Abstract: Similar to the development of traditional finance, the development of financial technology also shows a regional pattern of differentiated development, with eastern cities taking the lead and some cities in central and western regions lagging behind. Then, what is the internal logic of the formation of the regional differentiated development pattern of financial technology? Based on the theory of evolutionary economic geography, this paper conducts an empirical study by making use of the data of 291 prefecture-level cities of China. The findings show that the regional differentiated development pattern of financial technology development is mainly due to the path dependence of the traditional financial development. Further analysis shows that the improvement of urban innovation capacity and the increase of local government innovation capital investment have a significant promoting effect on the development of financial technology, which helps the traditional financially-underdeveloped areas to get rid of the path dependence and realize the path creation of financial technology development. Therefore, local governments can take advantage of the situation, vigorously promote the popularization and application of big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other innovative technologiesin the financial sector, and actively build the development highland of financialtechnology. Driven by the twin wheels of the independent scientific and technological innovation and the“promising”government, the financial technology development can be guided to get rid of the path dependence of traditional financial development and realize the path creation for coordinated regional development of financial technology.

Key words: financial technology, path dependence, path creation, regional coordinated development, evolutionary economic geography