From Point Solutions to Trust Platforms: How M&A Is Reshaping Fraud and Digital Identity
M&A activity in fraud and digital identity is accelerating, with providers increasingly acquiring capabilities to build broader, integrated risk and trust platforms. M&A activity in fraud has increased materially over the last 10 years due to the evolving nature of fraud and advancements in new technologies and fraud topologies. Merchant Fraud Management Merchant fraud M&A […]
B2B X-Border Payments: State of the Market
Take-rate compression has accelerated across B2B cross-border payment fintechs, while EBITDA margins have been more defensible. Providers that have offset this pressure have capitalized on structural advantages. These advantages range from owning licenses that reduce intermediary costs to deeper integration into customer workflows that enables cross-selling beyond FX. Consolidation through M&A continues at pace, stablecoin […]
Embedded Fintech Vertical Snapshot: US & EU Field Services
General Commentary & Highlights 3. Vertical Spend 4. Vertical Dynamics 5. Leading Software Platforms 6. Embedded Fintech Maturity Embedded Finance Highlights Please do not hesitate to contact Peter Taylor at Peter@flagshipap.com or Rohan Manudhane at Rohan@flagshipap.com with comments or questions.
Comparing North American and European PayFacs, 2026
We previously published comparisons of the North American and European Payment Facilitators (“PayFac”) ecosystem in 2023 and 2024; we have revisited the registries to see what has changed… 1. Evolution of Registered PayFacs (total number of PayFacs in the US & Canada and Europe1, as of Sep 2026) 2. Software PayFacs Growth 3. Registered ISV/SaaS […]
Defining Value-Added Bank Transfers in US Payments
Introduction Bank transfers, notably ACH, are the workhorse of U.S. B2B payments, accounting for more than 60% of U.S. B2B payment volume. ACH is generally treated as a basic, low-cost means of moving money; however, a low-cost ACH payment increasingly does not entail a low-touch payment experience. Standard ACH has limitations that can create meaningful […]
Embedded Fintech Vertical Snapshot: US Beauty Services
General Commentary & Highlights 3. Vertical Spend 4. Vertical Dynamics 5. Software Platforms 6. Embedded Fintech Maturity Embedded Finance Highlights Please do not hesitate to contact Peter Taylor at Peter@flagshipap.com or Rohan Manudhane at Rohan@flagshipap.com with comments or questions.
European Banks Are Missing Out on the Accounting SaaS Opportunity
The Problem: Why Banks Lag in the SMB Segment Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are a highly lucrative customer segment for banks: their demand for credit is consistently high, they tend to purchase bundled financial services that are quick and easy to buy, and revenue margins are strong. Yet, traditional banks struggle to serve SMBs […]
Webinar: The Price of Surcharging
How Rising Payment Fees Create Complex Legal & Compliance Risks for Payments and Software Companies A panel discussion on surcharging and payment cost recovery with Ben Brown (Partner, Flagship Advisory Partners), Mira Boora (Co-Founder and COO, Yeeld), Theresa Kananen (Partner, Arnall Golden Gregory), and Frank Martien (Founder and Managing Partner, Windward Strategy). Together, we explored […]
Flagship Market Tracker: Agentic Commerce August 2026
Agentic commerce has continued to evolve over the last six months. Adobe data shows AI-driven traffic to travel and retail merchants reached new highs in Q2 (but to be fair, it’s still less than 1% of total retail visits), and AI-referred visitors now stay longer, bounce less, and spend more than traditional traffic. Our research […]
US Credit Card Issuing Industry KPIs Q2’26
Underwriting Discipline Continues to Hold Credit Losses at Bay The second quarter of 2026 brought broad improvement in bank credit card performance, with net credit losses declining across both credit card-focused and diversified banks. Card-focused issuers improved fastest, shedding 21 bps to reach 4.5%, though they still carry roughly 100 bps more loss than their […]