How Anext Bank helps platforms make the most of embedded finance

Summary:

• Embedded finance enables platforms to offer financial services – like payments and loans – within their ecosystems, streamlining essential business operations for users.
• While embedded finance creates new revenue and engagement opportunities, platforms face challenges such as regulatory complexity, which they can address by partnering with licensed providers.
• Future embedded finance will expand beyond payments and lending to deeper financial products and integrated digital ecosystems.
• Anext Bank is one such partner for embedded finance solutions. Learn how its offerings can help you reach your business goals.

For firms running a software-as-a-service product, a B2B marketplace, a logistics platform, or any service that’s core to their clients’ daily operations, embedded finance has become something they can’t ignore.

Besides allowing businesses to add payments and loans as features, embedded finance also lets them give users the opportunity to carry out financial tasks – such as securing working capital or paying an overseas supplier – without leaving their platform.

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This has made embedded finance appealing to Southeast Asia’s MSMEs, which make up a majority of the region’s economy. For some MSMEs, it’s become a critical solution, as it may be the only way they can access such financial services easily.

Regardless of their size, businesses that include embedded finance solutions in their platforms benefit from deeper engagement, new revenue streams, and a solid moat.

Blind spots to look out for

While the opportunities of embedded finance are clear, integrating these solutions come with challenges.

“To digital platforms, there should be no difference in security and compliance. However, some non-financial platform operators may have blind spots when exploring embedded finance solutions,” says Qiu Kai, CEO of Anext Bank.

Qiu Kai, CEO of Anext Bank / Photo credit: Anext Bank

This is especially pertinent for those that are considering building these solutions themselves.

“You could build the financial infrastructure in-house, but that means you’ve got to learn the regulations of each market you operate in, secure licences yourself, and maintain bank-grade systems,” Qiu points out.

Check out how Anext Bank’s embedded finance solutions can help your platform.

A know-your-customer process that works in Singapore, for instance, may not pass muster in Indonesia. Likewise, a loan product that’s legal in one country may be restricted in another.

Further, one of the most common traps that platform operators might fall into is trying to launch several embedded finance offerings at once. For Qiu, the smarter play is to assess users carefully and start small by addressing specific pain points.

If users face cash flow gaps, the platform can start by piloting a working capital loan offering. Other examples of targeted launches include adding foreign currency exchange and payment capabilities if the platform serves cross-border businesses, or offering interest-bearing deposit options if users tend to have surplus funds.

“In our experience, treating each service as a standalone module – testing, measuring, and iterating on each one – lets platforms move faster without overcommitting resources. This is how you evolve from a single feature to a complete financial ecosystem,” Qiu says.

Capturing opportunities

Understanding how to include embedded finance solutions can only take business leaders so far, especially if they’re going at it alone. For most SaaS or marketplace founders, doing it themselves could be a costly distraction from working on their core product.

“Working with licensed providers removes the ambiguity around critical aspects like anti-money laundering and risk management,” Qiu says.

Partnering with these firms also makes things easier thanks to APIs.

LEARN HOW ANEXT BANK’S SOLUTIONS WORK

Anext Bank, for instance, has designed its APIs to be consistent in quality and security, on top of being locally compliant in each market. The onboarding process it provides can meet compliance requirements in Singapore while being adaptable for other regulatory frameworks in Asia.

For platform operators that work with the right partners, the opportunities of embedded finance are enticing.

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According to Qiu, 69% of Anext’s end-customers are MSMEs. Out of that group, 56% use its loan solutions, while 80% have availed of its deposit products. These MSMEs come from 79 countries, including Singapore, China, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea.

“Many of them are expanding regionally, making cross-border-ready finance a growing necessity too,” Qiu adds.

The next chapter in embedded finance

Today, embedded finance is still largely about access to services such as lending, payments, and deposits. But according to Qiu, the next wave will be defined by two shifts.

First, there will be broader product depth through offerings such as tokenized assets, as well as bank-grade solutions like fixed deposits and sustainability-linked investments.

Second, platforms that integrate embedded finance will unlock richer customer insights and seamless financial access, all while deepening bank-partner synergies.

As the industry matures, Qiu believes that embedded finance is on track to become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator. He says that founders who move early – with the right compliance, scalability, and customer insight – will set the pace.

“I think embedded finance is more than a technical integration – it’s a strategic shift. Done thoughtfully, it can create a mutually reinforcing cycle: as your customers grow, so does the value and resilience of your own platform,” he adds.

Anext Bank, a Singapore-based digital wholesale bank regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is on a mission to make financial services accessible and effortless for SMEs. Adopting an open and collaborative approach, it believes in joining hands with industry partners to provide SMEs with simpler, safer, and more rewarding financial services.

Check out how its embedded finance solutions can help your platform.

LEARN HOW ANEXT BANK’S SOLUTIONS WORK

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.