Fintech Infrastructure Providers Are the Engine Behind Banking Change
More than 60% of new banking products launched globally in 2024 were built on fintech-provided infrastructure, according to Boston Consulting Group. That figure was under 20% in 2019. The shift happened because fintech platforms offer banks something their legacy technology cannot — the ability to design, test, and launch financial products in weeks rather than months or years.
The banking infrastructure market reached $42 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research. Companies like Mambu, Thought Machine, Galileo, and Marqeta provide the technology layers that banks use to issue cards, process payments, manage accounts, and comply with regulations. These platforms allow banks to focus on customer relationships and product design while the fintech provider handles the technology complexity. The rapid growth in digital banking customers has made this division of labour increasingly attractive to institutions of all sizes.
How the Model Works
Fintech infrastructure platforms operate as the technology backbone for banks. A bank using Mambu’s core banking platform, for example, gets a cloud-native system that handles account creation, transaction processing, interest calculations, and regulatory reporting. The bank adds its own branding, customer interface, and product rules on top. This is similar to how e-commerce companies use Shopify or BigCommerce rather than building their own retail platforms from scratch.
McKinsey research shows that banks using fintech infrastructure platforms reduce their time-to-market for new products by 60% and their technology operating costs by 35%. Those savings come from shared infrastructure — the fintech provider spreads development and maintenance costs across dozens or hundreds of bank clients, achieving economies of scale that individual banks cannot match. Fintech revenue growing at 23% annually reflects the increasing adoption of this infrastructure model.
Card Issuance and Payment Processing
Card issuance is one area where fintech platforms have transformed banking innovation. Marqeta, which powers card programs for Square, DoorDash, and Uber, processes more than $200 billion in annual card volume. Its platform allows companies to create custom card products — with specific spending controls, rewards rules, and fraud parameters — through API calls rather than months-long development projects.
Galileo Financial Technologies, owned by SoFi, processes more than 150 million accounts and powers card programs for Chime, Robinhood, and dozens of other fintechs. These processing platforms have democratised access to payment infrastructure. A startup with a good idea and a few hundred thousand dollars in capital can now launch a card product that would have required tens of millions and years of development a decade ago.
Lending and Credit Infrastructure
Fintech lending platforms have made similar changes to credit infrastructure. Companies like Blend, nCino, and Zest AI provide the technology that banks use to originate, underwrite, and service loans. Blend’s platform powers mortgage applications at more than 300 financial institutions, reducing the average application time from several hours to under 15 minutes.
Accenture data shows that banks using fintech lending platforms approve loans 50% faster and with 20% lower default rates than those using manual underwriting processes. The improvement comes from better data analysis — fintech platforms can incorporate thousands of data points into credit decisions, including transaction history, cash flow patterns, and alternative data sources that traditional credit scoring models ignore.
The Competitive Landscape
Competition among fintech infrastructure providers is intensifying. Stripe expanded from payments into banking services with Stripe Treasury. Plaid, originally a data aggregation company, now offers payment initiation and identity verification. Adyen added banking and lending features to its payment platform. This convergence means that banks have more choices than ever when selecting technology partners.
Fintech venture funding has grown more than 10x in the past decade, and banking infrastructure companies are among the most heavily funded. The winners in this market will be platforms that combine reliability, regulatory compliance, and developer experience — the qualities that determine whether a bank’s technology team chooses one platform over another. For the banking industry overall, this competitive market in fintech infrastructure means faster innovation, lower costs, and better products for end customers.
