The UK and Sweden “stand out for their superior fintech ecosystem performance,” followed closely by Malta and Luxembourg, in a recent survey of 29 European countries by McKinsey.

The ranking focused “on three key aspects of Europe’s fintech sector: founding, funding, and scaling--that is, fintechs’ ability to set up in the first place, the ease with which they can access capital, and how well they can grow and thrive,” the consulting firm last week.

While Luxembourg placed fourth overall, it performed higher in two of five sub-indices. The grand duchy was first in “fintechs founded, per million capita 2021” and second in “deals per million capita”. Luxembourg was fourth in “workforce (fintech jobs) as share of total workforce”, dropped down to twelfth place in the “fintech funding per capita” subcategory and had no known unicorns. That gave the grand duchy an average ranking of 4.8.

Had the US been included in the European tables, America would have landed in fifth place just behind Luxembourg and ahead of Switzerland.