;Welcome Inside the Vault

Tedd Huff here and I’m excited to bring you the first edition of Inside the Vault, written by Stephen Bishop, our lead Confidential Informant and the operator you want guiding you through what’s actually happening in sponsor banking and Banking as a Service (BaaS).

Steve spent years building OMBX at OMB Bank as EVP, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Innovation Officer. He created a Banking as a Service platform from scratch inside a 60-year-old community bank, managed the compliance battles, sat through examiner conversations, and dealt with every partnership challenge that comes with embedded finance programs. Now he leads amBaaSsador, where he helps banks and fintechs figure out what works, what doesn’t, and why most partnerships fail before they ever launch.

I’ve known operators who talk a good game at conferences, and I’ve known operators who’ve actually done the work. Steve is the second kind. When we launched Inside the Vault at Money20/20, sitting down with AnaLiza Grandner from First Bank of the Lake and Rodrigo Suarez from Piermont Bank, the conversation went places most panels never touch. We talked about the deals that printed money, the compliance pushbacks that killed programs, and the risk decisions that changed entire product roadmaps. That’s the standard he brings to this newsletter.

Each week, Steve is breaking down what’s happening in fintech banking with the kind of clarity you get from someone who’s lived through board debates, pricing standoffs, and product launches that either scaled or crashed. This isn’t surface-level commentary. It’s the real story behind sponsor bank partnerships, embedded finance moves, and BaaS programs that most people only hear about after they’ve already succeeded or failed.

Here’s what Steve saw at Money20/20:

Embedded Finance at Money20/20

Embedded finance took center stage at Money 2020, with leading sponsor banks and fintechs announcing products and partnerships designed to grab the market’s attention. Most bank sponsors were paying attention to the conversation around stablecoin rails and agentic payments and often led with questions around API strategy. Money 2020 proved that Fintech is BACK, current and future sponsor banks have adjusted to be the catalyst of future innovations for real products and services.

Bonus: Inside the Vault Podcast Launch

By far the most exciting and important happening at Money 2020, was the recording of the inaugural episode of Inside the Vault. The series will feature candid stories around sponsor banking and BaaS. Guests, AnaLiza Grander and Rodrigo Suarez, highlighted operational innovation, partner selection, and risk management. Take a listen (and subscribe) for real-world operators' views on practical compliance and relentless customer focus in embedded finance programs.

Key Takeaways for BaaS and Sponsor Banks at Money 2020

• The industry moved from concept to operationalizing technologies like stablecoins and identity management tools 

• Cross-platform embedded payments and programmable money were around every turn in the Exhibit Hall, with regulated stablecoin APIs rolling out for sponsor banks.

• The creator economy is now a legitimate banking vertical. Multiple platforms announced embedded banking specifically for content creators and gig workers, signaling sponsor banks see this segment as worth the compliance investment.

• Regional and community banks dominated the sponsor banking conversations. The narrative shifted from "can small banks compete?" to "how fast can we onboard fintech partners?".

Full Take - TLDR Version

The cheering from the crowd about how stablecoins are going to solve all problems was not in short supply. Even Western Union announced their USDPT stablecoin that potentially could give sponsor banks and BaaS platforms regulated, programmable digital assets for global cross-border embedded payments from a veteran in the space. 

While the future of stablecoins in domestic money movement is still unclear, the GENUIS Act has ensured stablecoins were a topic of every dinner conversation at the show. 

On-chain offerings did not stop at stablecoins.  Increasingly, there is a demand for crypto capabilities without the licensing headaches. Nium's Crypto-as-a-Service platform gives financial institutions API access to buy, sell, and hold digital assets, with plans for stablecoin wallets and crypto payment acceptance coming next.

Nium's platform handles the compliance infrastructure, KYC/AML monitoring, brokerage, custody, and processing. The company launched with support for five cryptocurrencies in the U.S., and will expand to 20 currencies across 35 countries. At the same time, Nium expanded its Banking-as-a-Service solution to the U.S., adding card issuance capabilities to its global network that already reaches 190 countries.

This announcement signals where the market is headed. Banks and fintechs need modular infrastructure that lets them embed crypto services fast without building from scratch.  Crypto has long been a regulatory challenge for sponsor banks, but the question is transitioning from a  “how” to more of a “when.”

The use case of Crypto-as-a-Service within embedded banking further expanded to include the creator economy.  Manifest’s embedded banking solution gives content creators and gig workers direct access to business banking tools that traditional institutions never built for them.  Manifest partnered with hoo.be and Too Lost to integrate financial services directly into creator platforms, handling everything from multi-stream income tracking to peer-to-peer payments between collaborators.  The platform supports the half-trillion-dollar creator economy that traditional banks have largely ignored because they couldn't categorize YouTubers, musicians, and influencers into existing risk models.  This validates what sponsor banks should already know: platforms serving creators need embedded banking rails, and the companies that win will be those who can build compliance infrastructure fast enough to serve non-traditional income streams. 

Partnerships took center stage with enterprise-scale announcements signaling where the market is headed for end-users. Uber tapped Checkout.com to power instant global payments across its rideshare and delivery platforms, using AI-driven transaction routing to cut failures and speed up processing.

PayPal and Google Cloud launched agentic commerce tools that let merchants embed conversational AI directly into checkout flows, handling payments and card management through natural language interfaces. These weren't aspirational demos. Both partnerships went live with real infrastructure solving actual payment friction for millions of daily transactions.  Agentic commerce is coming faster than expected and will define the next iteration of embedded finance.

Money 2020 made one thing clear; the market stopped talking about whether embedded finance works and started building for scale. Compliance got equal billing with features, failed programs got discussed openly instead of whispered about, and regional banks showed up ready to compete. The stablecoin hype was loud, but the real signal came from platforms launching live products with actual transaction volume behind them.

Subscribe Now

If you care about modern banking, detailed breakdowns of how financial institutions work with fintechs, and partnerships that actually perform, and you want access to candid conversations that usually stay inside the vault, this series is built for you.

Subscribe now to get the first episodes as soon as they drop and stay ahead of the next wave of bank-fintech moves.

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