An updated edition of the February 24, 2025 article.
Fintech, or financial technology, is transforming how individuals and businesses manage money by offering faster, more affordable and user-friendly financial services. From digital payments and mobile banking to artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insurance, robo-advisors and blockchain solutions, fintech is redefining traditional finance through innovation and accessibility.
This sector is especially popular among Millennials and Gen Z, who are driving rapid adoption due to its convenience and digital-first approach. Everyday financial tasks like transferring money, making payments, investing and seeking financial advice can now be completed easily on smartphones or laptops. As demand continues to rise, the fintech industry is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in revenues by 2030, highlighting its potential for long-term growth and profitability.
What sets fintech apart is its ability to merge finance with cutting-edge technologies, streamlining operations while boosting efficiency and security. Innovations like AI and machine learning are revolutionizing how banks, payment systems and investment platforms operate, offering more secure and tailored financial experiences.
Consumer preferences are shifting toward digital platforms due to their convenience and cost-effectiveness, encouraging fintech startups and traditional financial institutions to innovate. As a result, legacy firms are increasingly investing in fintech solutions to remain competitive. This creates promising opportunities for investors seeking exposure to a fast-growing, future-focused sector that’s reshaping the financial landscape. Hence, stocks like Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR, Affirm Holdings, Inc. AFRM and BGC Group, Inc. BGC are gaining traction.
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Interactive Brokers is a fintech leader driven by automation, innovation and scale, evolving from electronic market making into a tech-first brokerage offering efficient, global and advanced trading tools. At its core, the company leverages proprietary systems to automate nearly every aspect of the brokerage process — from trade execution and risk management to compliance and customer onboarding —enabling it to operate with minimal human intervention and significantly lower costs than traditional brokers.
IBKR offers a suite of application programming interface (API)-driven solutions and highly customizable platforms catering to algorithmic traders, hedge funds and financial advisors. These tools reflect the company’s deep tech roots and focus on empowering clients through self-service and advanced analytics. Its infrastructure is designed for scalability and precision, which not only supports high-frequency trading and global multi-asset access but also ensures real-time margin calculations and risk controls.
Interactive Brokers’ revenue model reinforces its fintech identity. It monetizes data, interest and transaction flow rather than relying on traditional financial services upselling. By offering white-label brokerage and custody solutions to advisors and introducing brokers, the company acts as a back-end platform akin to a B2B fintech SaaS company. Its capital-light, tech-driven approach enables it to maintain high margins while scaling globally, firmly placing it in the category of modern fintech firms disrupting legacy financial institutions.
IBKR carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year growth of 5.8% and 2.1%, respectively. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Affirm Holdings is focused on providing flexible and transparent installment loans at the point of sale. It partners with a wide range of merchants to offer both interest-free and interest-bearing payment options, giving consumers more control over how they pay for their purchases. The company’s primary goal is to offer a straightforward and customer-friendly alternative to traditional credit options, promoting responsible borrowing with no late fees or hidden charges.
For merchants, Affirm Holdings provides tools to drive sales and improve customer engagement. Through its API, merchants can integrate various financing options at checkout, including promotional financing and 0% APR offers. The company also offers features like Affirm at Checkout, a merchant dashboard and analytics tools, helping businesses track performance and optimize the customer experience. The Affirm Marketplace further supports customer acquisition and brand visibility.
Consumers benefit from AFRM's range of payment options, including Pay-in-4 and longer-term interest-bearing loans. The Affirm App and Affirm Card enable users to make online and in-store purchases, with the ability to convert eligible debit transactions into installment plans. With a strong presence in the U.S. market, this Zacks Rank #1 company focuses on innovation and user-friendly design to position itself as a key player in the evolving fintech space.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AFRM’s fiscal 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year growth of 36.9% and 96.4%, respectively.
BGC Group is a global financial services firm specializing in brokerage and financial technology. It offers both voice/hybrid and fully electronic brokerage services, facilitating trades in complex financial instruments like fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives. Its proprietary Fenics platform powers the company’s electronic trading operations, enabling faster, more efficient transactions. This positions BGC Group at the forefront of digital transformation in capital markets.
At the core of BGC Group’s strategy is a focus on automation and scalability through Fenics, which provides trading solutions, market data and analytics to institutional clients. This shift toward technology-driven services allows the company to enhance margins and reduce dependence on traditional, labor-intensive models. Following the 2023 spin-off of its commercial real estate arm, Newmark, it has sharpened its focus on its capital markets and fintech operations.
The company’s revenue model is driven by transaction commissions, technology licensing and data services. Serving a global client base — including investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and central banks — BGC group leverages long-standing market relationships and a hybrid service model to stay competitive. Its emphasis on digital innovation, global expansion and operational efficiency continues to support its growth in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BGC’s 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year growth of 20.4% and 23.2%, respectively. The stock sports a Zacks Rank of 1.
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BGC Group, Inc. (BGC): Free Stock Analysis Report Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR): Free Stock Analysis Report Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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