Author: Drew Edwards

The 2025 Money Mobility Forecast: From Fragmentation to Unity: Fintech's Supply Chain Moment

The 2025 Money Mobility Forecast: From Fragmentation to Unity: Fintech’s Supply Chain Moment

January 10, 2025 By Drew Edwards

The Amazon Effect: A Supply Chain Revolution I’ve been in financial services since the 80s. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that history doesn’t repeat itself. But it sure does rhyme. Right now, I’m watching the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and embedded finance space in fintech undergo its own “supply chain moment.” And it reminds me of a transformation we’ve seen before in e-commerce. Remember when Amazon made that decisive shift from relying on FedEx and UPS to building their own end-to-end logistics network? The conventional wisdom was clear: stick to your core competency and partner with specialists. After all, why would a technology company want to own trucks and warehouses? But Amazon understood something fundamental about serving enterprise customers at scale– when your infrastructure is fragmented across multiple vendors, you can’t guarantee the speed, reliability, or cost structure your customers are demanding. By bringing critical infrastructure in-house, not only did Amazon reduce costs, they revolutionized what was possible. Two-day shipping became two-hour delivery. Seasonal bottlenecks became opportunities for growth. In my opinion, the embedded banking industry is reaching that same inflection point today. How Amazon evolved from relying on others’ infrastructure to building an integrated logistics network that powers modern commerce, fintech platforms must and will evolve from being API aggregators to comprehensive infrastructure providers. And it’s happening right now. Today’s Fintech Stack: A House of Cards For years, the standard playbook for fintech and embedded finance platforms has been to piece together eight, ten, sometimes twelve different vendors just to move money around. One provider for KYC, another for card issuing, another for ACH processing, another for risk management–and each of these relationships adds complexity, cost, and potential points of failure to the stack. It’s like trying to guarantee Prime-level delivery reliability while depending on a different shipping company for each leg of the journey. When everything works perfectly, it’s fine. But in financial services, just like in logistics, perfection is a dangerous assumption. Because here’s the thing about money movement–it’s not just a simple ‘get from point A to point B super-duper fast’. The stakes are simply different. When a package is delayed, you might have an unhappy customer. When the money movement fails, you could be looking at millions in fraud losses or regulatory fines. Or worse. When Platforms Fail, People Suffer That reality is hitting home hard right now with the recent shake ups we’ve seen with players in the fintech space. When these embedded banking and fintech platforms stumble, it cascades through their entire customer base and then beyond. Suddenly you’ve got fintech companies scrambling to find new banking partners, enterprises trying to untangle complex vendor relationships, and regulators taking a much harder look at the whole ecosystem. But there’s more to it than business. Think about what this really means on the ground. When a fintech platform fails, there’s a small business owner who can’t make payroll because their banking provider suddenly shut down. A restaurant worker doesn’t get their tips at the end of a long shift. An insurance customer who lost everything in a hurricane has to wait days and weeks to get their claim money before starting to rebuild their life. Money movement isn’t abstract. It’s deeply personal and urgent. When you’re that small business owner or that restaurant worker, you don’t care about vendor relationships or third-party dependencies. You need your money, and you need it now. That’s why getting this right matters so much. The Great Consolidation is Coming The future of embedded banking belongs to stable companies that own their critical infrastructure while providing the flexibility enterprises need. Amazon’s logistics transformation lets businesses focus on delighting their customers with their products instead of supply chain management. Tomorrow’s finance platforms will let banks and enterprises focus on their customer experience instead of juggling dozens of financial vendors. Your Enterprise Action Plan So what should banks and enterprises be doing right now to prepare for this transformation? Here are three critical considerations I’ve been walking people through when they come to our team for support: First, evaluate your current vendor landscape. How many different providers will you be depending on for critical functions? How much of their stack do they own and control? What happens if any one of them fails? Second, diligence your BaaS partner or fintech platform. How long have they been around?  Have they been through multiple economic cycles? What banks are partnering with them? What does their customer churn look like? Are they fully funded?   Finally, think about your speed to market. How quickly can you launch new financial products? How responsive are your platform partners? Are vendor integrations slowing you down? My 2025 Prediction History doesn’t repeat itself… but it sure does rhyme. My prediction? By 2025, we’ll see a fundamental shift in how fintech platforms like BaaS serve their bank and enterprise needs. The successful platforms won’t be the ones with the most partnerships – they’ll be the ones who understand banking, risk management, and compliance at a fundamental level. And there’s historical context for this I can speak to. For example: Ingo started by running actual bank branches under a joint operating agreement with a $23 billion bank. That was the original BaaS – we owned the operations, they provided the charter, and we followed the rules. What I see happening in a few short years is necessary consolidation. For instance, most current BaaS players are still burning cash, dependent on venture funding, and juggling dozens of critical third-party relationships. That model is risky at enterprise scale. The future of BaaS and embedded finance isn’t about having the most integrations – it’s about having the right infrastructure to make finance and money mobility as fast and as reliable as Amazon makes package delivery when their customers hit ‘buy now’. The Future is Already Here At Ingo, I’m proud to share that we’re already building towards this future. When I was doing due diligence on getting deeper into embedded banking before we bought Deposits, it felt like I was a firefighter running into burning buildings while everyone else was running out. But here’s what I saw through the smoke: an industry where venture-backed platforms were taking on massive risk by relying on dozens of external vendors to handle critical money movement functions. Through strategic moves like our Deposits acquisition and our long-term investment in owning critical money mobility infrastructure, we’ve built what we’re calling the “Modern Money Stack”, combining both banking and payments capabilities in a vertically integrated platform. This isn’t theoretical either–we own and operate the essential components that power almost $20 billion money movement each year. Our check risk management engine processes billions of dollars in real-time decisions for companies like PayPal, Venmo and Regions Bank. Our payment infrastructure handles billions in disbursements for financial institutions like KeyBank, gaming companies like Caesars Sportsbook, and major property and casualty insurers. Additionally, we provide the most complete digital account funding solution, offering a zero-liability fraud guarantee across all three critical form factors: check, card, and ACH. By owning our technology, data and risk mitigation expertise and limited third party dependencies, we’re reducing the vulnerabilities that come with relying on a patchwork of third-party services. When you’re moving money for Fortune 500 companies, you can’t afford to have your ‘warehouse’ catch fire. Or worse, discover your core ‘logistics partner’ just ran out of venture funding. Think about what Amazon did for e-commerce infrastructure. They made it possible for any business to offer world-class delivery without building their own logistics network. That’s the future of Banking-as-a-Service: platforms that let enterprises embed financial services into their products confidently, knowing their infrastructure partner will be there tomorrow. The transformation is already underway. And unlike many players in this space, we’re not burning cash hoping to figure it out along the way. We’re profitable, proven, and building for the long haul. The only question is: are you ready to be part of it?
How Ingo Delivers Financial Innovation with Full-Service Embedded Finance

How Ingo Delivers Financial Innovation with Full-Service Embedded Finance

September 25, 2024 By Drew Edwards

Financial institutions have long relied on antiquated, legacy core infrastructure, hindering their ability to innovate. Meanwhile, tech companies have struggled with complicated payments orchestration that lacks compliance and leaves them open to fraud. As embedded finance has emerged to address these challenges, one thing is clear: In today’s challenging regulatory environment, it’s critical for businesses to rely on purpose-built solutions that safely power financial innovation.  With Ingo’s acquisition of Deposits Inc., a modern banking software and infrastructure platform, we’ve developed a full-service embedded finance platform with minimal dependency on third-party providers. Our money mobility capabilities, combined with cutting-edge technology, deliver a “modern money stack” backed by Ingo’s deep history and focus on regulatory compliance. With Ingo Payments, our clients can confidently create feature-rich, account-based relationships that align with evolving consumer expectations. Key Features of Our Embedded Finance Platform Instant Money Movement: Leverage industry-leading instant payment capabilities for faster, more efficient transactions. Cloud-Native Banking Infrastructure: Utilize our modern, scalable banking platform to create and manage financial products with ease. Comprehensive Compliance: Benefit from our proven expertise with regulatory compliance, ensuring your operations meet the highest standards of security and legality. Advanced API Integration: Access our full suite of financial services through easy-to-implement APIs, allowing for seamless integration into your existing systems. What This Means for Our Clients Money Mobility + : By combining instant money movement with cloud-based banking and ledgering capabilities, we’re creating a powerhouse of financial technology. Broader Service Offering: Our clients will now have access to a more comprehensive suite of financial products and services, all through a single, integrated platform. Accelerated Innovation: Our no-code and low-code connectivity options lead to faster development and time to value.  Improved User Experience: Expect smoother, more intuitive interfaces and seamless integration of financial services into your existing products. Ingo Payments is at the forefront of the embedded finance revolution. We’re excited to work with you to explore new possibilities. Get Started Today Ready to experience the power of our platform? Contact our sales team to learn how we can transform your financial offerings.
The Future of Banking as a Service Will Include Localized Payment Ecosystems

The Future of Banking as a Service Will Include Localized Payment Ecosystems

April 2, 2024 By Drew Edwards

In the breakneck-paced world of financial tech, digital money movement has become fully intertwined with advancements in banking. As digital banking has become the norm, the field has adapted through the inception and implementation of a new concept: Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS). What is BaaS and Why Does it Matter? Simply put, Banking as a Service refers to the provision of banking services, such as payments, deposits, and lending, by third-party companies rather than traditional banks. It enables non-banking entities, such as FinTech companies or other businesses, to offer financial services without having to build and maintain a full-fledged banking infrastructure. However, this evolution in the landscape has created new and emerging challenges. Namely, the need for a more robust, far-reaching, and secure approach to BaaS. This has given rise to BaaS 2.0—a BaaS model centered around enclosed financial ecosystems. BaaS 1.0, witnessed rapid expansion, driven by collaborative efforts between FinTech companies and smaller/neo banks. These partnerships aimed to leverage technology to enable seamless money mobility from companies to client’s bank accounts.  But the success of BaaS 1.0 created risks and regulatory scrutiny. Issues such as compliance, risk management, and fraud have surfaced, prompting a reassessment of the model’s sustainability, and particularly its scalability and security, as well as the opportunity for a more localized, self-contained banking mindset which keeps money moving within a business, instead of moving it back and forth from clients to businesses and beyond. Why BaaS 2.0 This is where BaaS 2.0 comes in. BaaS 2.0 marks a pivotal shift from the API-centric approach of its predecessor towards sender-centric banking ecosystems. This evolution aims to embed digital banking capabilities directly into a business’s internal payout workflows, while also mitigating risks associated with the myriad of third-party dependencies and creation of a maze-like tech stack just to enable money movement. The core of BaaS 2.0 lies in how banking services are being redefined for consumers and businesses alike. With instant payments becoming ubiquitous, the focus is shifting towards capitalizing on revenue opportunities while ensuring safety and accessibility. One strategy involves embedding instant account issuance within payout experiences, thereby offering banking services with minimal barriers to entry. Our company, for example, exemplifies this approach by leveraging proven, proprietary technology to create enclosed mini-ecosystems. BaaS 2.0: Mitigating Risks By siloing accounts and owning both the tech stack and risk management together, a BaaS 2.0-based strategy minimizes exposure to external risks while delivering a seamless banking experience for clients. An emphasis on enclosed ecosystems sets companies with this existing infrastructure farther along on the BaaS 2.0 path than many more traditional approaches to banking ecosystems. In general, BaaS 2.0 presents opportunities for businesses to rethink their banking strategies. Rather than solely focusing on cost reduction, companies are now exploring ways to foster recurring relationships within their ecosystems. By providing a complete digital banking experience under a fully functional, internalized framework, a BaaS 2.0 model enables corporate partners to drive adoption while retaining control and scalability. Demand will Increase. Will Your Business Be Ready? As the demand for embedded banking capabilities continues to grow, the transition to enclosed, user-centric, scalable solutions is imperative. Ingo is poised to address these needs for companies looking to get started while also offering a migration path to full API ownership for those seeking greater control over their financial operations and a more streamlined experience. Banking as a Service 2.0 represents more than a single step forward. It’s a paradigm shift towards fully or partially enclosed financial ecosystems. By prioritizing safety, accessibility, and scalability, this model paves the way for a new era of banking innovation, where partnerships thrive, and customer-centricity takes center stage.
Navigating the Rise of Mini-Ecosystems

The Future of Money Mobility: Navigating the Rise of Mini-Ecosystems

January 31, 2024 By Drew Edwards

Traditional financial services landscapes have long been dominated by established players relying on external financial ecosystems and marketplaces. However, the tide is turning, and a new vision is unfolding. Picture a future where businesses can leverage incentives and cutting-edge technologies to create their own individualized financial ecosystems, interconnected across various use cases and verticals.  In light of this, businesses are beginning to ask themselves a crucial question: “How do we turn all these individual money flows into a business model for us?” And the answer seems to lie in this vision of self-contained “mini ecosystems”.   Defining Mini-Ecosystems:  A “mini-ecosystem” refers to a singular financial system established by an individual company, where they create internal, interconnected financial environments with specific boundaries to optimize money flows.   The creation of such ecosystems involves leveraging advanced technologies, including cloud infrastructure and faster payment rails, to generate “off-network opportunities” that retain money within these environments. The benefit? Attractive revenue opportunities and increased customer loyalty through cost savings and seamless financial interactions.   Many companies are already sitting on a ton of customers using their product and navigating their platform. Which means there’s already the beginnings of an ecosystem there that they can build on.   A First-hand Look into the Financial Future  Consider a real-life example on a college campus. The halls of higher education have become hubs of seamless money movement. At my daughter’s university, everything from book shopping to managing meal plans is seamlessly interconnected within a contained, university-led financial environment.   This mini-ecosystem approach keeps all the money we put into the system right where we left it and offers attractive revenue and brand loyalty opportunities for individual businesses. But it also represents a paradigm shift in how we perceive and engage with financial systems.  Of course, this doesn’t signal an outright displacement of payment giants like Visa and Mastercard. Instead, the birth of these mini-ecosystems complement and augment existing financial infrastructure. They are not about replacing the traditional rails but rather about enhancing and expanding the partnership possibilities for businesses to empower them to grow internally and passing tangible benefits onto the consumer.  Ingo Payments: A Mini-Ecosystem Facilitator  But how can a big business, at universities and beyond, seamlessly make mini-ecosystems a reality? More easily with technologies and expertise by third party digital disbursement facilitators such as Ingo Payments. Ingo Payments already serves clients with millions of consumers interacting within contained environments. And with new technological advancements, including the cloud, embedded banking, and faster payment rails, our abilities to streamline these ecosystems will only grow.   As this shift unfolds, Ingo Payments is experiencing increased opportunities with treasurers, payments leaders, and business executives exploring new ways to transform diverse money flows into bespoke business models.   As we move forward, the integration of third parties will become more and more instrumental in connecting these mini-ecosystems. The era of super apps and interconnected financial activities is here, and businesses need to bring in external expertise to keep customers engaged and enhance user experiences. There’s a strong desire among U.S. consumers for mobile apps that combine various activities, emphasizing the demand for integrated and seamless financial solutions.  The Bottom Line: The Instant Payments Revolution is Already Here   The advent of the FedNow® Service further highlights the increasing relevance of instant payments across diverse use cases. Gaming, trucking, and other verticals present immense potential for mini-ecosystems to revolutionize the way money moves, offering instant disbursement options that align with consumer preferences and often create new business models for these ecosystems. Joint research conducted by PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments, focusing on gaming, reveals that instant disbursement is a preferred choice for 79% of gamers when offered the option.   The long-term potential of these mini-ecosystems has me fully convinced. I’m a 100% believer in the power of these ecosystems and their ability to help the ongoing revolution in how money moves. And I’m looking forward to a future where seamless financial experiences are not just a possibility, but a reality we are actively shaping. 

Introducing Ingo Payments

January 12, 2024 By Drew Edwards

For over 22 years, Ingo Money Inc. has made money accessible, instant, digital, and secure for businesses and their customers.  We are proud of our long history and the experiences our teams have brought to the marketplace through true partnerships that have stood the test of time. There are new entrants to this space all the time, but it’s impossible to get 22 years of experience in a day less than 22 years. We have successfully served our clients through multiple economic cycles with a turnover rate of near zero.   As the concept of Money Mobility has evolved in the marketplace, our product lines have expanded, creating the need for the introduction of a new brand—one more targeted at banks and corporations seeking to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities brought about by modern digital money movement.  Today, I am delighted to introduce Ingo Payments. Our new brand builds upon the strong foundation of our Ingo Money brand and aims to better differentiate our offerings to businesses seeking diverse payment services.  Why Ingo Payments? We take immense pride in our rich history of providing check risk management, enterprise, and mobile check cashing services to our clients. Over the years, under the Ingo Money brand, we have successfully delivered these solutions to a wide range of banks and fintechs, solidifying our standing within the industry. This part of our business continues to enjoy double-digit growth rates as more consumers migrate their transactions to mobile first.  With the introduction of the new Ingo Payments brand, our goal is to further strengthen our ability to address the needs of a rapidly evolving digital market. Operating these two unique brands in harmony will enable us to communicate and distinguish our specialized services more effectively.   Two Brand Identities The Ingo Payments brand will house our embedded payment solutions—including digital disbursements, instant account funding, payment acceptance and upcoming banking-as-a-service offerings. You can explore these offerings here, on our new Ingo Payments website.  The Ingo Money brand will continue to reflect our check solutions, including our check risk management APIs, mobile check cashing SDK and the Ingo Money App.  Our Pledge to You  Whether you are a prospective or current partner or client of Ingo Money, Ingo Payments, or both, our team remains committed to providing you with the most innovative payment solutions coupled with our unparalleled service and support. Here’s to a future filled with new payments possibilities! 

Comparing RTP, FedNow and Push-to-Card

August 30, 2023 By Drew Edwards

Instant payments have become the de facto expectation for consumers and businesses alike. Brands that cannot deliver on the promise of real-time, safe-to-spend funds will quickly find themselves losing ground to the competition.  Companies in the United States seeking this new standard have a growing number of payment options to choose from, including Same-Day ACH, push-to-card, the RTP® Network, and – now – FedNow. It can be confusing to know which is best suited to your needs and what advantages one holds over the others.  At Ingo Payments, we believe in the power of instant payments and recipient choice. We support a wide array of options, many of which enable real-time delivery of funds to accounts or cards.  To help make sense of which real-time payment options might be best suited for your business, we’re breaking down the key differences between the RTP Network, FedNow and push-to-card.  The RTP Network Launched in 2017, the RTP Network is the latest payment network from The Clearing House (one of the key owners/operators of the ACH system). It delivers payments of up to $1,000,000 that settle in just seconds to bank accounts at participating institutions, 24x7x365. Consumers or businesses use the ABA/Routing number typically found at the bottom of a check or in their online banking experience as the alias for receiving money.   Most of the big banks and the larger regional banks participate in the RTP network, but it is not yet ubiquitous.  FedNow Launched in July 2023, FedNow is the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment service. Like with the RTP Network, it promises ‘always-on’ instant settlement and uses the same ABA/Routing number for an alias. Transaction amounts are capped at $500,000 per transaction but it still has limited reach with only 274 (mainly small) banks connected so far. It holds promise to extend instant payments to more financial institutions – including smaller, community banks – but a survey by Cornerstone Advisors found that less than half of banks and credit unions plan to offer real time payments by the end of this year.  Push-to-Card Push-to-card payments use the existing card networks’ payment rails, just in reverse. Funds can be sent directly to a bank account via an eligible cardholder’s debit card or prepaid card in near real-time. Push-to-card already has coverage for 98% or more of the accounts and cards in market today. Equally important, most consumers – especially younger ones – are comfortable using their card number as a payment alias. These are reliable payments that can reach any account on that card company’s network, making its reach to cardholders nearly universal. Like the RTP Network, the system is available 24x7x365, but with transaction amounts of up to $125,000.  Choosing an Instant Payment Option The Ingo platform enables seamless orchestration of payments across all relevant instant rails, including both the RTP Network and push-to-card, to provide our clients with flexibility when choosing payment options. Ingo also supports additional payment options such as PayPal, Venmo, ACH, and paper checks. In practice, much of this comes down to familiarity on behalf of the recipient. Consumers often don’t know the difference between the RTP Network, FedNow or push-to-card – they only know that they want their money in their account as fast as possible. Their preference is likely determined by whether it’s easier to enter a card number or a bank account number. For companies, that means it’s important to provide coverage across multiple options to ensure you’re meeting customer demand and expectations. In the case of Ingo Payments, we solicit destination account information from recipients then process the transaction using the fastest available rail, according to their preference. If that’s a bank account, then it depends whether the receiving bank is on an instant payment network. If it’s a debit card number, then it settles instantly. This is why neither the RTP Network nor FedNow serve as good standalone options for digital disbursements compared to push-to-card or traditional ACH today. Together, they only cover about 65% of available accounts, meaning that even combined they don’t provide the ubiquity needed for full adoption. They are better viewed as “plumbing” that can serve as accelerants to ACH because a payment can be diverted to an instant rail versus the ACH batch rail if it’s using the same alias. The Future of Instant Payment Rails Ultimately, we see both the RTP Network and FedNow as potential ACH killers because they can deliver instant funds without the recipient ever having to know about them or make an explicit choice of payment rail. There is also the potential for FedNow to complete the coverage begun by the RTP Network through its appeal and reach to smaller banks. If that happens, then all bank account transfers using the ABA/Routing number alias could convert to instant payments. Over time, the RTP Network and FedNow may also prove advantageous for business customers versus push-to-card. Oftentimes, large businesses do not have a debit card option and must rely on ABA/Routing number aliases. In that case, these two rails are an obvious preference over push-to-card. Further, any use case that requires invoice data or other information to travel with the payment is better suited to the RTP Network and FedNow because push-to-card does not have that capability. No matter your preference or which rail is best suited to your use case, the challenge is in integrating to them. There is no interoperability between the RTP Network and FedNow or between push-to-card and ABA/Routing number aliases. The burden is on the company to do multiple integrations and to build some form of routing and support capabilities. This is further complicated by the reality that the technology, risk management, regulations and support requirements are different for each payment rail. And on top of that, each involve coordination with card networks, wallets, international wallets and more. The task can be daunting. This is the heart of the Ingo Payments value proposition. We make the process seamless for clients by offering payment orchestration across all the relevant rails through a single API, to ultimately deliver on customers’ expectations for a modern payments experience.