Brands urged to adopt embedded finance before 2026

Vladyslav Kolodistyi urged consumer brands to adopt embedded finance and to build payments, credit and wallet services into products before 2026. He framed the change as a way for brands to reshape customer relationships and generate new revenue streams.

Kolodistyi recommended retailers, subscription services and consumer goods makers begin by embedding basic payment capabilities and loyalty-linked wallets, then add buy-now-pay-later, short-term lending and simple insurance over time. He advised starting partnerships with banks and fintech platforms this year, using third-party APIs to launch minimally viable financial products and moving toward controlling more of the customer’s financial flow over two to three years to capture data and margins.

He described a typical rollout path: add branded payment instruments at checkout and offer in-app wallets to store funds and loyalty credits; after establishing a payment relationship, introduce point-of-sale credit and subscription billing; later expand into savings, micro-insurance or co-branded cards. Each phase requires investment in user experience, risk assessment and regulatory compliance. Kolodistyi noted many firms will retain bank partners for back-office operations while building customer-facing fintech features.

Initial focus areas should include checkout conversion, onboarding speed and data collection. Faster payments increase sales and provide behavioral signals that can be used for personalized offers. Offering short-term credit at the point of sale can raise average order value and extend customer lifetime value when underwriting and collections are handled securely.

Kolodistyi warned brands to build expertise in credit risk, fraud prevention and consumer protection rules. He advised hiring compliance and risk staff early or contracting licensed partners to carry regulated activity while the brand gains volume and learns the financial operating model. He recommended technology choices that favor modular APIs and cloud services to enable rapid iteration and to isolate risk-bearing functions from the customer experience.

Kolodistyi recommended: “Start with a narrow, measurable product — a branded wallet or a checkout financing option — and instrument it for unit economics. Use partners to manage regulated activity while you build product-market fit. Then decide whether to convert those partnerships into owned capabilities.”

Additional operational advice included testing new products in a single market or customer segment, building clear consent flows for data use, integrating fraud-monitoring systems before scaling, publishing transparent pricing and maintaining clear customer support channels for financial inquiries.

Kolodistyi traced the evolution of embedded finance from payment tools and gift cards to lending, insurance and banking features inside non-financial apps. He said the next 18 months will determine which brands move from experimentation to operating embedded-finance products and recommended establishing product metrics and securing compliant partners to expand offerings by 2026.