Embedded finance is generating excitement among enterprises, due to its ability to seamlessly integrate financial services within existing customer interfaces. EY forecasts a $606 billion global market, with $6.5 trillion in payments processed through embedded channels by 2025. What’s more, a previous study conducted by Airwallex, in partnership with Edgar, Dunn & Company, found that 83% of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) desire access to financial services through their existing SaaS platforms and marketplaces.

However, successful implementation of embedded finance can be a long and complicated process. While the opportunity is exciting, companies often encounter long integration timelines and disjointed implementations.

To better understand the challenges and opportunities companies face with embedded finance, Airwallex commissioned NewtonX to survey 200 enterprise decision makers, regarding the introduction of embedded finance. The survey focused on understanding the key drivers behind introducing embedded finance into their business, what the process of building embedded finance is like, and more.

Embedded finance is an opportunity to improve customer experience and monetise transactions

Customer experience is the top priority for enterprises looking to introduce embedded finance. In fact, 78% of executives say that the reason for looking at embedded finance is due to wanting to build a more positive and unified customer experience, while 71% see it as an opportunity to keep customers on their platform for more engagement. Integrating financial services also allows enterprises to create new lines of revenue through — FX markups, pay in and pay out fees, and more. However, this is secondary to ensuring the best possible customer experience.

Key challenges revolve around technology and regulatory requirements

Despite the excitement surrounding embedded finance, businesses face hurdles with its introduction — namely, surrounding integration with existing technology, as well as dealing with regulatory and compliance needs. For many enterprises, embedded finance is their first foray into a highly regulated industry. Ensuring legal compliance and seamless integration with existing tech stacks are necessary to provide the best customer experience.

Choosing the correct embedded finance partner is crucial to success

Businesses have high expectations when it comes to choosing the right partner for implementing embedded finance. There are many highly important considerations, though at the top of the list is ensuring the delivery of true customer value, through an easy-to-use interface. To reduce challenges in technical integration, the ability for a partner’s solutions to seamlessly integrate with existing tech stacks is also crucial. And lastly, price is always a key consideration, as well as a partner that can offer multiple embedded finance solutions.

To learn more about these findings, download the full report.