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Money20/20 takeaways: Building the foundations of the next era in fintech
Fintech has entered its next phase. At Money20/20, one theme stood out: growth now depends on owning infrastructure, data, and identity. Embedded finance is mature, infrastructure is the new competitive edge, and trust will belong to those who build and control the foundation.
Money20/20 made one thing clear: fintech has entered its next phase. The experiments are over. Growth now depends on ownership of infrastructure, data, and trust.
Across the floor, the conversations echoed that message. Platforms are scaling, banking infrastructure is differentiating, and identity is becoming the new frontier of innovation. Here’s what we took away.
1. Embedded finance reaches full maturity
A few years ago, embedded finance was a trend to watch. Today, it’s the foundation of how platforms grow.
“Platforms are really doubling down on embedded finance—payments as well as financial services,” said Natalie Wexler, Adyen’s VP of Platforms Offering Strategy. “It’s moving upstream to service all types of customers, SMBs and enterprise customers alike.”
Embedded finance has evolved from a convenience to a competitive advantage. Platforms that once relied on networks of third parties now use integrated financial services to deepen relationships and create new revenue streams.
Our view: Embedded finance has moved from concept to core. With Adyen’s unified platform and banking infrastructure, platforms can deliver payments and financial services seamlessly within their ecosystems—globally and at scale.
2. Infrastructure becomes the ultimate differentiator
Compliance isn’t a checkbox, it’s a strategic asset. It creates the boundaries that let us move with clarity in a complex ecosystem. As fintech matures, resilience and infrastructure ownership define the next phase of growth.
Esther Ley, Head of Platforms Product Marketing at Adyen, summed it up: “We’re excited to show how our banking licenses and infrastructure—built from the ground up—are helping the next wave of embedded finance for platforms growing across the world.”
Holding three full banking licenses across the US, UK, and EU gives Adyen direct access to the financial system. That access translates into richer, cleaner data across merchants, payment types, and geographies. In a data-hungry world, the hardest build becomes the richest source of advantage.
Licensing also means fewer dependencies, faster settlement, and stronger compliance. It’s the foundation that lets us layer in AI meaningfully, using large language models to connect data across systems, predict fraud, and improve performance.
The payoff for building in hard mode is clear: direct access to data, adaptive AI systems, and the ability to turn trust into a lasting competitive edge.
Our view: Infrastructure is no longer behind the scenes. It is the strategy.
3. Identity is the new frontier of trust
Today’s merchants need vaulting solutions that keep data secure while ensuring performance and flexibility. Third-party vaults can store credentials, but often can’t connect them to transaction outcomes, leaving merchants with cost, complexity, and little control.
Backed by trillions in global transaction data, Adyen’s tokenization solution safeguards sensitive data while turning compliance into a performance advantage. It provides a universal, provider-agnostic vault that helps enterprises reduce costs, increase authorization rates, and stay resilient.
As Brigette Korney, Adyen’s Global Head of Risk, put it: “How we consider risk is actually part of the entire payment funnel. Identity isn’t just a checkpoint—it’s integral.”
The token vault is becoming the foundation for a new era: agentic commerce, where AI agents transact autonomously on behalf of consumers. Just as EMV chips secured the physical world and tokens secured the digital world, the universal token vault will secure this next one.
Our view: The era of fragmented credential management is ending. Trust will belong to those who build for ownership.
Hard mode pays off
Fintech’s next chapter won’t be defined by hype, but by foundations. Embedded finance, infrastructure, and identity are converging into one truth: trust is built through ownership.
At Adyen, we’ve chosen the hard way—building our own infrastructure, securing our own licenses, and connecting our own data. Because in a world moving faster than ever, the hard way is the only way to move with confidence.