Toronto, Ontario, February 24, 2026 - Fintechs are turning toward embedded payments to strengthen relationships with customers, according to a new data brief from PYMNTS Intelligence and Marqeta. 

Traditional credit card issuers should keep a close eye on the embedded payments sphere because they may lose visibility among consumers as fintech platforms seek to more fully own the user experience.

“The ability to weave payment functionality into existing banking, lending, or investment services allows these companies to expand their financial ecosystems, creating more comprehensive relationships with customers and increasing their lifetime value,” the brief’s authors wrote. 

The research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Marqeta reveals that 70% of financial services organizations see embedded finance as a key component in improving the customer experience.

Embedded payments can increase convenience for shoppers, but the functionality may leave credit card issuers at risk of becoming invisible providers of infrastructure. But just because a payment method is out of sight doesn’t necessarily mean it’s completely out of a user’s mind.

“Ultimately, I think users really care about fraud,” Jess Houlgrave, CEO of WalletConnect, told us. “They care about their ability to raise chargebacks if needed. And these are things that will determine the payment method of choice for those end users.”

Many financial services organizations identify embedded finance as a vital lever for improving customer experiences.

Nevertheless, issuers may have concerns over losing visibility if super apps become more popular in the U.S. in the near future. Deloitte refers to a super app as one that provides users with multiple services and offers a consistent transacting experience.

Adam Neiberg, Global Banking Marketing Manager at SAS, told us that it’s only a matter of time before super apps, which have already seen success in other countries, start to gain traction in the U.S. 

“In a world of super apps, embedded payments become a core feature whether you are buying coffee, hailing a ride, or purchasing concert tickets,” Neiberg told us. “Once a credit card is set as a payment option in a super app, it becomes almost invisible.”

Seizing Key Moments to Deepen Relationships

Traditional credit card issuers have an important role to play within the embedded payments arena. But the brand that users interact with inside an embedded payments modal belongs to the platform, Branden Korf, Payments Marketing Associate at EBizCharge, told us.

“Credit card issuers still move the money and manage the credit risk — they just no longer ‘own the moment’,” Korf said. 

As embedded payments become more common, card issuers may need to rethink strategies to boost different revenue streams. 

“As platforms capture more interchange and customer lifetime value, card companies may need to rely less on transaction margins and more on value-added services,” Jimmy Estrada, Co-Founder and Owner of JELA Payments, told us. 

Estrada outlined some changes we may see, including an increase in revenue-sharing partnerships and more of a focus on monetizing data analytics and fraud prevention programs.

Issuers that invest in offering best-in-class customer service tools to their customers may also find a way to distinguish themselves as they lose visibility within super apps and other platforms.

One of the greatest competitive advantages a business can possess is having the right data and using it effectively.

After all, if someone encounters a problem when making a card payment within an app, that person may be more likely to turn to their bank rather than the app itself to try to remedy the issue, Neiberg explained.

“In an embedded finance world, this is the key point where banks can manage and deepen customer relationships,” Neiberg told us. “If banks can provide a quick and painless fix, their card might move to the top of the customer’s digital wallet.”

As companies continue to learn about embedded payments, more programs may arise that make inventive use of customer data. A Forbes report on the use of data in the business environment highlights that a company’s greatest competitive advantage is not only having access to the right data, but possessing the ability to use it effectively.

“If platforms are generating significant value from user data tied to payment behavior, innovative concepts such as ‘Spend Your Data’ could emerge, where users are directly rewarded on their cards for the data they contribute,” Alex McDougall, CEO of The FUTR Corporation, told us. 

“That model aligns incentives across issuers, platforms, and consumers rather than concentrating value at the top of the stack,” McDougall added.

The Bottom Line

Change is inevitable in the business world, and it’s becoming increasingly common in the payments arena as more participants and new technologies upend the old way of doing things. 

But disruption can lead to innovation. As more people turn to super apps and the payment options they present, credit card issuers can view the growth of embedded payments as an opportunity to bring more value to the services they offer end users.

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