Scores of fintech enterprises in London and Silicon Valley are devising new ways to lend cash, transfer money abroad, settle international commercial transactions and score credit risk — all of which have been the domain of banks for centuries.

Dozens of co-working spaces have sprung up, with Google’s Campus the best known. Accelerators (start-up schools) and similar organisations, such as Passion Capital, Seedcamp and Techstars, abound. The cluster is also growing geographically. Canary Wharf is now home to Level39, an incubator for fintech (financial technology), smart-city and retail ventures.

Updata’s Financial Technology Index turned in its worst performance since inception with a 24% decline in 2002. This compares to a 26% increase in 2001 when the broader indexes struggled that same year with the S&P 500 off 12% and the NASDAQ off 20%. While a price decline in 2002 for the Fin Tech index is not viewed as a positive for the sector, on a relative basis, the Financial Technology companies that we track compared favorably to the NASDAQ’s 32% decline and were on par with the broad market where the S&P 500 declined a comparable 23%.