Google’s Take on the Future of Fintech: Beyond Neobanks and BNPL

Why It Matters

The B2B fintech shift gives legacy banks rapid access to cutting‑edge services, unlocking scale and reshaping revenue models across the financial sector.

Key Takeaways

• Neo‑bank services are being white‑labeled for enterprise use.
• Fintech shift moving from B2C to B2B banking‑as‑service.
• Tier‑1 to Tier‑3 banks now sourcing fintech infrastructure.
• Embedded finance expands reach to millions of end‑users.
• Collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial services will accelerate.

Summary

In a recent talk, Google analysts warned that the fintech boom built on neobanks and buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) products is reaching saturation, and the industry’s next wave is a pivot toward business‑to‑business (B2B) banking‑as‑a‑service.

The speaker explained that many neobanks have already built bespoke ledgers and credit‑risk engines, and are now white‑labeling those components for larger institutions. This B2C‑to‑B2B migration enables tier‑1, tier‑2 and tier‑3 banks, insurers and other legacy players to plug in ready‑made fintech stacks rather than develop them in‑house.

‘We are seeing fintechs redeploy their technology across millions of users by partnering with established providers,’ the analyst noted, citing his own work with fintex firms that have restructured their models to serve the enterprise market. The move also promises a more unified embedded‑finance layer that can be scaled across the UK’s highly fragmented ecosystem.

If the trend accelerates, traditional financial services will gain faster access to cutting‑edge products, while fintechs capture larger, more predictable revenue streams. The shift could reshape competitive dynamics, drive consolidation, and make embedded finance a core utility rather than a niche offering.

Original Description

In their latest conversation, Karen Zhang from Google says the big consumer fintech waves of the last few years, such as neobanks and buy now, pay later, is starting to feel crowded. There are now lots of similar B2C fintech products, which makes it harder for companies stand out and scale and while Google isn’t saying these models are finished, but that they’ve become oversaturated, so the next opportunities are showing up elsewhere.

Google explains that momentum is shifting from B2C to B2B fintech, from building consumer-focused apps to building the infrastructure that powers financial services at scale. Many neobanks created robust tech behind the scenes, like custom core systems and ledgers (the systems that record balances and transactions). Now, more fintechs are packaging parts of that stack and offering them to other organisations instead of keeping them in-house.

That’s where white labelling and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) come in; White labelling is “we built it, you brand it,” while BaaS is the broader idea of providing modular banking components, such as accounts, payments, ledgering, cards, and compliance tooling, via platforms and APIs; With Google saying that much of their time is now spent with fintechs that have shifted to serving tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 banks, as well as insurers.

For Zhang, the exciting part is how this changes the conversation from “interesting technology” to “how do we actually scale?” with distribution often being the hardest piece. In the UK, Zhang notes fintech can be fragmented, there’s a fintech for every product — which can keep companies stuck in narrow lanes; Whereas  B2B approach helps fintechs reach millions of end users indirectly by embedding capabilities inside established providers that already have big customer bases.

Overall, Zhang frames this as embedded finance with a B2B focus: fintechs supply the components, and banks or insurers bring reach, trust, and existing relationships and Google expects more of this with more collaboration across the fintech ecosystem, and more fintechs choosing to be the reliable beating heart of banking rather than the flashy consumer front end.