Lending Platform Momnt Promotes Chris Bracken to CEO

Embedded lending platform Momnt has a new chief executive officer.

Chris Bracken, who has served as the company’s revenue lead since 2020, has been promoted to the CEO position, Momnt announced in a news release Monday (June 17).

“Chris’s deep understanding of the consumer lending landscape and proven track record in driving growth make him an invaluable partner,” said Lena McDearmid, Momnt’s chief operating officer, who co-founded the company with Brian Lanehart and Barclay Keith.

“Together with Brian Lanehart and our talented team, I am confident that we will continue to set new standards in the embedded lending space and deliver exceptional value to our customers and partners,” she added.

Bracken will replace outgoing CEO Keith, who will become special advisor to Momnt’s board, leading the charge on special projects, the release said. Before coming to Momnt, Bracken served as chief executive for Patriot Finance in Atlanta.

His promotion comes at a time when embedded lending — a burgeoning subset of payments in which borrowers apply directly within the merchant or provider’s platform — is gaining traction with consumers, as PYMNTS wrote last week.

In fact, 5 in 6 lenders now offer consumers access to embedded lending products, addressing the steep demand for embedded financial experiences, according to recent research by Visa and PYMNTS Intelligence.

“Some countries, like Japan and Australia, index even higher, with 93% of lenders offering embedded lending to consumers,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “Other countries are lagging, such as Germany, with less than two-thirds of lenders providing similar services to consumers.”

Still, in spite of this momentum, the research also found a significant runway for embedded lending, with the number of consumers showing strong interest in embedded lending is three times that of those who actually used the method in the prior 30 days.

However, PYMNTS added, the bigger opportunity lies not with consumers, but with small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

“We see 80% of lenders offering embedded lending products to consumers,” Arvind Ronta, global head of BNPL and embedded finance at Visa, said in an interview with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. “But there’s a huge gap in how these lenders are offering embedded lending products to small businesses.”

That’s led to a “huge and material unmet need that presents an opportunity for lenders to engage and retain SMB customers,” Ronta said, adding that lenders in six major economies are missing out on the chance to address a critical marketplace need, and capture the giant potential that the SMB market represents.