Buy, Don’t Build: The Next Wave of Embedded Finance

Embedded finance is transforming how businesses move money, driving a fundamental shift from isolated payment systems to seamless, brand-owned financial experiences. A company looking to embed financial capabilities into its platform to meet customers’ rising expectations for speed and simplicity faces a crucial strategic choice: Build proprietary infrastructure or partner with a white-label provider. Such partners offer pre-built, ready-to-integrate platforms that enterprises buy and brand as their own. In 2025, the preferable option is increasingly clear: The “buy” approach enables firms to deliver modern, secure and scalable payment solutions without the heavy lift of building and maintaining complex financial technology in-house.

For business leaders, the benefits go far beyond efficiency. Partnering with experienced providers allows organizations to maintain full control of the customer journey and unlock new opportunities for loyalty and growth. As the market for embedded finance accelerates, white-label solutions offer an essential competitive advantage that helps companies future-proof their operations and stay ahead in an increasingly digital economy.

• Convenience, Scalability and Owning the Customer Journey: Why ‘Buy’ Wins
• Security and Trust: White-Labeling as a Strategic Safeguard
• The Long Game: Loyalty, Partnerships and Growth
• Build Smart: Buy for the Future of Embedded Finance

Convenience, Scalability and Owning the Customer Journey: Why ‘Buy’ Wins

In today’s digital-first economy, businesses can’t afford slow, fragmented payment experiences. White-label embedded finance solutions give companies the speed, scalability and brand control they need to meet customer expectations and drive growth.

Embedded finance solutions are fast becoming an enterprise necessity.

Technologies like application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud computing and open banking form the backbone of embedded infrastructure. This shift is not just about convenience—it’s a strategic imperative to reduce costs, accelerate processes and drive revenue growth. White-labeling—embedding a partner’s financial capabilities under a company’s own brand—is central to scaling a business, that is, increasing revenue and operations to meet higher demand without a proportional increase in resources or costs. For enterprises, white-labeling enables them to offer tailored payment capabilities without having to develop the technology themselves.

White-labeling gives firms a faster, more efficient path to embedded finance.

Rather than building complex payment infrastructure in-house, businesses can partner with a provider that already has a proven platform and brand it as their own while retaining full customer ownership. This model delivers the speed and scalability that modern firms need: Providers handle back-end updates, compliance and integrations, so companies can launch in weeks rather than months.

The result is a sharper focus on growth and customer experience. By keeping transactions within a single branded interface, a firm can enhance security, reduce friction and boost conversion while leaving the technical heavy lifting to its embedded finance partner.

Security and Trust: White-Labeling as a Strategic Safeguard

As digital payment volumes surge, so do the risks of fraud, data breaches and compliance failures. White-label embedded finance solutions offer robust fraud prevention, strong compliance frameworks and continuous monitoring to protect transactions and preserve trust.

Fraud risks continue to mount as the economy grows increasingly digital.

Remote and hybrid work have decentralized payment operations, expanding attack surfaces. Even check fraud remains rampant in sectors such as construction, healthcare and government, which handle thousands of vendor payments. The broader and more complex the supply chain is, the greater its exposure to fraud. According to the Association for Financial Professionals’ 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey, 79% of organizations experienced payments fraud in 2024, nearly on par with 80% the year prior.

B2B commerce demands trust, but this trust can be exploited by bad actors, underscoring the need for secure, embedded infrastructure and real-time fraud prevention.

White-label embedded payments offer advanced security and compliance, as well as greater visibility into the payment process.

WEX and similar providers offer Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)-compliant embedded payment systems, allowing businesses to simplify compliance while safeguarding sensitive data. Embedded solutions consolidate payment data into centralized dashboards, offering fraud mitigation capabilities that in-house systems struggle to match.

Moreover, while many businesses worry about losing control over the payment process by outsourcing, partnering with a trusted white-label provider actually enhances control by providing firms with real-time financial insights. For example, a recent survey found that hospitality businesses rank real-time financial visibility alongside fraud prevention as one of the top challenges that payment vendors help address. By outsourcing payments to expert partners, companies can confidently prioritize value-added initiatives, knowing that every transaction is secure, visible and compliant.

WEX and Trulioo recently partnered on a new security enhancement for embedded payments.

By integrating Trulioo’s advanced document verification and biometrics identity checks, WEX is replacing manual know-your-customer (KYC) procedures with intelligent, automated verification. This shift is designed to streamline customer onboarding, reduce fraud risk and deliver a seamless digital experience, according to a press release. Trulioo’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform utilizes machine learning (ML) trained on 25 million global images and 200 biometric markers to detect forgeries, deepfakes and injection attacks, ensuring robust security. This collaboration supports WEX’s strategic expansion of its fuel card services across Europe and beyond, aligning with industry demands to balance smooth digital experiences with stringent security and compliance standards.

The Long Game: Loyalty, Partnerships and Growth

White-label payments don’t just solve today’s challenges—they set the stage for long-term success. Embedding finance through a trusted provider creates stickier customer relationships, strengthening loyalty through convenience and consistent service.

Embedded payments drive loyalty and unlock growth.

By streamlining transactions and reducing friction, white-label embedded payments deliver the flexibility and security executives value most. In the PYMNTS-WEX study, 22% of respondents ranked flexible payment terms as most important, while 20% prioritized simplified processes and 13% favored enhanced security features when choosing payment options with suppliers. Together, these attributes shape satisfaction and drive repeat business.

Companies that adopt white-label embedded solutions gain operational efficiency, financial benefits and the ability to future-proof their platforms. These partnerships empower firms to evolve seamlessly while delivering the consistent, flexible experiences that foster loyalty and long-term growth.

Build Smart: Buy for the Future of Embedded Finance

As embedded finance becomes a cornerstone of business growth, the choice between building and buying has never been clearer. White-label partnerships offer the scalability, speed and security enterprises need—without the cost or complexity of developing solutions in-house. By leveraging proven infrastructure from trusted providers, companies can embed payments under their brands, strengthen loyalty and future-proof their operations in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

PYMNTS Intelligence offers the following actionable roadmap for firms considering white-label embedded finance:

• Partner strategically to accelerate deployment and compliance. Choose a provider that delivers end-to-end capabilities—from virtual cards and API-driven integrations to fraud prevention and regulatory support—enabling firms to launch faster while maintaining brand ownership and operational control.
• Prioritize visibility and control through embedded dashboards. Real-time financial insights empower teams to monitor transactions, detect anomalies and make data-driven decisions. Centralized dashboards provided by white-label platforms improve transparency and reduce operational friction.
• Invest in loyalty by embedding payments that drive repeat business. Seamless, flexible payment experiences foster stronger relationships and higher retention rates. By integrating preferred payment methods and customized terms, firms can transform convenience into long-term loyalty and growth.

By following these steps, enterprises can turn embedded finance from a back-end utility into a strategic advantage. Instead of diverting resources to build complex systems, they can focus on innovation, customer experience and revenue growth—confident that every transaction is secure, compliant and aligned with their brand.

Every dollar and hour spent recreating complex payments infrastructure in-house is a missed opportunity for core innovation. Embedding a trusted solution gives enterprises a launchpad, empowering them to evolve their platform and strengthen customer relationships for the long game.”