Money20/20 2022: The rise of Embedded Finance

A couple of years ago, the purpose of open banking was to inspire competition, innovation and provide consumers with better offerings. A challenge to traditional banking that some banks have embraced, while others have essentially shrugged off these initiatives and regulators alike. This meant that fintech companies have had to fight tooth and nail to deliver services that customers want, because in its essence open banking is considerably more efficient at delivering payments and data than what’s currently out there.

Quick summary

Open banking dominated this year’s Money20/20 – it’s been a hot topic in both the talks and the audience attendees
PSPs are now sharing more interest in open banking – there’s strong interest in the payments side, but still don’t fully realise the potential of the data side of open banking
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The BNPL market is seeing a bit of a rough patch- what was once a dominating topic of Money20/20 was not as heavily featured, even though probably the biggest news in the industry came from outside the show, with Apple joining the BNPL customer acquisition race on its own dime

In an opening Money20/20 talk, embedded finance was estimated to be a $3.5 trillion market opportunity, especially for the retail and e-commerce industry, providing a strong opportunity to drive up revenue, customer loyalty and stickiness. We have already seen some global retailers, such as IKEA, Mercedes, Amazon and Walmart benefit from embedded finance in their business, yet many retailers are still missing out on this golden opportunity to leverage embedded finance, and not seeing the shift from it being simply a function to a competitive strategy. Embedded finance can create the ultimate experience for customers. In Daniel Marovitz’s Money20/20 talk (heading Booking.com’s fintech unit), he highlighted the importance of a payment turning from being just a transaction, into a meaningful relationship with the customer.

So, what did we learn at this year’s Money20/20?

Open banking dominated this year’s Money20/20 – it’s been a hot topic in both the talks and the audience attendees
PSPs are now sharing more interest in open banking – there’s strong interest in the payments side, but still don’t fully realise the potential of the data side of open banking
The BNPL market is seeing a bit of a rough patch- what was once a dominating topic of Money20/20 was not as heavily featured, even though probably the biggest news in the industry came from outside the show, with Apple joining the BNPL customer acquisition race on its own dime

Call it what you want open banking or open and embedded finance, at the end of the day it is coming for the status quo, because this kind of progress cannot be tamed.

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