SPECIAL REPORT
FinTech Magazine spoke with Mariquit Corcoran , Group Chief Innovation Officer ( CIO ) at Barclays , about how Rise is helping the bank to identify and work with emerging startups , foster innovation , and develop an exciting trend : embedded finance . Solving real-world problems A highly experienced financial executive , Corcoran first joined Barclays in 2018 and took on the Group CIO role in October 2020 . Possessing a talent for strategy and a keen eye for potential , she identifies embedded finance as one of the industry ’ s most exciting trends . “[ It ] creates new customer journeys that help solve real-world problems . It allows for seamless experiences that reduce friction and provide customers with more options to pay for goods and services from their favourite retailers .”
Essentially , embedded finance is the integration of API-driven banking or payments software with commercial services not strictly focused on finance , such as retail . It is re-centring the emphasis from ‘ fin ’ to ‘ tech ’ and its effects can be
“Embedded finance creates new customer journeys that help solve real-world problems ”
MARIQUIT CORCORAN GROUP CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER , BARCLAYS
seen everywhere from ride-hailing apps to digital wallets , P2P providers , e-commerce , and more . “ There ' s reciprocity in this , too ,” continues Corcoran . The improved customer experience ( CX ) helps merchants grow their own loyalty , deepen client relationships , and provides data that can be used to personalise CX further .” Indeed , this trend is also facilitating a greater emphasis on specialisation and ecosystem expansion : companies can focus on their core service and select third-party partners to deliver the financial infrastructure .
Subsequently , CX can become faster , easier , and more transparent than ever
Rise charts the future of embedded finance
In the ‘ Embedded Finance : Creating a seamless future for financial services ’ section of its
report , Rise cites Forbes that embedded finance in the payments sector is worth $ 16.1bn and could grow to $ 140.8bn by 2025 . This scale , it reasons , can materialise if three criteria are met :
• FSIs open their core technology stack
• Fintechs continue innovating and integrating with the broader financial services sector