super app’

Rise of Challenger Banks

Neobanks, also known as challenger banks, are financial technology companies that offer specialized software and features that traditional brick-and-mortar banks have not been able to match. These include a range of features such as removing monthly or overdraft fees, incorporating reward programs geared towards freelancers, adding the ability to receive paychecks early, layering in tools to help build credit, and even providing educational components.

From Q4 2020 to Q3 2021,  app downloads worldwide exceeded 264 million.

Brazil and LATAM is an especially ripe region for growth in . During that period, Brazil saw the largest share of its overall finance downloads come from  at 25%, primarily thanks to Nubank.

•  offers a range of features including a no-fee digital account, no-fee credit cards, rewards and loans and has become the #1 most downloaded Neobank in Brazil since Q2 2021 and the 9th most downloaded finance app in the world in Q3 2021.

Reaching a New Generation: Neobanks for Teens

One subcategory of  that is quickly gaining traction is  geared towards young adults. From Q4 2020 to Q3 2021, 29% of  downloads came from those geared towards teens in the United States, with Current - Debit Card for Teens being the most popular.

In the United Kingdom, goHenry is the most popular  app for teens.

While traditional banks have continued to fare well over the past year, challenger banks such as Chime, Lili for freelancers, and Greenlight for teens have continued to chip away at the brick-and-mortar bank’s dominance as Gen Z — and the world — increasingly embrace mobile and look towards apps with customized features that fit their needs from the device they always have on them: their smartphones.

You can find more information on the different finance app verticals in App Annie’s latest Mobile Finance Report.