Fintech You Can Bank On: How Global Banking Infrastructure Sets Fintech Apart
Infrastructure is facing a reckoning
When payments and financial services work, no one notices the infrastructure. But when they fail, the cracks show instantly and publicly. In fintech, years of rapid growth have prioritised speed: launching fast and scaling faster. Now, that pace is exposing the strain beneath the surface. Infrastructure is facing a reckoning.
Recently, we’ve seen businesses forced to shut after partner banks mishandled funds, scramble when accounts were frozen, or watch as institutions they relied on collapsed overnight. These incidents triggered regulatory scrutiny, media backlash, and user panic. They also serve as a warning: businesses relying on partners with fragmented third-party systems and limited control are exposed when things go wrong.
As our industry enters this age of infrastructure, where focus is shifting from speed alone to building rapid growth on solid foundations, many providers are rethinking their strategies. Some are starting to apply for their own banking licenses, having seen the benefits of bringing key capabilities in-house, while others are doubling down on reliance on sponsor banks or piecemeal solutions.
For enterprise businesses, it’s increasingly clear that not all approaches offer the same level of speed, control, and flexibility. Lasting value lies in their provider’s ability to fully control its infrastructure.
Not all licenses are created equal
In today’s world of payments and financial services, licenses are a structural choice. And not all of them offer the same privileges, responsibilities, and resilience.
- On one end of the spectrum, there are Money Transmission Licenses (MTLs). These are the US minimum requirement for moving funds across state lines. Companies secure them one jurisdiction at a time, enabling them to transmit money but not to hold it, lend it, or control how it flows once it leaves their system.
- In Europe, the equivalent is the e-money license. It allows a business to issue and store digital balances but not to function as a full bank. Without the ability to settle transactions directly or offer more complex financial services, these licenses often come with a dependency on external banks for core infrastructure.
- Then there’s acquiring: the ability to process card payments and settle them. Most fintechs don’t hold acquiring licenses themselves. Instead, they lean on third-party acquirers, introducing another layer of operational complexity and potential latency between customer and clearing.
- In the US, the Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter allows providers to connect directly to card networks without a sponsor bank, but only for acquiring. While it streamlines card payment processing, it doesn’t cover services like account issuance, lending, or treasury.
- At the other end of the spectrum are full banking licenses. These grant the authority to not only move and store funds, but also hold deposits, connect directly with payment networks, issue accounts, manage treasury, and settle in real time; all while being subject to rigorous financial oversight. This is the license that transforms a company from a facilitator into a fully accountable financial institution.
This spectrum matters because it defines how much control a provider really has. The further you are from a full banking license, the more you rely on partners to carry out mission-critical functions. And with each additional handoff comes more risk, less visibility, and slower issue resolution.
Today, most providers operate in the middle of this range. They piece together their offering through a mix of MTLs, e-money permissions, sponsor banks, and third-party acquirers. It’s a patchwork that works, until it doesn’t.
That’s why the ground is beginning to shift. Some fintechs are now applying for banking licenses in key markets, hoping to tighten their grip on core infrastructure and avoid the pitfalls of fragmented models. But while the intent signals maturity, it also highlights how early many still are in this journey.
The truth is, very few providers have built this foundation from the start. Fewer still have built this on a global level. And for businesses choosing a financial partner today, that difference is becoming hard to ignore.
Banking infrastructure that powers global performance
As businesses scale across borders, their ambitions often outpace their infrastructure. What looks seamless on the surface, such as a unified product, a global customer base, and a single brand experience, can mask a tangled backend of compliance gaps, partner dependencies, and fragmented fund flows.
That’s because financial regulation doesn’t travel well. It remains stubbornly local, shaped by national regulators and varying regional licensing requirements. A SaaS platform serving users in North America, Europe, and Asia must navigate not only different expectations, but different playbooks entirely. And for providers reliant on sponsor banks to fill those gaps, each market adds another layer of friction.
The consequences show up fast. Payment timelines stretch from seconds to days. Customer onboarding stalls under KYC bottlenecks. Financial products roll out slowly, one country at a time, held back by the limitations of outsourced infrastructure.
This is where licensing starts becoming a competitive advantage. Full banking licenses, when held directly by the provider, allow for unified oversight across regions. They eliminate the need for handoffs between third parties, enabling end-to-end control over processing, settlement, safeguarding, and reporting. The impact on performance is tangible.
- Go-to-market becomes faster. With no need to wait on third-party banks to approve services or issue funds, companies can launch new offerings on their own timelines. Payment flows accelerate. Funds move when they’re supposed to, without waiting on someone else’s system. The result is better liquidity, stronger customer experience, and fewer working capital constraints.
- There are fewer points of failure. In a typical setup, infrastructure is a relay race, passed from issuer to processor to bank to scheme. Each handoff increases risk. A banking license cuts through that by collapsing functions into a single platform with direct accountability.
- And perhaps most critically, regulatory adherence becomes proactive rather than reactive. With licensing comes responsibility and the autonomy to meet compliance standards independently. It also enables direct engagement with leading regulators, meaning clearer guidance and alignment on compliance expectations without relying on interpretations from external partners.
This model is more robust and more flexible, allowing businesses to adapt their financial products to local needs without re-architecting their stack or renegotiating contracts. It gives them control to maintain a consistent customer experience while catering to regional differences.
Infrastructure is the strategy
Fintech’s promise has always been speed and innovation, but that only works when the infrastructure is solid. As the sector matures, the cracks in outsourced and fragmented models are starting to show. For enterprise businesses and platforms alike, relying on providers with their own licenses and infrastructure isn’t just safer, it’s smarter. It means fewer risks, more control, and the ability to scale with speed and confidence.
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This article has been republished with permission from Adyen.
Adyen is a member of our Payment Service Provider panel.
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Adyen made a conscious decision to take control of infrastructure early. Adyen secured their first acquiring license in 2012 and first banking license in 2017, and continue to build its global financial technology platform from the ground up.
While most providers piece their stack together from sponsor banks, third-party processors, and patchwork compliance vendors, Adyen took a different approach: it became the bank.
Adyen is a financial technology platform that holds banking licenses in the EU, UK, and US – a deliberate strategic foundation.
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