Visa and Equals Research Shows Embedded Finance Service Gaps

Service shortcomings among embedded finance providers are constraining growth and leading to preventable revenue leakage, according to new research from Equals and Visa Consulting & Analytics.

The report draws on insights from more than 150 senior executives and decision-makers spanning banks, fintech firms, trading platforms and digital asset exchanges across the UK and Western Europe, highlighting a disconnect between how organisations select payments partners and the factors that underpin long-term value, trust and scalability.

McKinsey estimates that embedded finance in Europe will exceed €100bn (US$115.9bn) by the end of the decade.

However, the findings indicate that operational inefficiencies are hindering momentum.

In total, 45% of respondents report that service and support challenges have limited their ability to capture full business value, while 82% acknowledge that providers are instrumental in enabling successful scaling.

Financial and operational strain

The commercial impact is particularly pronounced for finance leaders, with 60% of CFOs reporting revenue losses linked to inadequate support from embedded finance providers.

In addition, more than two in five organisations say their global expansion efforts have been held back by service-related shortcomings.

The research points to an ongoing disconnect between business expectations and the level of service, support and operational expertise delivered when issues arise.

Managing these frameworks in-house is also proving challenging, with 71% of all respondents – rising to 81% among CFOs – indicating that internal teams lack the capacity to handle the operational and regulatory complexities of embedded finance.

Qualitative insights suggest that service-related friction often emerges as early as the onboarding stage.

While providers tend to perform strongly during the sales process, organisations frequently report difficulties later, including integration delays, slow technical support and gaps in compliance oversight.

For 54% of businesses, these issues are not one-off occurrences but develop into ongoing operational pressures.

Ed Chandler, Senior Executive Leader of Equals, says: “These findings suggest that many businesses are underserved because their payment environments are too complex for off-the-rack solutions.

“At Equals we recognise there is no one-size-fits-all model for successful embedded finance and payments adoption.  

“Exceptional businesses need a unified, flexible platform that can be adapted to meet their needs, combined with a genuine partner that understands the complexity of their payment environment.

“This includes support through compliance challenges and the fragmentation that can occur during cross-border expansion.”  

The provider paradox

Service alignment continues to present a challenge for leadership teams.

More than 60% of CFOs say providers are either “too big to care” or “too small to meet” their requirements.

In detail, 63% of CFO respondents believe providers are too large to prioritise their needs, rising to 76% among neobank respondents.

Conversely, 60% of CFOs report that some providers lack the scale necessary to reliably support their operational and compliance demands.

Human resource considerations are also a clear concern.

The report finds that 60% of organisations are worried that a growing shift toward AI-led or automated servicing could undermine the specialist expertise and relationship-driven support critical to their operations.

Instead, businesses favour direct engagement with relationship managers and subject-matter specialists, rather than relying on ticketing systems where accountability can become unclear.