Fifth Third Bank's Newline initiative provides bank-grade, API-driven payments infrastructure specifically for fintechs like Stripe and Brex, bypassing traditional banking bureaucracy. This episode reveals how a top-10 US bank built a standalone, agile unit with modern tech (including a proprietary core and strategic acquisitions) to process massive commercial payment volumes. For ecommerce operators, understanding such embedded finance options can unlock scalable payment solutions and accelerate financial innovation.
Key takeaways
Explore embedded finance solutions from providers like Newline to seamlessly integrate payment, banking, and financial services directly into your platforms, reducing operational friction and accelerating transaction processing.
Assess potential fintech partners not just on their technology, but also on the agility and autonomy of their operational structure within larger financial institutions (e.g., ring-fenced teams, CEO conviction).
Investigate the role of modern APIs in your payment infrastructure. Robust APIs are critical for scalable integrations and enabling rapid development of new financial products.
Consider how strategic acquisitions and leveraging legacy systems can be combined to build innovative financial solutions. Newline's use of its proprietary 1950s core alongside modern tech demonstrates this.
Evaluate the potential of stablecoins and AI for optimizing B2B payments, aiming for real-time, agentic, and global payment capabilities to minimize manual intervention and maximize efficiency.
Themes
digital transformation in bankingembedded financefintech innovationpayments modernization
Commerce Ventures Partner Ysbrant Marcellus sits down with Tom Bianco, who leads Newline at Fifth Third Bank, to explore how a top-10 U.S. bank is building embedded payments infrastructure purpose-built for modern fintechs. They dive into what makes Newline different: a standalone brand backed by $300 billion in assets, a team that "looks like a fintech to serve fintechs," and modern APIs that let companies like Stripe, Brex, and Ramp move money at scale without navigating traditional bank bureaucracy. Tom shares how Fifth Third's proprietary core—owned since the 1950s—and the strategic acquisition of Rise Money in 2023 created a platform that now processes massive commercial payment volumes with minimal manual intervention. They discuss the three pillars of embedded services (payments, banking, and finance), why conviction from the CEO down was essential to building a 95% ring-fenced team, and how Newline is positioning for a future that's "more agentic, more real-time, and more global." Tom also unpacks why he's bullish on stablecoins as the "leapfrog technology" that could disrupt the correspondent banking oligopoly, where AI-driven B2B payments will create the shortest path to revenue, and why his north star metric is hitting trillions in monthly processing volume by 2031.
What does this episode say about digital transformation in banking?
Explore embedded finance solutions from providers like Newline to seamlessly integrate payment, banking, and financial services directly into your platforms, reducing operational friction and accelerating transaction processing.
What does this episode say about embedded finance?
Assess potential fintech partners not just on their technology, but also on the agility and autonomy of their operational structure within larger financial institutions (e.g., ring-fenced teams, CEO conviction).
What does this episode say about fintech innovation?
Investigate the role of modern APIs in your payment infrastructure. Robust APIs are critical for scalable integrations and enabling rapid development of new financial products.
What does this episode say about payments modernization?
Consider how strategic acquisitions and leveraging legacy systems can be combined to build innovative financial solutions. Newline's use of its proprietary 1950s core alongside modern tech demonstrates this.
What does this episode say about digital transformation in banking?
Evaluate the potential of stablecoins and AI for optimizing B2B payments, aiming for real-time, agentic, and global payment capabilities to minimize manual intervention and maximize efficiency.
