Scaling Embedded Finance: Building a Partner-Centric, API-Driven Commercial Bank

Embedded finance is rapidly reshaping the commercial banking landscape, offering banks the opportunity to unlock new revenue streams, deepen customer relationships, and accelerate digital transformation. Yet, while the promise is clear, the path to scaling embedded finance—especially in the complex world of commercial banking—presents a unique set of operational and technical challenges. This page provides a practical guide for transformation leaders and technology strategists, drawing on Publicis Sapient’s experience in building BaaS-first banks and joint ventures, and offering a roadmap for moving beyond pilot projects to scalable, partner-centric embedded finance businesses.

The Imperative: Why Scale Embedded Finance Now?

The integration of banking services into non-financial customer journeys—whether through digital marketplaces, ERP systems, or sector-specific platforms—has become a key driver of growth and innovation. Commercial banks are under pressure from digital-first challengers and evolving client expectations, with embedded finance emerging as a critical lever to:

Create new distribution channels and reach customers where they already do business
Accelerate clients’ own digital transformation by embedding banking into their workflows
Unlock new value pools through data-driven, personalized offerings

However, the journey from isolated pilots to a scalable, partner-centric embedded finance business is fraught with complexity. Banks must serve multiple distribution partners, each with distinct technology stacks, business models, and customer needs. The ability to efficiently scale and adapt embedded finance propositions is what separates future-ready banks from those left behind.

The Modular Capability Stack: Foundation for Scale

At the heart of scalable embedded finance is a modular capability stack that enables banks to efficiently serve multiple partners and adapt to diverse integration requirements. This stack typically includes:

Customer Proximity (Distributor/Partner Layer):
The partner owns the customer relationship and digital journey, embedding financial services into their platform (e.g., e-commerce, ERP, or sector-specific software).
API Layer:
The digital bridge between the bank and its partners. Well-designed APIs allow for compliant, resilient, and operationally efficient distribution of banking services. Critically, APIs must be multi-tenant, enabling multiple partners to consume services from the same endpoints, and must support rapid, low-cost integration.
Financial Product Manufacturing:
The bank (or fintech partner) designs and builds the financial products—payments, lending, working capital, etc.—to be embedded in the partner’s journey.
Banking Infrastructure Provider:
Underlying processes and capabilities (e.g., KYC, AML, payments processing) that support the financial products, optimized for speed, risk, and cost.
Regulated Entity/Balance Sheet Provider:
The licensed entity that books the financial products and manages associated risk and compliance.

This modular approach enables banks to efficiently customize offerings for different partners, avoid costly bespoke builds, and scale across a broad ecosystem.

The Central Role of APIs

APIs are the linchpin of scalable embedded finance. They enable banks to:

Integrate rapidly with diverse partner platforms (ERP, e-commerce, sector-specific software)
Expose banking services in a standardized, secure, and compliant manner
Support multi-tenancy, allowing multiple partners to consume the same services without duplication
Reduce integration costs and time-to-market

Leading API providers in other industries (such as Twilio in telecoms) have demonstrated the power of focusing on partner experience, speed, and reliability. In financial services, banks must match or exceed the integration experience offered by fintech API aggregators to remain relevant in the embedded finance value chain.

Organizational and Delivery Model Shifts

Scaling embedded finance is not just a technology challenge—it requires a fundamental shift in how banks organize, deliver, and govern new propositions:

Cross-Functional, Agile Teams:
Banks must move away from traditional product silos and hierarchical structures. Instead, they need multi-disciplinary teams that bring together technology, product, compliance, operations, and partner management. These teams should operate with a start-up mindset, rapidly delivering minimum viable products (MVPs) and iterating based on partner and customer feedback.
Partner-Centric Operating Model:
Success depends on understanding and co-creating value with partners. Banks must develop deep insight into partner needs, business models, and customer journeys, and be prepared to adapt their offerings accordingly.
Modular, Cloud-Native Architecture:
Modern, event-driven, and composable architectures enable banks to swap or run multiple fintech solutions per functional area, orchestrate complex partner ecosystems, and scale efficiently.
Data at the Core:
Real-time data availability, analytics, and AI are essential for delivering personalized, insight-driven experiences and for managing risk and compliance at scale.

Case Studies: From Vision to Scale

Building a BaaS-First Commercial SME Bank in 9 Months

Publicis Sapient partnered with a commercial bank to launch a BaaS-first SME bank targeting 350,000 businesses. The project delivered:

A fully functional, cloud-native platform in just 9 months
Orchestration of 22 fintech partners
Fully automated operational processes
Real-time data lake for analytics and insight
API-driven integration with ERP and third-party systems

This approach enabled rapid onboarding of partners, flexible integration, and a scalable foundation for future growth.

Strategic Joint Venture: SCB TechX

In partnership with Siam Commercial Bank, Publicis Sapient helped create a leading fintech platform in Southeast Asia, delivering both banking and non-banking services to over 10 million customers. The platform’s modular, API-driven architecture and cross-functional delivery model enabled rapid scaling, cost reduction, and accelerated time-to-market.

Roadmap for Incumbents: Moving Beyond Pilots

To move from pilot projects to a scalable, partner-centric embedded finance business, banks should:

Define Strategic Objectives:
Clarify commercial goals, target segments, and partnership models.
Design Modular Architecture:
Invest in API-first, cloud-native, and composable platforms.
Build Cross-Functional Teams:
Establish agile, multi-disciplinary teams focused on partner and customer outcomes.
Engage the Fintech Ecosystem:
Develop true partnerships with fintechs, leveraging their capabilities and co-creating value.
Adopt Agile Delivery and Governance:
Embrace test-and-learn approaches, rapid MVP launches, and continuous iteration.
Scale Efficiently:
Focus on efficient customization, enabling the bank to adapt offerings for multiple partners without sacrificing speed or quality.

Conclusion: The Future is Partner-Centric and API-Driven

Embedded finance is set to become a dominant model for commercial banking distribution and innovation. Banks that succeed will be those that embrace modular, API-driven architectures, organize around agile, cross-functional teams, and put partner and customer needs at the center of their operating model. By learning from real-world examples and adopting a practical, scalable approach, incumbents can move beyond pilots and build embedded finance businesses that deliver sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Publicis Sapient stands ready to partner with banks on this journey, bringing deep expertise in strategy, technology, and delivery to help clients realize the full potential of embedded finance at scale.