The platform shift: Risks and opportunities from a changing landscape
B2B payments are undergoing a structural transformation. Specialized platforms — Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs), procurement systems, vertical SaaS solutions — are rapidly becoming the primary interface for commercial transactions, moving well beyond their original role as books of record for inventory, accounting and expense management. For businesses, these platforms aren't just tools anymore. They're the environment where buying decisions get made and payments get initiated.
For issuers, this shift creates a real tension. Platforms and banks have not historically competed in the same space. Now each are looking to own the end-customer relationship, and as platforms deepen their hold on the user experience, issuers risk receding payments into the background — a "powered by" utility with diminishing proximity to purchase data, decision-making and the customer. That's a significant concern for long-term relevance.
But the same shift also presents a genuine opportunity. Issuers who move deliberately can drive meaningful volume growth and build deeper customer stickiness by offering unique experiences, capabilities and a robust product offering — not by resisting the platform era, but by embedding themselves within it.
Three strategic paths for issuers
Mid-tier banks are increasingly viewing embedded payments as a way to go upmarket and compete with the largest incumbents. Major banks are looking to go down market from enterprise customers and offer more off the shelf solutions. There's no single playbook for how issuers engage with embedded payments, but three distinct strategic paths are emerging, each with its own risk and reward profile:
Fintech sponsorship
Essentially a Banking as a Service (BaaS) model, where issuers provide regulated financial infrastructure — BIN sponsorship, compliance, credit and program management solutions — to technology providers who want to offer their own payments solutions. It's a relatively low-lift entry point, but it carries a high risk of commoditization over time.
Bring your own bank
Here, issuers embed their own payment products directly into a platform's native payment flow. This approach preserves the bank’s customer relationship, product offerings and financial models while delivering richer data and more automated processes to end customers. It's a stronger position.
Proprietary embedded offerings
Custom SaaS solutions or bespoke platform integrations by the bank. The ambition is clear, but so is the complexity. Major global banks have spent years on custom builds with limited adoption to show for it due to the long sales cycle and challenges of selling software on top of financial products.
Leveraging core issuer strengths to capture value
Issuers bring distinct advantages to embedded payments that platforms simply can't replicate — and leading with those strengths is key to capturing real value.
Capital flexibility and credit capacity are foundational. When a card is positioned as a working capital tool, it does more than facilitate transactions — it preserves buyer cash flow while accelerating supplier payments. That's a compelling value proposition for corporate finance teams under pressure to optimize liquidity.
Regulatory expertise is a meaningful moat. Platform partners frequently underestimate the complexity of compliance requirements for financial institutions around KYC and AML. Issuers who can offer compliance-ready infrastructure for money movement as part of the partnership proposition — which removes a significant barrier — can earn a deeper seat at the table in the process.
Trust and security matters. Institutional credibility and network-level fraud infrastructure are assets that platform brands are still years away from building. For corporate clients managing high-value transactions at scale, that difference is decisive.
Rethinking the issuer go-to-market
Winning in embedded payments isn't just a product challenge — it's a go-to-market challenge. And for many issuers, that requires a fundamental shift in orientation.
The move is from "product-out" to "coverage-first." Treasurers, CFOs and CTOs increasingly ask one question before almost anything else: does this work inside the software my team already uses? If the answer isn't an immediate yes, the conversation often ends there as companies have limited resources to take on development efforts. Issuers need to lead with coverage — demonstrating that their card products can be easily used where business workflows already live.
Closing the enablement gap is equally critical. Front-line sales teams need to understand and tell the embedded payments story with confidence, which means having a clear grasp of how card products and technology integrations work together to deliver real business value.
And then there's co-selling. Embedding payments into enterprise platforms means navigating complex organizations, with multi-stakeholder decisions involving Finance, IT, AP and procurement teams. Success requires genuine partnership with platform providers to guide clients through that process — not just a handoff, but shared ownership of the outcome.
Future-forward: AI as an accelerant for issuer strategy
The embedded payments opportunity is significant today — and it's about to get more complex. AI is changing the equation in ways that demand issuers think ahead.
Agentic commerce is moving from concept to reality. AI agents in ERPs are being developed to independently handle procurement workflows and payment execution. When an AI agent is managing a transaction and the workflow developed, there's no moment of human choice of which card to use — no opportunity to prompt a switch to a different card. If a bank’s payment product isn't already embedded where the agent operates, it simply won't be used.
B2B environments are uniquely well-suited for this future. When integrations are developed, corporate policies are codified, approval workflows are structured and procurement rules are machine-readable, AI agents can act within defined parameters. That means issuers who are embedded within those parameters will be better positioned to capture the volume that AI-driven commerce generates.
How Visa helps issuers lead
Visa sits at the center of this ecosystem as essential market infrastructure— connecting issuers to platforms, partners and acquirers, and providing capabilities they need to compete and grow.
A core part of that role is scale and simplicity. Through Visa Commercial Solutions (VCS), Visa provides a central hub that allows banks to activate integrations across multiple platforms without the burden of separate, multi-year technology roadmaps for each one. It's a fundamentally different model — one that helps issuers move faster and expand their coverage more efficiently.
Beyond connectivity, Visa brings advanced capabilities that issuers can deploy at scale: fraud prevention and acceptance solutions, network intelligence and AI-ready tools built for the complexity of commercial payments. These aren't add-ons — they're built into the foundation.
In a rapidly evolving landscape, the issuers who will lead are those who recognize that going it alone isn't the answer. Partnering with the right ecosystem — one with the reach, the technology and the trust that Visa brings — is how embedded payments becomes a lasting competitive advantage.
The material contained in this document is provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only. Visa neither makes any warranty or representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the information within this document, nor assumes any liability or responsibility that may result from reliance on such information. Nothing contained herein is intended as investment or legal advice.
This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that relate to, among other things, our future operations, prospects, developments, strategies, business growth and financial outlook. Forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "projects," “could," "should," "will," "continue" and other similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control and are difficult to predict. We describe risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any of these forward-looking statements in our filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we DO NOT intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
These materials and best practice recommendations are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for marketing, legal, regulatory or other advice. Recommended marketing materials should be independently evaluated in light of your specific business needs and any applicable laws and regulations. Visa is not responsible for your use of the marketing materials, best practice recommendations or other information, including errors of any kind, contained in this document.