FIS, a global leader in financial services technology, has announced the launch of the FIS Embedded Banking Platform, its first embedded finance offering built specifically for banks. The platform enables U.S. banks to offer banking services directly within the business software their corporate customers use daily.

The FIS Embedded Banking Platform allows banks to provide accounts, card issuing, accounts receivable and payable, and expense management capabilities directly inside the accounting software and business tools their customers already use every day. Because the platform keeps accounts on the bank's own balance sheet rather than a third-party ledger, banks retain full customer ownership and a cleaner regulatory position, while software partners manage the user experience. That design distinguishes the offering from many earlier banking-as-a-service (BaaS) models, in which fintechs typically sat between the bank and the end customer and often held customer funds on virtual ledgers — an arrangement that has drawn heightened regulatory attention in the United States in recent years.

FIS is launching the platform with pilot banks including Cogent Bank, Commercial Bank of California and M&T Bank, with accounts and payments planned for Q4 2026. The entry of a major core-banking processor like FIS into bank-side embedded finance signals how incumbent technology providers are repositioning as distribution of financial services shifts from bank branches and portals toward the software platforms where businesses already operate.

Corporate customers increasingly expect to do their banking natively inside the software they use to run their business each day, rather than switching to a separate banking portal. The Embedded Banking Platform makes that possible, letting a bank's customers open accounts and move money directly within their existing software, backed by bank-grade technology that keeps those transactions secure and compliant.

How It Works

Banks leverage the Embedded Banking Platform from FIS, partner with a vertical software provider or fintech, and embed their own accounts and payment capabilities into that partner's product. Corporate customers get an integrated banking experience without leaving the software they use daily. The bank keeps the customer relationship, the software partner owns the user experience, and FIS powers the infrastructure.

Banks can offer the platform through APIs, SDKs, embeddable widgets, or white-labeled applications, depending on the software partner's preference.

Why It Matters

Banks maintain full customer ownership and regulatory control because accounts live on the bank's balance sheet, not on a virtual ledger managed by a third party. This also means simpler compliance, cleaner regulatory positioning and more durable infrastructure. Instead of relying solely on their own direct sales, banks can reach corporate customers through the software those customers already use to run their business.

Embedded finance is moving banking into the software businesses use every day. The FIS Embedded Banking Platform is designed to keep banks central to that shift, extending their reach across the full money lifecycle — from the deposits and accounts they hold to the payments they move and the capital they put to work — wherever their customers choose to bank. For banks weighing participation in embedded finance, the Q4 2026 pilot rollout will be an early indicator of how the balance-sheet-first model performs in practice with vertical software partners.

"Banks' customers want banking built into the software they use to run their business every day," said Jon Briggs, Global Head of Embedded Solutions and Money Movement at FIS. "Embedded Banking Platform lets banks meet those expectations and stay at the center of the relationship, while maintaining the regulatory control and customer ownership that define traditional banking."