OpenPayd reveals a brand appetite for embedded finance across Europe

By Joy Dumasia

OpenPayd, leading global payments and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, revealed insights from the largest ever independent study of brand attitudes towards embedded finance. The OpenPayd data informs the report that Embedded finance surge to net €720bn for European brands by 2026, suggesting that 73% of brands plan to launch embedded financial services within the next two years.

Across the countries surveyed by OpenPayd, brands expect embedded finance to add €720.78 billion in revenue over the next five years. Despite 95% admitting to not fully understanding what embedded finance means, many encounters challenge hiring FinTech talent.  

• On average, across the four main sub-sectors of embedded finance are banking, payments, insurance and lending; respondents expected to increase their current revenues by 7% over the next two years, 11% over the next five years and 15% over the next ten years. 
• 92% of brands plan to release offerings in the next five years. 91% only have a partial understanding of embedded finance, even though 73% say they plan to launch embedded finance offerings in the next two years, 18% in the next 12 months. Only 5% already have an embedded finance offering. 
• More than 7 in 10 (71%) plan to build new internal fintech teams to work alongside BaaS partners and implement embedded banking offers, for example. However, demand for fintech talent already significantly outstrips supply, and this looks set to intensify. 
• Partnerships will be essential, but most respondents, senior executives from brands generating a minimum of €60m in annual revenue, cannot name appropriate embedded finance/BaaS partners.  

Iana Dimitrova, Chief Executive at OpenPayd, said: “It’s promising to see more and more customer-centricity from brands, who are anticipating mass shifts in consumer need and making ambitious plans to launch embedded financial services. We’re on the cusp of an embedded finance revolution across B2C and B2B sectors, which will peak in the next two years. However, navigating the complex maze of infrastructure providers with limited in-house experience slows down value creation of the otherwise significant €720 billion opportunity in Europe alone. No matter what, retailers, service-driven companies and all those in between are planning, partners will be essential helping to navigate the complexities and to innovate ahead of demand.”