Embedded Finance: Because Customers Don’t Wake Up Wanting to Visit Your Website

Guess what, they didn’t dream about logging into your online banking portal either.

Let’s start with a hard truth: no one wakes up thinking, “Wow, I can’t wait to log into my bank’s website today.”

They’re not daydreaming about bill pay widgets. They’re not getting hyped over your refreshed mobile app interface (even if it did win an industry award no one outside the C-suite cares about). And they’re definitely not setting aside time to visit your branch, unless they’re really into awkward small talk and pens on chains (and friction, my wife went to her local bank branch recently and had a horrible experience because the staff wasn’t properly trained to handle a signature guarantee).

You know what they are doing? Ordering coffee on an app. Splitting brunch with friends on Venmo. Investing spare change through a robo-advisor while standing in line at Target.

Finance is becoming invisible. And that’s the point.

Today’s consumers don’t want to manage their financial lives by logging into separate portals like it’s 2009. They want financial tools to just work.  Built inside the apps they already use, the platforms they already trust, and the moments they already live in.  

And that’s what embedded finance delivers.

• Buying insurance while checking out on a car-buying app?
  
• Getting approved for a loan at the point of sale?
  
• Investing directly from their banking app without opening a separate brokerage account?
  
• Paying with rewards points, cash-back offers, or BNPL right from a checkout screen?
  

If your institution isn’t enabling these kinds of experiences, you’re not even in the game. This concept was called a “Superapp” a few years back, now it’s just expected by your customers/members.

Here’s where things get real: if you're not embedding financial tools where people actually live their lives, you’re slowly outsourcing your relevance.  Let me say that again for the folks who are hard of hearing “You’re are slowly outsourcing your relevance!”

You might have the charter. The trust. The balance sheet.

But if you’re not showing up in a way that’s useful, contextual, and seamless, you’re leaving room for someone else. A fintech, a big tech, or an embedded provider, to take your spot.

And once they build that habit with your customers? Good luck clawing it back.

Let’s take a walk through the Embedded Finance Hall of Fame:

• Apple Card and Apple Pay Later: Apple didn’t just launch a card, they built a full credit and payments ecosystem inside the iPhone. No need to ever Google “best credit card rates.”
  
• Cash App and Square: Payments, banking, and investing all in one app. Simple, sticky, and social.
  
• Amazon + Affirm: One-click BNPL at checkout? That’s embedded lending at work and guess who’s not getting the credit card swipe?
  
• Chime: Embedded banking in a lifestyle platform, not a branch network.
  

These companies aren’t trying to lure users to their websites. They’re embedding financial tools into existing behaviors.

Your bank’s website, meanwhile, is over here asking people to “log in for more details.”

Remember the immortal word of Douglas Adams author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.”  Don’t panic (and always carry a towel, but the towel isn’t relevant here).  

This isn’t an extinction event (yet). But it is a relevance reckoning.

Here’s what you can do:

Instead of bolting on standalone tools, integrate things like investing, budgeting, lending pre-approvals, and crypto into your mobile and online banking. Keep people in your experience. Build your Superapp.

You don’t need to build it all. But you do need to own the relationship. The right fintech partner lets you offer best-in-class features without sending your customers off-platform.  There are tons of great fintechs whose sole purpose is not to compete with FIs but to support them in their quest to better support their customers/members.

Stop thinking about channels. Start thinking about context. Where can you show up when it matters most:  at checkout, during major life events, or inside employer benefit platforms?

The goal isn’t “how many people visited our site this month.” It’s how often are they using our services to live better financial lives. Wherever they are.

Embedded finance is not about fancy APIs or slick demos.  It’s about being relevant in your account holder’s daily routines. Because in a world where everything is on-demand, mobile-first, and context-driven, forcing someone to visit your website to “get started” is basically waving a white flag.

So don’t be the last to realize that the front door to your financial institution isn’t your homepage.  It’s wherever your customer/member happens to be.