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Guide Topics Include: Coffee, Whiteboards, and the Moment a Core Decision Gets Real The Story So Far: How We Arrived at Three Dominant Architectures QUICK GLOSSARY — My Plain-English Decoder Ring Sidecar Cores: A Parallel Track for Hyper-Speed Innovation Middleware & BaaS Hubs: Translation Layers for Lightning Launches Above-Core Platforms: Modern APIs Without Abandoning the Mother Ship A Fintech & Banking Builder’s Decision Tree Security & Crypto: The Silent Contract with Your User Accounting & Regulation – Staying Nimble as the Rules Keep Shifting Ingo’s Modular Core: Flexibility by Design Builder & Bank Checklists Final Thoughts: The Builders Who Choose Well Coffee, Whiteboards, and the Moment a Core Decision Gets Real It’s 9:30 a.m. on a bright Tuesday in May. We’re in a glass-walled “innovation lab” two blocks from the Des Moines River—white oak tables, thoughtful lighting, espresso machine working overtime. Around the table sit a CIO who still bookmarks mainframe manuals, three SaaS-seasoned product leads itching to ship weekly, and a compliance officer who talks about Fed examiners the way hikers talk about bears. The gig-economy is booming, Apple just spun up tap-to-pay for teens, and every payments deck at Money20/20 promised instant everything. This bank wants in: “We need embedded accounts and same-day payouts for a gig-work platform—by December.” I sketch three rectangles: Legacy Core, Sidecar Core, Middleware. I add a question mark box above them—Above-Core Layer—and draw arrows in both directions. Twenty minutes of lively debate later the inevitable, business-defining question lands: “Do we upgrade the old core, park a modern sidecar next to it, or let a BaaS partner translate for us?” That single fork determines compliance workload, launch speed, revenue share, and boardroom stress for years. Yet most teams freeze at the vocabulary: shadow ledger, omnibus account, above-core cache—wait, aren’t those the same thing? This guide is my field manual for un-freezing that moment. We’ll unpack the three working patterns—sidecar cores, middleware hubs, and above-core platforms—using plain language and real outcome data. Then we’ll layer on security must-haves, the latest crypto accounting twists, and a checklist you can tape to your own war-room wall. Read straight through if you’re drafting a transformation charter, or hop to the sections that may be keeping you up at night. Either way, you’ll leave with a practical decision tree—and the confidence to pick a path that won’t implode at audit time. Coffee in hand, marker uncapped—let’s sketch. The Story So Far: How We Arrived at Three Dominant Architectures Bank tech hasn’t always been a choose-your-own-adventure novel. In the 1990s, a mid-tier banking institution would buy a monolithic core from Fiserv, FIS, or Jack Henry and run it untouched for a decade. In that era, innovation meant bolting on an Internet Banking module and praying batch jobs would finish by dawn. Fast forward two decades: Fintech’s first wave—PayPal, Square, Chime—exposed how brittle that single banking core model felt once mobile apps demanded instantaneous ledgers. Vendor roadmaps couldn’t keep up, so three distinct work-arounds emerged: Sidecar Core Middleware / Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) Above-Core Platform Here’s the breakdown: PatternFirst MoversCore Pain It SolvedSidecar CoreMoven, Starling Bank, later JPM UKLegacy batch cores couldn’t post instant payments or thousands of daily account creations.Middleware / BaaSGalileo, Stripe Treasury, Treasury Prime, Unit, SyncteraCommunity banks lacked the talent to build APIs but still craved deposit growth from fintechs.Above-Core PlatformSutton Bank + Infinant, Fifth Third’s “banking as a service” deskBanks wanted real-time APIs yet refused to let an outsider own their ledger of record. Those prototypes matured into full-scale production models. Today every embedded-finance and banking deal I negotiate lands on one of those three rails (or a blend of them). Before we weigh trade-offs, let’s explore each pattern from the inside out. QUICK GLOSSARY — My Plain-English Decoder Ring A short pit-stop before the deeper dive. Use these definitions to keep the tech jargon from tripping you up. TermLisa’s one-linerWhy it matters in this guideSidecar CoreA modern, cloud ledger that runs next to the old mainframe—think bullet train alongside a freight line.Powers real-time payments and new digital brands without ripping out the legacy core.Middleware / BaaS HubA translation layer that speaks JSON to fintechs and COBOL or batch files to banks.Fastest go-live, but you inherit a third-party ledger and revenue-share fees.Above-Core PlatformA bank-owned micro-services “skin” that wraps the legacy core with APIs and a high-speed cache.Gives fintech partners near-instant balances while the mainframe stays the book of record.Shadow (Sub-) LedgerA secondary set of balances—often in middleware—that tracks each end-user while the bank sees only pooled funds.Great for scale; dangerous if not reconciled daily.Omnibus / FBO AccountOne big core account “For the Benefit Of” many end-users.Simpler for the bank, but clarity dies if the shadow ledger drifts.ReconciliationThe nightly (or hourly) ritual of proving every debit and credit rolled up correctly to the core GL.Skip it once and tomorrow’s auditors own your weekend.FedNow / RTPU.S. instant-payment rails—FedNow (Fed) and RTP (The Clearing House). Both settle in real time, 24 × 7 × 365.Legacy batch cores struggle here; sidecar or above-core makes life easier.TokenizationSwapping sensitive data (card number, account number) for a random “token” that’s useless if stolen.Reduces PCI scope and soothes regulators.Cryptographic Hash ChainEach ledger entry plugs the hash of the previous one into its header—edit a byte, break the chain.An immutability trick borrowed from blockchains; boosts audit confidence.SAB 122 (ex-SAB 121)SEC bulletin that rescinded the rule forcing banks to book custodial crypto on-balance-sheet.Re-opens the door for compliant crypto custody inside modern cores.1250 % Basel Risk WeightProposed capital rule for unbacked crypto: hold a dollar in capital for every dollar of Bitcoin.Drives architecture—banks prefer models that keep those assets off their own books. How to use this table: If a term shows up later and you can’t remember why it matters, jump back here. Everything in the guide builds on these building blocks—and yes, we’ll revisit them in context so they stick. With a common vocabulary in place, let’s walk through the first rail the CIO circled in red—Sidecar Core. Sidecar Cores: A Parallel Track for Hyper-Speed Innovation With our terms locked in, we can finally explore the three rails that dominated the whiteboard. We’ll start with the option our CIO scribbled “Plan A” beside—the sidecar core. How It Works Picture a freight train (your legacy core) rolling reliably at forty miles an hour. You can’t stop it, but you can lay a second track beside it and run a bullet train (your sidecar core) on electrified rails. At designated stations—cards, deposits, loan postings—the two trains exchange cargo through well-timed sidings. Technically, the sidecar is a separate core database—cloud native, event-driven, ISO-20022 fluent. Banks can migrate new digital brands or specific product lines (crypto wallets, teen cards, multicurrency accounts) onto that modern stack while the mainframe continues to serve branch and ACH traffic. Pros of Sidecar Cores Immediate real-time capability. FedNow, RTP, and 24/7 card auth need millisecond journaling the old batch core can’t achieve.Risk isolation. If the sidecar hiccups, the branch system still clears checks at 4 p.m.—no five-state outage headlines. Migration runway. Once executives trust the sidecar, entire portfolios shift naturally over months, not years. What to Watch-For Dual governance. Auditors now have to test two sets of change-management pipelines. Ledger sync discipline. Reconcile events happen at least hourly; though drift feels small on day-one, on day-hundred they’re catastrophic. Exit strategy. Choose a vendor whose data model exports cleanly; otherwise you’ve traded one legacy for another. Is It Your Track? Use a sidecar when product innovation outruns mainframe release cycles and your board is willing to pay an up-front licence in exchange for long-run flexibility. Sidecars are great when you can fund a second core; when time or budget says “no,” teams grab a translator instead. Middleware & BaaS Hubs: Translation Layers for Lightning Launches Sidecars solve the “need-for-speed + total control” problem—great, but not every bank has the budget or the appetite for a second core. When launch deadlines shrink from months to weeks, many teams reach for a translator instead. Enter middleware and BaaS. How It Works Imagine hiring a multilingual concierge. Fintech apps speak JSON; your core speaks COBOL. The concierge (middleware) takes each request—“open an account,” “post a debit”—converts it, then batches updates back to the core. Some concierges also keep a sub-ledger so they can answer balance inquiries without waking the mainframe. Early middleware providers wrapped this service in compliance, KYC, and dispute handling, selling an all-in-one on-ramp to thousands of startups. On the other side, banks earned interchange and deposits without touching a line of code. Pros of Middleware & BaaS Speed. OAuth keys within a few days, and an MVP in six weeks. Talent arbitrage. Community banks gain Silicon-Valley API expertise overnight. CapEx friendly. Pay per transaction; no need to buy a second core. What to Watch-For Third-party risk. If the concierge’s (in this case, your middleware/BaaS provider) ledger drifts or its capital dries up, your customers will feel the outage first. Margin leakage. Revenue share can reach 30–40 bps. At scale that matters, turning your business into a revenue incinerator instead of a profit engine. Regulatory spotlight. U.S. regulators issued more enforcement actions to BaaS partner banks than any other category over the past two years. Is It Your Play? Choose middleware when you need to validate market demand yesterday and accept that you are trading control for launch speed. And, most important of all: Build an exit plan on day one. Middleware buys speed but adds third-party ledgers. The middle road is an above-core layer your bank owns outright—let’s break it down. Above-Core Platforms: Modern APIs Without Abandoning the Mother Ship Middleware gets you on the track fast, yet some sponsors worry about third-party ledgers and revenue-share bleed. For them, the compromise is an above-core layer: modern APIs, familiar ledger-of-record. Let’s see how that works in practice. How It Works An above-core layer wraps a legacy banking core (the one that was bought in the 90s) with micro-services, message queues, and a high-speed cache. The core remains the official system of record, but the cache handles real-time auth and fires webhook events to fintech partners. Think of it as a neural layer sitting atop an older brain stem. Some banks run this layer themselves; others license platforms like Infinant or Finzly, which include GUI consoles, virtual-account engines, and automated settlement back to the core. Pros of Above-Core Platforms Regulator-friendly. No extra ledger outside the bank’s direct control. Incremental. Swap one service at a time; sunset them once the new layer proves itself. Multi-tenant. One platform can host dozens of partner programs with isolated configs. Cons Core finality delay. If the underlying host settles EOD, the platform must manage pending-balance logic. Engineering ops burden. Bank teams own cache coherency, alerting, and hot-patches. Not unlimited. Some legacy cores cap account objects; virtual accounts hide, but don’t eliminate, systemic limits. Is It Your Move? Leverage above-core when your institution refuses a second core but still wants to court fintech deposit flows. Expect three to six months of standing-up effort rather than six weeks. A Fintech & Banking Builder’s Decision Tree Now we’ve walked all three tracks. The natural question at the whiteboard was, “Which one do we pick, and in what order?” The next section lays out a decision tree we’d use to map for stakeholders: Let’s return to our Des Moines whiteboard I introduced in the intro. The bank’s product lead wants instant payouts, a gig-worker debit card, and a crypto reward wallet on the 2026 roadmap. Together we walk through five narrative checkpoints we’d likely cover in the meeting: Speed Promise vs. Regulatory Calendar: Launch by Christmas argues for middleware. Fed exam in March nudges us toward above-core, where bank staff own the ledger. Feature Ambition: FedNow and tokenized deposits in Year 2 signal sidecar. These functions thrive on modern cores with event sourcing. Balance Sheet Appetite: If the bank fears omnibus balance swings, middleware’s pooled-fund model feels uncomfortable. Sidecar or above-core keep account granularity clear. Capital vs. Opex: Community banks love revenue-share until volume spikes. Our CIO sketches unit economics at 500k accounts; licence fees win by Year 3. Talent Reality Check: Three engineers? Middleware. A 12-person DevOps squad and a cloud budget? Sidecar or above-core is possible. So what could a solution look like in the end? By noon the whiteboard shows a phased plan: launch on file-based SFTP middleware to prove demand; in parallel, integrate Ingo’s API gateway into the bank’s FIS core. Twelve months later migrate balances to that near real-time channel. The board approves because no customer path dead-ends. Security & Crypto: The Silent Contract with Your User By now, we’ve mapped out the integration options (sidecar, middleware, above-core), drawn up your game plan, and even envisioned a future state architecture. Feels good, right? But there’s one critical step we can’t skip: making sure your system is secure and trustworthy from day one. In payments and banking, trust is everything. While users may not care about encryption algorithms or audit trails, they will absolutely notice if their balances seem off or if news headlines about leaked data suddenly break. Here’s the good news: building security into your solution doesn’t have to be rocket science. Whether you implement a sidecar, middleware, or an above-core layer, securing your platform comes down to a six fundamental practices I’ll outline here: The Six Essentials of Secure Payment Systems Lock your data: Encrypt everything. That means every databases (Postgres, Cassandra, you name it), and every API call. This prevents unauthorized access and protects sensitive account information from being stolen or sold. Swap secrets for tokens: Replace sensitive data—like PANs, Social Security numbers, and bank account numbers—with randomized “tokens.” Use a proper Key Management System: Store cryptographic keys, system passwords, and application secrets securely in a dedicated Key Management System—not alongside user data—so they are separated from processing systems with proper access controls. Apply strict access controls and regular audits to protect these critical assets from insider threats and external attackers. Ensure non-repudiation for API calls: Design your API system so that every request is cryptographically signed and logged to ensure that no one can deny or tamper with actions once they happen. This practice strengthens accountability and simplifies audits. Seal your ledger entries: Adopt blockchain-inspired practices by cryptographically linking each ledger entry to the previous one. This creates a tamper-evident chain, instantly triggering alerts if someone tries to alter records. Change your keys often: Rotate encryption keys and certificates regularly. Fresh keys frustrate hackers and keep compliance officers happy—no nasty audit fndings due to outdated certificates. Pro tip: With newer systems like sidecar or above-core models, many of these protections are built-in. With older middleware solutions, you’ll likely need to add extra tooling to achieve the same security standards. What about crypto and digital assets? If your roadmap includes handling Bitcoin, stablescoins, NFTs or other digital assets, you’ll have a few additional requirements: Multi-signature vaults: Protect custody accounts with multi-signature (multi-sig) schemes that require multiple independent keys to authorize withdrawals and prevent a single insider or hacker from draining customer assets. Clearly label custodial assets: Always mark crypto holdings as “off-balance-sheet” custodial assets (owned by your customers, not the institution). This satisfies regulatory requirements and shields your corporate balance sheet from crypto market volatility. The upside? Modern cores make managing crypto custody easier. Sometimes it’s as simple as flipping a configuration switch to stay compliant and audit-ready. At the end of the day, security is not just about locks. It’s also about trust. Just as important as building strong protections is staying nimble as regulations evolve… which leads us to the next chapter: Accounting and Regulation. Accounting & Regulation – Staying Nimble as the Rules Keep Shifting Regulations might sound boring until they suddenly aren’t. A single bulletin from regulators can rewrite the rules overnight—and if your technology can’t pivot just as fast, your business suffers. Let me illustrate with a quick story: Back in 2022, the SEC released something called SAB 121. Essentially, it said, “Banks, if you hold customers’ crypto, you must count that crypto as your own asset.” Suddenly, holding Bitcoin meant banks needed huge capital buffers. Many institutions backed away immediately—too risky, too costly. Fast-forward to early 2025, and the SEC reversed itself with SAB 122, lifting that rule. Banks scrambled to re-launch crypto custody services within weeks. What does that rollercoaster mean for your core choice? Simple: your technology can’t be rigid. Two key regulatory concerns you should track: Basel’s proposed 1250% risk-weight: Still being debated, this rule could force banks holding crypto directly on their balance sheets to keep huge capital reserves. Instant audit-readiness: If regulations change again, expect auditors to request immediate proof showing exactly which assets belong to your customers versus your bank—within hours, not days. Here’s how different core choices affect your flexibility: Core ChoiceWhat happens if regulators shift tomorrow?SidecarEasily mark crypto as “off-balance” or “on-balance” with a simple config change. No code refactoring needed.Above-coreUpdate a setting in your cache or service layer quickly. Usually just a small adjustment, overnight.Thin MiddlewareYou’re at the mercy of your middleware vendor—changes might require their engineering team, meaning weeks of waiting. In short, pick a core setup that lets you change asset labels with the flick of a switch, not weeks of development time. Future you—and your CFO—will be eternally grateful. Ingo’s Modular Core: Flexibility by Design At this point, you might be thinking: “Okay Lisa, you’ve walked me through all these paths—sidecar cores, middleware solutions, and above-core platforms—but where does Ingo actually fit?” Great question! Let me simplify this: Think of Ingo as your ultimate modular toolkit. Rather than locking you into a single rigid setup, we built flexible pieces you can easily combine, rearrange, or swap out based on your evolving needs. Here’s what’s in the toolbox: Core Adapters: Plug directly into FIS, Fiserv, or Jack Henry cores using your preferred method—file-based (like SFTP or BAI2), or modern RESTful APIs. High-Speed Ledger: Handle not just dollars, but also stablecoins, reward points, or even NFTs—all from one ledger that can scale instantly. Real-Time Event Bus: Instead of making your partners constantly ask for status updates, we proactively push out notifications via Kafka-style streams or webhooks—faster and friendlier. Programmable Workflows: Customizable tools that make KYC, fraud screening, card tokenization, and FedNow instant transfers simple to manage—and easy to change as rules or your roadmap shift. Here’s the magic part: Banks choose their pace: Want to start with overnight file-based batches today and upgrade to real-time tomorrow? No problem. Fintech builders code once: Build your app just one time against Ingo’s SDK, and you automatically inherit the capabilities your bank partner chooses. No rewrites. No headaches. In short, Ingo’s toolkit is designed to move at your pace. As your business grows, regulations evolve, or your roadmap takes new turns, our tech keeps up effortlessly—so you’re always ready for what’s next. Builder & Bank Checklists Having a versatile toolkit is great, but let’s face it—projects rarely go exactly as planned. That’s why I insist every project manager keeps a practical checklist taped somewhere visible (like that whiteboard we’ve been talking about) to keep all stakeholders aligned and accountable. Think of these checklists as your “sanity checks,” the items you’ll want to double-verify before anyone commits significant resources. For Banks Go-live date vs. Board Approval: How much lead time do you actually need from decision to launch? Projected Peak Volume: What’s your realistic max transactions-per-second (TPS) and total account count two years from now? Crypto Accounting Strategy: Have you clearly defined how crypto will appear (or not) on your balance sheet? DevOps & Pager Duty: Who’s answering the 3 a.m. alerts, and is the team staffed to manage real-time support? Regulatory Calendar: When’s your next safety-and-soundness review or IT audit? Can you confidently demonstrate readiness? CapEx vs. OpEx Preferences: Does your leadership prefer capitalized software licenses or variable, revenue-share structures? Data-Sovereignty Compliance: Are you fully aligned with state laws, GDPR, and sector-specific regulations around customer data? For Fintech Builders Sponsor Bank’s Architectural Preference: Do you know upfront what tech pattern your sponsor bank prefers? (Don’t guess—ask early!) Settlement SLAs for User Experience: What’s your target timing for balances to be settled for users, so you don’t get angry support calls? Reconciliation Reporting Needs: Exactly what month-end reports does your finance team expect, and can your provider deliver them consistently? Escrow Terms (Middleware Providers): If your middleware provider hits turbulence, what’s your contingency plan for protecting customer balances? Migration Hooks: Can you quickly export balances and account data if you need to pivot your strategy? Fraud Rules Flexibility: How easily can you customize fraud rules at the ledger layer to stay ahead of risks? Tokenization Approach: Are you clear on how sensitive data (card and account numbers) is handled—network tokens, aliases, or virtual account addresses? If any line stays unchecked for more than two sprints, that’s your cue to escalate and regroup. But if you check every box? Then your project launches the way our hypothetical team’s did: smoothly, with compliance satisfied, auditors relaxed, and dashboards lighting up with fresh revenue. Ready for one last sip of coffee? Let’s close this loop and get ready to celebrate your success. Final Thoughts: The Builders Who Choose Well Choosing the right architecture goes beyond a simple technical decision. It shapes your company’s ability to innovate, compete, and scale for years. Whether you opt for a Sidecar Core, Middleware Hub, or Above-Core Platform, the path you choose will impact your customer experience, compliance posture, and bottom-line outcomes. As you weigh these options, remember: Pick the model that aligns with your ambitions and roadmap—speed, control, and flexibility each have their place. Prioritize security, auditability, and regulatory clarity from day one to ensure trust never becomes an afterthought. Build in checkpoints to revisit your decision regularly—markets, rules, and customer needs evolve, and so should your strategy. The future of embedded banking and payments is exciting, fast-moving, and full of potential for those who approach it thoughtfully. You don’t have to navigate it alone. At Ingo, we’ve seen what separates lasting success from costly missteps over our 25 year history in the market. Our team knows these paths inside out, and we’re here to help guide you through your next big decision. Ready to talk through your plan, explore new ideas, or just sanity-check your roadmap? Reach out to our team—let’s build something remarkable, together. Bring your ideas. We’ll bring the coffee, markers, experience, and solutions.

I’ve spent most of my professional life working on ways to move money more efficiently—what I often call “money mobility.” Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of buzzwords and promises come and go, but one trend that’s truly reshaping our industry right now is the shift from embedded payments to embedded banking. If we get this right, we can help businesses turn the cost of payouts into a genuine revenue driver. For years, the conversation in fintech has revolved around “embedded finance,” a concept that basically means integrating financial services—payments, lending, insurance—into non-financial platforms. A classic example is when your favorite ride-hailing app automatically charges your card after the trip, so you never even think about the payment. That’s a powerful experience. But we risk missing a bigger opportunity if we stop at payments alone. If you’re a business and all you do is embed the act of sending money out (or pulling it in) without attaching a genuine account experience, you may discover you’re just shifting a cost center around. I mean, you pay fees on each transaction. And the more you grow, the more you pay. My argument is that, by going a step deeper into embedded banking—creating an actual deposit relationship—companies can recast these payouts and other financial transactions into a revenue stream. My Old-School Example: Car Dealer Financing To illustrate why I see embedded banking as the next logical step in fintech, I often point back to the not-so-distant past. Back in the day—picture bell-bottom jeans and big collars—if you wanted a car loan, you trekked over to your local bank, sat in a stuffy office, and got approved. Then you’d go pick out your dream ride. Pretty soon, dealerships got wise: “Why do send folks to the bank… when we can finance them right here?” Eventually, car dealers began offering financing on the spot. Even though the dealership wasn’t a bank, the financing felt “embedded” in the car-buying experience. That was one of the earliest shifts to “finance at the point of need.” Boom—embedded finance was born, though no one called it that yet. Today, that concept is everywhere. When you step out of a taxi without reaching for your wallet, or when you buy a mattress online and split the cost into installments without leaving the checkout page—that’s embedded finance at work. Here’s the thing: most businesses stopped there, thinking just embedding the payment was the only magic trick. It’s not. The Leap from Embedded Payments to Embedded Banking For a long time, I was primarily focused on money mobility—money in, money out, as seamlessly as possible. That’s still our bread and butter at Ingo, and it includes things like digitizing paper checks in insurance, or enabling instant tips for restaurant workers. These are all forms of embedded payments. They remove friction, speed up access to money, and create a better user experience. But there’s a catch: every time I help a company enable these faster, more frequent payouts, the client still incurs a cost on each transaction. It might be more efficient and even cheaper than older methods, but a cost is a cost. And if you’re moving millions or billions of dollars, it will be significant. Here’s where I am confident that embedded banking changes the game, modernizing businesses even further. Instead of simply processing transactions, you can embed a branded deposit account and a debit card inside the payment flow as seamlessly as we embed payments. Suddenly, you’re not just paying out funds to somebody’s external bank and paying a fee every time a transaction happens. Instead, you’re inviting them to hold those funds with you, and you can give them economic and social incentives to take part. And pretty quickly all your product economics change. Since you’re keeping the funds in the partner’s ecosystem longer, reducing network costs associated with money movement, and creating new revenue flows, it becomes a blank slate on better economics. At the same time, loyalty is the holy grail, and here, we’ve created reasons beyond the non-financial transaction to engage with a consumer.     In other words, you convert payouts from high-cost centers to cheaper business operations… or in some cases the opposite: revenue streams. A Hypothetical Example Let me give a hypothetical scenario I like to call “MealRunner,” which delivers meals using a fleet of drivers: The Old Model: MealRunner pays out $50 million each month to its drivers via checks or standard bank transfers. In the case of the bank transfer, each transaction costs about 25 – 50 cents. That’s $250,000 – 500,000 in annual expenses just to pay people. Definitely cheaper than mailing checks, but still expensive. Embedded Payments: MealRunner adopts instant payouts. Drivers love it—they get money instantly, are more loyal, and choose to drive for them even more. But each disbursement might still cost MealRunner a transaction fee. The company now has a bigger monthly invoice because so many drivers use the instant option. MealRunner may decide to charge their drivers to access funds on demand which might offset costs and create revenue streams. At the end of the day, the money is still leaving MealRunner on each transaction. Embedded Banking: MealRunner takes it a step further by embedding a branded account and debit card into the onboarding and payments experience. Now, instead of drivers immediately transferring their earnings out, MealRunner encourages them to keep their money in a company-backed account and spend directly from it. To make this compelling, MealRunner offers a fully functional mobile banking app where drivers can instantly fund the account from any source, earn loyalty points on purchases, pay bills, send P2P and Me2Me transfers, and more. This creates a valuable new financial relationship with drivers—one that deepens loyalty, reduces transaction costs, unlocks new revenue streams, and generates rich customer insights. With embedded banking, MealRunner has a coveted new financial relationship with their drivers that creates loyalty, reduces costs and creates opportunities for new revenue and customer insights. That shift from cost center to revenue/loyalty engine—and, with improved user retention—explains why so many people are excited about taking the next step to embed banking in their payments flows. Banks Call It “Distributed Banking”—I Call It Common Sense Many of the banks I’ve worked with call this “distributed banking.” They see the writing on the wall: customers are no longer heading to physical branches or even necessarily using the bank’s app for everyday transactions. They’re living inside other platforms—food delivery apps, marketplaces, gig portals. If the bank wants to be where the customers are, it needs to distribute itself into the marketplace through embedded banking solutions. But most banks aren’t equipped to build intuitive user interfaces, integrate with industry-specific platforms like restaurant management systems, or handle the everyday tech that makes a product experience feel seamless to the end user. That’s where the concept du jour of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) came in. Through BaaS, fintechs stand in the gap, building the technology and user experience so the bank’s deposit, lending, and compliance capabilities can be accessed behind the scenes. In my world, that means we still do the money in/money out—and now, we’re layering on a modern ledger and full bank account inside that platform. So, it’s no longer only about the transaction fees. The bank can generate revenue from interest spread, interchange, or other typical “bank” lines. And the platform can share in those economics. It’s a more balanced relationship than simply being a never-ending cost line item. Market Growth and the “Race to Embed Everything” And when it comes to embedded finance, we’re not talking about a small trend. Analysts estimate that the global embedded finance market could surpass $7 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, embedded payments flows alone might jump from $2.5 trillion in 2021 to over $6.5 trillion by as soon as this year. Practically every conversation I have these days—whether it’s with a gig economy platform or a Fortune 500 insurer—touches on how they can quickly incorporate financial tools into the user journey. And with eye-popping numbers like these, it’s no surprise that 56% of businesses say they already offer or plan to offer embedded finance products soon. How to Dive into Embedding Finance (Without Drowning) There’s also the matter of how we measure success. I like providing people references and frameworks to help them analyze whether an embedded banking offering could help them. They typically look at things like: Friction: How many steps does it take for a user to enroll or complete a transaction? Adoption: Are people using the new payment or banking feature, or do they default back to something else? Cost vs. Benefit: Is the platform saving money, making money, or just shifting costs around? One reason I’m passionate about embedded banking is that it can push all three metrics in the right direction: you reduce friction (everything’s handled in-line in the customer experience), adoption climbs (users often prefer a single ecosystem), and cost flips to revenue (earning interchange or interest share). I always encourage businesses looking at embedded finance or banking to take a phased approach: Focus on a single high impact use case Instead of trying to embed lending, BNPL, crypto, and deposit accounts all at once, pick the specific user flow that’s currently painful or expensive. Start there. Pick the right partners: Embedded finance is a banking activity. And banking activities are highly regulated. In these areas, vendor risk is a real concern for operators, and recent bankruptcies in the BaaS space have really put banks and their regulators on high alert. Having a partner with a long history of working with banks, a strong fully funded balance sheet, and deep expertise on their bench can save you from a disaster down the road. Own the user experience: People often assume that “embedded” means everything vanishes behind the scenes. You should pay attention to how your users sign up, view their balances, or conduct transactions. It doesn’t have to be 100% invisible, but it must feel seamless. Mind the tech stack: An overly fragmented technology approach—where a half-dozen vendors each handle a piece of the puzzle—can create serious headaches. Every added connection point is another risk and potential point of failure. Keep compliance in the loop: One compliance slip-up can sink your whole initiative. Look for BaaS or fintech partners with genuine enterprise experience, robust risk management, and proven relationships with stable bank partners. You want to make sure the solution meets regulatory standards at both the state and federal levels if you’re operating in the U.S. The Democratizing Effect What excites me most is how embedded banking can expand financial access. Instead of telling workers they need an external bank account (which they might not have), or forcing them to figure out complicated paycard schemes, the platform simply creates an account for them. It’s built into the experience from day one. Underbanked communities especially can benefit. They don’t have to physically visit a branch or endure long sign-up forms. The deposit account is just there, ready to use. In my eyes, that’s a massive step toward broader financial inclusion. And guess what? When someone is happily using the platform’s embedded banking services, they typically become a more loyal user. Wrapping Up: Why I’m All-In I’ve been in this business long enough to have seen “revolutions” that never quite materialized. But embedded banking is different because it solves real problems for all parties: the bank, the business and the end user: The Bank: Grows deposits and transactions outside of their branch footprint and community. The Business: Gains new revenue from interchange (or interest), creating a profit center where there used to be only costs. The User: Receives faster, more convenient payment flows, plus a more integrated financial experience. When you can satisfy all sides—reducing friction and boosting profitability—you’ve got something truly transformative. And that’s why I’m so passionate about helping companies embed not just payments, but full banking relationships right into their platforms. To me, this is how we take money mobility to the next level, making sure we’re not just chasing better technology but also unlocking better economic and social outcomes. Ultimately, my goal is to help businesses stop seeing payouts as a never-ending cost center. Instead, let’s use embedded banking to turn payouts into a revenue stream while improving the user experience. That’s the future of money mobility—and if you’re reading this, I hope you’ll join me in making it happen. This article first appeared in the Financial Columnist

Alpharetta, GA – March, 31, 2025 – Ingo Payments, a proven leader in account funding, transfer, and payout solutions—known as “money mobility”—is proud to announce the selection of Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform that enables embedded finance solutions for the world’s innovators, as its issuer processing partner. This partnership marks a significant step forward in Ingo’s mission to deliver innovative instant account issuing and ecosystem-driven financial services for its clients. Over the past several months, following its acquisition of Deposits Inc.’s banking technology, Ingo has been enhancing its money movement platform to support embedded banking capabilities for both existing and new clients. This development reflects Ingo’s commitment to redefining the financial experience for banks, fintechs, and businesses by creating feature-rich account relationships that support long-term client value. Selecting an issuer processor was a critical step in achieving this vision, and Marqeta emerged as the ideal partner to help bring these innovations to life. Why Marqeta? Ingo Payments’ approach to account issuing redefines traditional solutions by enabling the creation of ecosystems that incentivize users to store, move and spend money, unlocking opportunities to monetize accounts in impactful ways. This approach applies broadly to enterprises seeking to retain funds for payouts or rewards, banks looking to modernize beyond legacy systems with digital-first account solutions, and fintechs aiming to scale innovative financial products quickly and effectively. Achieving this required a partner with the technology and vision to support these goals. Ingo selected Marqeta for its flexible, scalable technology stack that helps its customers develop innovative financial products and bring them to market quickly. By partnering with Marqeta, Ingo is equipped to drive the next generation of issuing solutions, offering value to senders, receivers, and businesses alike. Driving Innovation Together “We are thrilled to partner with Marqeta as our issuer processor as we launch our enhanced embedded banking platform,” said Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo Payments. “Marqeta’s modern capabilities and commitment to ongoing innovation make them an ideal partner as we create new opportunities to monetize accounts and deliver ecosystem-driven financial experiences. Together, we’re set to shape the future of account issuing and embedded finance.” “We’re proud to support Ingo’s expansion into the issuing space, showcasing their commitment to payments innovation,” said Todd Pollak, Chief Revenue Officer, Marqeta. “Beyond serving as their issuer processor, we’re also partnering with Ingo to bring remote check cashing and deposit capabilities to our customers to make banking services more convenient. With Marqeta’s all-in-one platform, we’re enabling Ingo to drive the next generation of issuing solutions, creating meaningful value for consumers and businesses alike.” About Ingo Payments Ingo Payments empowers banks, fintechs, and enterprises to deliver modern financial experiences through its full-service embedded banking platform. Ingo’s bank-grade modern money stack, built with embedded compliance and risk management, enables seamless account funding, transfers, mobile deposits, payouts, digital wallets, account and card issuing, PFM, and rewards solutions across a wide range of industries and use cases. With a vertically integrated platform, Ingo helps clients minimize third-party risk, reduce operational complexity, and lower costs—all while accelerating go-to-market timelines. Learn more at ingopayments.com.

We’re beyond excited to announce our new partnership with ACI Worldwide to power ACI Speedpay Digital Disbursements—a flexible, ultra-fast way for businesses to send money to their customers, minus the old-school paper checks. This solution packs in plenty of payout options—from real-time payments to PayPal/Venmo, debit cards, and ACH—so folks can get their funds however (and whenever) they prefer. “We’re proud to collaborate with ACI to provide businesses with seamless, scalable disbursement solutions that meet the evolving needs of today’s digital economy,” says Drew Edwards, our CEO. At the end of the day, we’re all about making life simpler, faster, and better for anyone who needs quick access to their funds. So stay tuned—our work with ACI Worldwide is just getting started, and we can’t wait for you to see how much easier digital disbursements can be in the future of fintech we’re building.

ALPHARETTA, Ga.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ingo Payments, a proven leader in account funding, transfer, and payout solutions—known as “money mobility”—is proud to announce its partnership with Securely, a cloud-based payment platform. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both companies as Securely™ partners to bring Ingo’s full-service embedded banking platform to the market, combining proven payment infrastructure with an innovative approach to real-time merchant settlement through advanced ledgering and diverse payment options. Securely’s merchants include some of the largest players in e-commerce and transportation, including leading brands in retail, distribution, manufacturing, and rideshare nationwide. Through this partnership, Securely offers a patent-pending Digital Cash™ solution that is a low-cost, bank-to-bank card payment alternative with real-time settlement options, powered by Ingo. These capabilities enhance speed and transparency, supporting Securely’s ability to meet the evolving needs of its customers. Within months of acquiring Deposit Inc.’s banking software platform, Ingo successfully initiated the migration of Securely’s merchants from their previous sponsor bank and embedded banking provider. The migration, completed in just 60 days, highlights Ingo’s expertise and commitment as a dedicated and collaborative partner, minimizing operational disruptions while maximizing the platform’s benefits for Securely’s merchants. “We are excited to partner with Securely on our embedded banking platform,” said Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo Payments. “This milestone demonstrates the power and versatility of our platform leveraging our bank-grade cloud ledger and payments capabilities. By enabling real-time settlements and supporting diverse payment options, we are empowering Securely to deliver unmatched value and efficiency to their merchants.” “We are committed to innovation and are excited to partner with Ingo Payments to enhance our offering. Ingo’s infrastructure will help us expand upon our Muli-Tag ™ pricing technology, further enabling cost control, infrastructure consolidation, and on-demand finance. We are well positioned to disrupt legacy payments by equipping our customers with a vertically integrated and highly differentiated payer experience,” Alan Ward, CEO of Securely. About Ingo Payments Ingo Payments empowers banks, fintechs, and enterprises to deliver modern financial experiences through its full-service embedded banking platform. Ingo’s bank-grade modern money stack, built with embedded compliance and risk management, enables seamless account funding, transfers, mobile deposits, payouts, digital wallets, account and card issuing, PFM, and rewards solutions across a wide range of industries and use cases. With a vertically integrated platform, Ingo helps clients minimize third-party risk, reduce operational complexity, and lower costs—all while accelerating go-to-market timelines. Learn more at ingopayments.com. About Securely Securely’s embedded finance platform helps middle market and large enterprises control costs, simplify operations, and stay compliant. Our patent-pending Multi-Tag™ pricing provides unparalleled cost control by leveraging unlimited smart pricing structures. The Securely platform simplifies compliance and reduces fraud risks while enabling zero-cost processing, finance on-demand, rapid account funding, and infrastructure consolidation all through a single point integration. Securely’s mobile interface works without a password, and there is no need to download another app. This drives revenue and retention for merchants, delivers best-in-class payer experience to their customers, and ultimately increases margins. Explore Securely’s offering at www.securely.io.

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?

In the digital age, traditional methods of receiving payments, such as paper checks, are gradually being replaced by more efficient and convenient electronic or digital disbursements. But what exactly is an electronic disbursement, and how does it work? Let’s break it down. An electronic disbursement, also known as an e-disbursement or digital disbursement, refers to the transfer of funds from one party to another using electronic means, typically through online banking systems or digital payment platforms. Instead of physical checks or cash transactions, electronic disbursements rely on digital channels to facilitate the movement of funds quickly and securely. How Do Electronic Disbursements Work? Electronic disbursements leverage various electronic payment methods to transfer funds seamlessly. Some popular methods include: ACH Transfers: Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers offer a reliable and cost-effective way to transfer funds electronically. ACH transfers can be used for various types of payments, including direct deposits, bill payments, business-to-business transactions, and person-to-person transfers. Direct Deposit: Employers, government agencies, and financial institutions often use direct deposit to electronically deposit funds directly into recipients’ bank accounts. This method eliminates the need for physical checks and enables quick access to funds, with a turnaround time of only 1-3 days. Digital Wallets: Digital wallet platforms, such as PayPal, Venmo, or Apple Pay, allow users to send and receive money electronically using their mobile devices. Users can link their bank accounts or debit/credit cards to these wallets, making it easy to transfer funds digitally. Push-To-Card: Push-to-card is a method of electronically transferring funds directly onto a prepaid or to a bank account via a debit card associated with a recipient. Funds are pushed from the sender’s account or payment platform directly onto the recipient’s card, typically using the card network’s infrastructure. Push-to-card is an electronic disbursement method that allows instant access to funds. Benefits of Electronic Disbursements: Speed: Electronic disbursements offer rapid fund transfer, often providing recipients with immediate access to funds compared to traditional methods like paper checks. Convenience: Recipients can receive funds electronically without the hassle of visiting a bank or waiting for a physical check to arrive in the mail. This convenience enhances the overall user experience. Security: Electronic disbursements employ encryption and other security measures to protect sensitive financial information, reducing the risk of fraud or theft associated with paper-based transactions. Cost-Effectiveness: Digital/electronic disbursements can be more cost-effective for businesses, as they eliminate expenses related to paper, printing, and postage associated with physical checks. Electronic Disbursements: A Growth Opportunity Electronic disbursements represent a fundamental shift away from old-school payment methods and the time they take to process. These newer, digital disbursements have many benefits, including speed, convenience, security, and cost-effectiveness for both businesses and the clients they serve. While electronic payments are already becoming the norm, as financial technology continues to advance, electronic disbursements are expected to play an even more integral role in the financial transactions landscape—providing individuals and businesses with a seamless payment solution for today and into the future. Want to learn more about electronic disbursements, and how the right payments orchestrater can help you get your digital payments and disbursements in order? Talk to one of our experts at Ingo Payments.

The breakneck pace of modern business has created a true need for swift and efficient funds disbursement. When every minute of every transaction counts to your customers, delays in accessing funds can impede handling financial obligations or operations. This is where digital disbursements come into play. Digital disbursements offer a fast and secure alternative to traditional paper check. But just how quickly can a company’s funds be accessed after a digital disbursement? Digital disbursements have emerged as a game-changer for companies looking to streamline their payment processes, decrease the cost of paper checks and increase the real-time mobility of their money. These electronic alternatives to sluggish, paper-based methods are on track to ubiquity. Why? Because digital disbursements prioritize speed, security, and convenience. Unlike the cumbersome process of waiting for a physical check to arrive in the mail, digital disbursements expedite the transfer of funds, ensuring recipients can access their money promptly. One of the primary advantages of digital disbursements revolves around choice: there are various electronic payment methods available, each with its own timeline for funds availability. Let’s delve into some of these methods and their respective timelines (and check out our article explaining the different types of digital disbursements here. Quick access to funds ACH Transfers: Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers are a tried-and-true staple in digital disbursements, offering a reliable and cost-effective way to transfer funds electronically. Money moves between bank accounts through the ACH network. ACH transfers can be used for various types of payments, including direct deposits, bill payments, business-to-business transactions, and person-to-person transfers. Typically, ACH transfers take 1-3 business days to process, providing recipients with relatively swift access to their funds. Wire Transfers: Wire transfers are electronic transfers of funds between banks or financial institutions. While they are usually faster than ACH transfers, they may still take a few hours to complete, especially for international transfers. Instant Access to Funds Push-to-card: Push-to-card refers to the process of electronically transferring funds directly onto a prepaid or to a bank account via a debit card associated with the recipient. Funds are pushed from the sender’s account or payment platform directly onto the recipient’s card, typically using the card network’s infrastructure. Recipients can then access the funds immediately for purchases, withdrawals, or other transactions. Digital Wallets: Platforms such as PayPal and Venmo enable instant transfers, with recipients often able to access their funds within minutes of the disbursement being initiated. Real-Time Payments (RTP) & FedNow: These modern payment systems enable instantaneous transfers between participating financial institutions. RTP transactions are processed instantly, with funds transferred directly between the sender’s and recipient’s accounts in real-time. Recipients can access the funds immediately upon receipt, making it suitable for time-sensitive transactions. Digital Disbursements: Fast, Secure Money Mobility To run effectively, businesses with a need to provide customers access to funds need to carefully consider the optimal method for their disbursements. They must weigh factors such as speed, cost, and convenience. While traditional paper checks may still have their place in certain types of transactions, the advantages of digital disbursements are undeniable, especially in terms of their speed. By embracing electronic payment methods, businesses can streamline their operations, enhance cash flow, and deliver a superior experience for recipients. They can cut the arrival time for a customer’s funds down from waiting a week for a check in the mail, to just one to three days with ACH. Or they can join the instant payments revolution and give their clients instant access to the funds they need through push to card, digital wallets, RTP and FedNow. While the timeline for accessing funds after a digital disbursement varies depending on the chosen payment method, there’s no doubt that going digital speeds up the timeline for customers interested in accessing their money. At any rate, by leveraging the efficiency of digital disbursements, businesses can position themselves for success in today’s fast-paced business landscape and get money into their customer’s pockets quicker and more efficiently.

We’ve already defined what a digital disbursement is, and how they play a crucial role in facilitating seamless transactions and empowering businesses to manage their finances efficiently. But how does a digital disbursement work, and what is a clear example of one? Understanding Disbursements: A Refresher First, a quick refresher: a digital disbursement is an online financial transaction that involves the quick and secure distribution or payout of funds from one party to another. This can take many forms—salary payments, vendor payments, refunds, or any other outgoing funds disbursed by an organization and orchestrated electronically. Essentially, disbursements encompass the movement of money from a source to single or multi-party recipients, making them a fundamental aspect of financial operations. Digital disbursements are those that take place in an online space, for example, without the use of a paper check. Examples of a Disbursement: Consider a scenario where a large ecommerce platform needs to disburse payments to its network of sellers. These disbursements may include the revenue generated from product sales, refunds, or even incentives for high-performing sellers. In this case, the ecommerce platform acts as the disburser, while individual sellers represent the recipients of the disbursed funds. To execute this process seamlessly, a payment orchestrator comes into play. The payment orchestrator streamlines and automates the disbursement process, ensuring that funds are transferred accurately and promptly. It integrates with various financial institutions, payment gateways, and other relevant systems to orchestrate a smooth flow of funds from the ecommerce platform to the sellers. Digital Disbursements in Action Let’s delve deeper: here’s another real-world example of a digital disbursement. Imagine an online marketplace processing vendor payments digitally. Upon the completion of a successful sale, the marketplace triggers an automated disbursement process through its integrated payment orchestrator. Again, we move to a payment orchestrator, which validates the transaction details, ensuring accuracy and compliance. Subsequently, the payment orchestrator communicates with the seller’s bank via secure APIs, initiating a direct fund transfer to the seller’s account. This digital disbursement not only minimizes the processing time but also provides a transparent audit trail. This entire workflow showcases how technology-driven digital disbursements streamline financial operations, offering just a quick glimpse into the streamlined efficiency of modern digital financial transactions. Benefits of Automated Digital Disbursements Those examples of digital disbursements may have helped you get a feel for the types of transactions and companies they may benefit. But why should a business consider moving toward a digital disbursement system for payouts? Here are just some of the benefits of going digital with disbursements. Efficiency: Automation reduces manual intervention, minimizing the risk of errors and enhancing the overall efficiency of the disbursement process. Speed: Automated disbursements enable swift fund transfers, allowing businesses to meet their financial obligations in a timely manner. Accuracy: By leveraging technology, payment orchestrators ensure that disbursed amounts are accurate, avoiding discrepancies that may arise through manual processing. Cost-effectiveness: Automation not only saves time but also reduces operational costs associated with manual disbursement processes. Given the immense benefits, digital disbursements facilitate the movement of funds in various sectors. As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, understanding and optimizing disbursement workflows become essential for fostering financial agility and success.