A survey of 90 finance experts by the authors of ibi research at the University of Regensburg shows that there is a need for action. For 72% of the participants in the survey, the issue of Industry 4.0 is playing a large or very large role. But on the part of the financial service providers, there are hardly any innovative finance solutions for business customers. Rather, the report concludes, their offers have hardly changed at all over the past five years – even though 79% of those surveyed stated that innovative finance models would be relevant to them. It is no surprise, therefore, that FinTechs is usually trusted to fill this gap. Its future role is also examined in the free report .

In a white paper in 2018, Siemens Financial Services had already drawn attention to the fact that a lack of access to finance is one of the two largest obstacles to a successful transition to Industry 4.0. The other is a shortage of digital skills.