Real Time Was Yesterday. Right Time Is the New Race.

Embedded finance has become a survival requirement, Galileo Financial Technologies Chief Product Officer David Feuer writes in a new PYMNTS eBook, “Headlines That Will Shape the Close of 2025.”

The biggest story of 2025 isn’t about any single innovation. It’s that embedded finance grew up.

The embedded finance market is on track to exceed $100 billion globally — up from $67 billion just two years ago. Economic uncertainty made every company scrutinize their revenue streams. New regulatory frameworks emerged to match the pace of innovation. Real-time capabilities that once differentiated leaders became the minimum requirement. Investors noticed — embedded finance funding is one of the fastest-growing segments in 2025, with RegTech not far behind. Financial services moved from the edges of digital business to dead center.

Embedded finance stopped being a growth strategy and became a survival requirement. Companies that ignored financial services are now scrambling because their competitors are using embedded finance to lock in customers. When your competitor offers instant payouts, earned wage access and integrated lending, your “best in class” product suddenly looks outdated. The defensive plays are as interesting as the offensive ones.

What used to take years now happens in weeks. We took a major hospitality brand from contract to card launch in under 90 days. That speed changes the entire calculation. When you can test a financial product in the time it used to take to write the requirements, experimentation explodes. And, when that speed is combined with the technology supercycles of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, it feels like we’re finally moving at the speed customers expect.

3 Shifts Reshaping the Landscape

First, debit is eating credit’s lunch. For decades, loyalty programs catered to credit card users. But here’s what changed: debit spending has outpaced credit for the first time in four years, and there’s $4 trillion in annual debit spending waiting to be rewarded. Millions either can’t get credit or don’t want it. Smart brands are finally responding. When you start rewarding debit users, you’re not just adding customers — you’re rethinking engagement.

Second, “real time” is becoming “right time.” Everyone can offer instant payments now. The real question for 2026: Can you assess risk, extend credit and settle funds all in the same moment? Can you make the right decision before the customer even knows they need it? Speed without intelligence is just noise.

Third, transforming risk, fraud and compliance into a competitive edge. The companies that invested in fraud prevention and identity verification aren’t just avoiding problems — they’re building moats. Every transaction makes them smarter. Every risk they prevent makes them faster. The most compliant platforms become the most powerful.

Financial services are disappearing into everything else. Not disappearing as in going away — disappearing as in becoming invisible. When you buy something, get paid or move money, you won’t think about the financial infrastructure underneath. It’ll just work.

Success isn’t about flashy features anymore. It’s about making financial services so simple, so trustworthy that customers can’t imagine doing business any other way. The best infrastructure is the one nobody notices.

While everyone is focused on making today’s rails faster, the real disruption might come from entirely new networks. Alternative payment systems could make our current debates about interchange fees and settlement times seem quaint. But that’s a story for 2027.

The post Real Time Was Yesterday. Right Time Is the New Race. appeared first on PYMNTS.com.