Angela Nickel (COMO Digital Life): Embedded finance makes technology a new core competency in banking
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Embedded finance moves banking into digital platforms and business processes. Angela Nickel, CEO of COMO Digital Life, explains why technology is becoming a decisive factor – and how COMO is responding with its scalable, orchestrated finance ecosystem.
Why is embedded finance so important today – and what does the paradigm shift in banking mean?
Embedded finance relocates banking into digital ecosystems and platforms where financial services are used. As Brett King has argued, banking today depends increasingly on technology expertise as much as on traditional banking expertise. To remain relevant, companies need to integrate financial services into their technology stack. B2B clients seek to manage payment flows, currencies, and liquidity directly within their core systems rather than via multiple external channels. Embedded finance thus becomes part of the business model’s infrastructure: it supports transparency, speed, and new types of revenue models, and it can strengthen a company’s position in its customers’ value chains. In this context, COMO focuses on technological capabilities, including integrated AI technologies to support risk management, orchestration, and compliance in international B2B payment flows and platform models.
How does COMO Digital Life implement this vision in its modular finance ecosystem?
The finance ecosystem, COMO Digital Life, is built on two complementary pillars:
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COMO Pay offers services for B2B clients such as multi-currency business accounts, local and cross-border payment rails, and treasury functions including FX Realtime, with virtual IBANs planned for the future. This setup allows companies to manage payment flows, liquidity, and currency exposure within a unified, regulated infrastructure.
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COMO World provides an orchestration layer with add-ons from a suite of interconnected services: a global payment gateway, global acquiring, advanced treasury management, open banking interfaces, and additional modules under development. It incorporates AI-based tools for AML, risk management, and compliance by design.
This orchestrated finance ecosystem is made available as an embedded finance solution for partners. Platforms, corporate service providers, and SaaS companies can integrate it into their products or services and offer customers a regulated financial setup under their own brand, directly at the point of use.
“ Embedded finance is the silent backbone of digital business.”
Where should companies begin with embedded finance?
They can start with their customers' journey: identify specific pain points such as delays, risks, friction, or uncertainty around payment flows, currencies, and liquidity. These points often indicate where embedded finance can add value. By adding a financial infrastructure layer beneath the business model, companies can create digital rails that evolve with the business, reduce complexity, and support better decision-making rather than simply launching another isolated IT project.