NEW YORK : Financial technology companies, long seen as a threat by the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co, are increasingly becoming acquisition targets for traditional U.S. banks as rising interest rates and falling valuations crimp their expansion. The valuations of listed financial technology firms have plunged 70 per cent in 2022, analysts at Jefferies Group said in a note last week. In the same period, the valuations of banks in the S&P 500 are down 33 per cent, while valuations for the S&P 500 are down 23 per cent, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.