Digital Brands Turn Embedded Finance Into a Growth Lever

Embedded finance is moving from a strategic initiative to a core requirement as firms across industries weave financial services into their platforms.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Embedded Finance as a Strategic Initiative: How Integrating Financial Services Into Non-Financial Platforms is Driving Growth,” a Green Dot collaboration, found that nearly every company surveyed uses at least one embedded finance capability, a sign that the model is no longer experimental but foundational to how digital businesses grow and compete.

Defining Embedded Finance

Payments, banking, money movement, payroll benefits, lending, investing and consumer financial features are being integrated into non-financial platforms.

The report defined embedded finance as the direct embedding of those capabilities into platforms where users already transact, work or manage daily activity. Its benefit is simplicity. Instead of redirecting a customer to another provider, platforms deliver financial tools natively, strengthening user experience, sharpening brand identity and improving retention.

The breadth of adoption underscores embedded finance’s versatility. Payments are the most common feature, offered by 70% of surveyed firms, followed by embedded banking at 69% and money movement tools at 62%.

HR solutions providers favor money movement and lending, while FinTechs and software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms lean into payments and banking. Consumer-facing features such as savings accounts, early direct deposit, rewards and investing also appear across industries.

The reasons to use embedded finance are equally varied. Stronger customer and employee relationships rank highest at 45%, with improved user experience at 38% and enhanced brand differentiation at 35%.

These motivations signal that embedded finance is not solely about revenue lift but about deepening engagement in environments where competition for loyalty is tight.

Measurement Is Critical

As adoption matures, companies need metrics to evaluate whether embedded finance is delivering measurable results. The report revealed that 93% of mid-sized and large companies are highly satisfied with their embedded finance capabilities, and 94% plan to increase investment. Yet more than 9 in 10 also reported friction points, from transparency and flexibility issues to integration, compliance and security challenges.

The combination of universal adoption, expanding investment and persistent friction makes measurement essential. Firms need a way to determine which capabilities are producing value and which require redesign or new partners. According to the report, companies primarily assess embedded finance based on outcomes tied to financial performance and customer growth, not on cost savings alone.

How Firms Measure Success

There are three key ways that success can be quantified.

Financial Performance
This is the dominant success metric. The report found that 86% of companies cite financial performance when evaluating embedded finance, and 47% name it as their top indicator. This includes revenue lift from new or existing customers and incremental value created by offering financial capabilities directly within a platform. Financial outcomes outrank cost efficiency, which only 33% of firms cite as a metric.

Customer Growth
The report revealed that 75% of companies measure success based on customer growth and relationship strength, while 36% said it is their primary metric. This includes attracting new customers, expanding business with existing users and improving overall experience and loyalty. Embedded finance is widely seen as a tool to deepen engagement rather than just generate new income.

Risk and Security
Risk and security also form a measurable dimension of success, cited by 56% of firms. This category covers fraud management, compliance performance, the security of financial transactions and the reliability of the embedded systems themselves. Although fewer firms rank it as their top priority, it remains central to evaluating whether embedded finance is sustainable at scale.

As embedded finance cements its place in digital ecosystems, firms are refining how they quantify performance. Financial gains, customer expansion and risk stability have emerged as the metrics that matter most, helping companies distinguish between embedded finance features that create long-term value and those that fall short.