The ‘discovery’ problem in embedded finance – and how OMB Bank found the right fintech partner
- Despite rapid innovation and growth in embedded finance, one area remains largely unchanged: how banks and fintechs initially connect.
- Treasury Prime identifies discovery – not diligence – as the real bottleneck in embedded finance, with AI now positioned to overcome it.
For Missouri-based community bank OMB Bank, finding the right fintech partner used to be a slow, manual process. Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Jessica Sims recalls working from static PDFs of the bank’s preferences, followed by endless back-and-forth emails whenever a fintech expressed interest. The process worked, but painfully slowly, and promising opportunities often slipped through the cracks.
That changed when OMB discovered Backpack, a university payments fintech on Treasury Prime’s AI Marketplace, whose priorities perfectly aligned with the bank’s focus areas. OMB moved quickly, creating a smooth collaboration that benefited both parties.
The ‘discovery’ problem in embedded finance
Embedded finance is a three-way intersection: banks provide the regulated foundation, fintechs handle the tech and integrations, and non-financial brands deliver the end service to users.
Despite all the innovation and growth in the space, one part of the process has seen little advancement: how banks and fintechs find each other in the first place. Behind the scenes, most teams still spend weeks sorting inbound interest, chasing warm introductions, and manually assessing early-stage fit, with many discussions that go nowhere – long before compliance or economics even enter the conversation.
Finding fintech partners that truly align with a bank’s strategy, risk appetite, and operating model remains slow, manual, and opaque – the very problem OMB faced before meeting Backpack.
Treasury Prime believes that discovery, not diligence, is the real bottleneck in embedded finance equations – and that AI is now mature enough to fix it.
In December 2025, Treasury Prime launched its new AI Marketplace to change that starting point. The platform automates partner discovery and accelerates collaboration between banks and fintechs.
“Discovery is where banks feel the most friction,” says Chris Dean, co-founder and CEO of Treasury Prime. “The biggest change is that banks are no longer starting from a blank slate with every new fintech conversation.”
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