Panel: Banking as a Service - What’s Next? Rethinking Strategies Across Products, Segments and Platforms
Lars Markull (Embedded Finance Review), Sampsa Laine (Alisa Bank), Christie Holm Kristensen (Danske Bank) & Ville Sointu (Nordea)
Embedded finance transforms banking by integrating financial services like payments, lending, insurance, and investments directly into non-financial platforms, driven by open banking and APIs. Specialized banks focusing on core strengths excel, while neobanks rebundle services, emphasizing customer engagement across ecosystems. Embedded lending offers growth through contextual data but faces challenges in data reliability and customer clarity on relationships. Successful banking-as-a-service partnerships hinge on cultural alignment, flexible processes, and clear strategic roles, balancing technology with human-centered collaboration to enhance customer-centric innovation.
"The gates are open to be part of that game right now. Embedded finance brings broad possibilities and opportunities for everyone. It's a moving train—you need to get on it now, otherwise it's too late."
Summary
- Embedded finance offers broad opportunities and is rapidly evolving, opening new customer engagement paradigms beyond open banking. - Payments are heavily embedded but not commoditized; specialization is key for banks to win in embedded finance. - Lending innovation thrives with better data and AI, especially in embedded lending through contextual platforms, despite data reliability challenges. - Partnering requires clear strategy and role understanding; successful embedded finance integrates seamlessly into customer workflows and brands. - Culture and collaboration are crucial in banking as a service partnerships; human factors and flexible approaches drive joint business success.
Article
Nordic fintech leaders call for specialisation and human-centric approach in banking-as-a-service evolution
Industry experts at Nordic Fintech Summit debate the future of embedded finance and partnerships in an increasingly fragmented financial landscape
Banking services are no longer confined to traditional institutions but are being embedded seamlessly into everyday platforms and applications, according to fintech experts who gathered last week at the Nordic Fintech Summit in Helsinki.
The panel discussion on "Banking as a Service - What's Next?" brought together senior executives from major Nordic financial institutions who warned that banks must choose between specialisation or risk "being not much for anyone" in the rapidly evolving embedded finance landscape.
Sampsa Laine, CEO of Alisa Bank, told the audience that the most successful players in embedded finance are increasingly specialised. "Looking at global winners – China, Brazil, India, even parts of southern Europe – they're more specialised than old-school, generalist, universal banks," Laine said. "Those who try to be everything for everyone may end up being not much for anyone."
Beyond open banking
Christie Holm Kristensen from Danske Bank traced the roots of the current transformation to regulatory changes. "The catalyst is open banking," she explained, referring to regulations like PSD2 that mandated banks to open up their APIs. "That opened up the opportunity to start activating those APIs exposed through banks, which set off the flow of what we know today as fintechs."
But the panel emphasised that embedded finance extends significantly beyond regulatory requirements. Kristensen noted that the industry is "just scratching the surface of what's possible," pointing to insurance being embedded in Tesla purchases and financial services appearing within social media platforms like WhatsApp.
The rebundling paradox
Ville Sointu, chief strategist in transaction banking at Nordea, highlighted a curious reversal in the market. While traditional banks are increasingly narrowing their focus to specific products, neobanks are expanding their offerings.
"Interestingly, neobanks like Revolut are now offering everything, while classic banks are narrowing their focus—a case of unbundling, then rebundling," Sointu observed. "Ultimately, access to the customer is everything. If you can sell them more than one service, you probably should."
Human factors trump technology
Perhaps most striking was the panel's consensus that successful banking-as-a-service partnerships depend more on human factors than technology. When asked about measuring success in partnerships, Laine was emphatic.
"Tech is easy—almost anyone can do the tech," he stated. "Human factors matter most. How you build the process and joint engagement so it's a joint business is key. It's even more about people working together than just building top-notch tech."
The sentiment was echoed by Kristensen, who described partnerships as either "side by side" collaborations or "truly integrated" services that embed financial tools within new business models.
Contextual data changing lending models
The integration of financial services into non-financial platforms is also enabling new approaches to credit decisions. Sointu explained how embedded lending can leverage the contextual data available when finance is offered at the point of need.
"In embedded finance, we move services from the bank to the customer's environment, so we can access much more contextual data," he said. "The more you're able to project the outcome of the customer relationship you're creating with a credit decision, and the more trust you have in your predictions, the better your margins and outcomes."
However, he cautioned that data reliability remains a significant challenge. "Banks are used to verified data sources, which is not always the case in embedded finance where we're not native. Balancing noise and insights is a challenge for financial institutions."
Strategic positioning: interface or infrastructure?
A fundamental strategic question emerged throughout the discussion: will banks serve as customer-facing interfaces or background infrastructure providers?
"It's about the bank's position," explained Kristensen. "Will you be the interface, with direct customer relationships, or more of an empowerment infrastructure operating behind the scenes? This strategic shift needs to be baked in now because it's a moving train."
Sointu offered an analogy to clarify the different models. "Open banking APIs are like a brewery opening a self-service kiosk—customers come, fill their growlers, and leave. Banking as a service is a supermarket chain buying huge volumes of beer, rebranding it, and selling it in their stores. Embedded finance is your own beer brand sold in those supermarkets and bars, maintaining that brand relationship with customers in the context of other platforms."
The panelists agreed that choosing the right position in this ecosystem – and understanding one's role in partnerships – will be critical for success as the industry evolves. For institutions that get it right, the rewards could be substantial, extending financial services into previously untapped customer journeys and creating new revenue streams in the process.
As moderator Lars Markull from Embedded Finance Review concluded, the panel demonstrated that while technology enables these new models, it's the strategic clarity and human collaboration that will determine which embedded finance initiatives thrive in the increasingly crowded financial services marketplace.
Part of Nordic Fintech Summit