Across conversations about AI, deposits, embedded finance, customer experience, fintech partnerships, and the changing economics of banking, I kept coming back to one question:
Who will own the commercial banking relationship in the years ahead?
FinovateFall 2026 left me thinking about this question, and I noticed that it didn't appear on most presentation slides. For banks and credit unions, merchant services have traditionally been viewed primarily as a payment's product and a source of non-interest income.
That view may be too narrow.
The institutions that manage a business customer’s day-to-day payment activity can potentially gain greater visibility into that customer’s operations. This can strengthen the overall relationship and identify opportunities across multiple financial services. In other words, merchant services can become more than a product. It can become part of a broader commercial growth strategy.
Here are five merchant services takeaways bank and credit union leaders should be thinking about following FinovateFall 2026:
1) Merchant Services Can Be a Deposit Strategy, Not Just a Fee-Income Strategy
This is important because financial institutions continue to look for sustainable ways to increase non-interest income and attract valuable commercial deposits. Merchant services can potentially contribute to both. When a bank or credit union becomes more closely connected to a business customer’s payment activity, it creates opportunities to expand the relationship beyond payment processing. That may include operating accounts, treasury management, cash management, lending, and other commercial banking services.
The strategic value of merchant services therefore extends beyond the processing of revenue itself. The larger opportunity may be the relationship surrounding the payment activity. A business that processes payments through its financial institution may have more reasons to consolidate deposits, use treasury services and other financial needs with that institution.
The opportunity for financial institutions: This would treat merchant services as part of the broader commercial relationship rather than as a standalone product. That can change the conversation from:
“How much revenue does our merchant portfolio generate?”
to:
“How much additional relationship value does our merchant portfolio create?”
2) Payment Experience Is Becoming Part of Customer Experience
Banks and credit unions are no longer competing solely against other financial institutions. Customers increasingly compare every digital interaction with the best experiences they have anywhere—whether that experience comes from a retailer, airline, software platform, or technology company. That expectation carries directly into commercial banking. Business owners want onboarding to be simple, payment acceptance to work quickly, systems to integrate, information to be accessible, and fewer administrative headaches.
Merchant services sit directly inside that experience.
A cumbersome merchant onboarding process can create frustration before the broader commercial relationship has even developed. Conversely, a fast, intuitive, and well-integrated payments experience can strengthen the perception of the financial institution itself. Pricing will always matter, however; increasing convenient integration and ease of doing business may matter just as much.
The opportunity for financial institutions: Look at merchant services through the same customer-experience lens used for digital banking. The payment experience is not separate from the banking experience. It is part of it.
3) AI Could Make Payments Data Significantly More Valuable
Artificial intelligence was impossible to ignore at FinovateFall.
The most interesting question for financial institutions may not be whether they adopt AI, but what do they do with the data they already possess once AI and analytics make that information easier to interpret. Merchant and transaction data can provide a detailed view of the activity in a business.
Consider the following questions;
If a merchant’s payment volume begins declining unexpectedly, could that become an early retention or credit-risk signal?
If processing volume begins accelerating, could it indicate expansion, working-capital needs, or a future lending opportunity?
If a business processes significant payment volume, but maintains relatively small deposits with the institution, could there be an opportunity to deepen the deposit or treasury relationship?
If seasonal transaction patterns are predictable, could a relationship manager begin a financing conversation before the business customer has to ask?
None of these questions depend on collecting more information. They depend on using existing information more intelligently. That is where AI and analytics become especially interesting. The competitive advantage may not come from having more data. It may come from recognizing what the data is telling you sooner.
The opportunity for financial institutions: Combine transaction intelligence with relationship management so bankers can move from reacting to customer requests towards anticipating customer needs.
4) The Battle Is Increasingly Over Who Owns the Business Relationship
Competition for commercial customers is becoming broader. Banks are competing with other banks, but they are also increasingly competing with fintech companies, payment processors, vertical software platforms, and embedded finance providers. Many of these companies are positioning themselves directly inside the daily operations of a business.
That matters.
The provider that processes payments, manages invoices, facilitates payroll, or integrates directly into a company’s operating software can become deeply embedded in the customer relationship. Once that happens, the traditional financial institution risks becoming less visible. This is why merchant services should not be viewed solely through the lens of processing economics. Payments represent a recurring interaction with the customer, and recurring interactions create opportunities to build stronger relationships.
The opportunity for financial institutions: This protects the commercial relationship by becoming more deeply integrated into the way customers operate their businesses. Merchant services can serve as one of those strategic anchors.
5) Payments Data May Be One of Banking’s Most Underutilized Assets
Banks and credit unions already possess enormous amounts of information about their customers. The challenge is converting that information into something useful. Merchant payment activity can potentially reveal changes in revenue, seasonality, customer behavior, and overall business performance. Those insights can help financial institutions identify:
The value comes from turning transaction activity into actionable intelligence. Traditionally, relationship managers often depend on customers to initiate conversations. The customer asks for a loan, requests a treasury product, or begins shopping for another provider. Payment and transaction data may give financial institutions an opportunity to identify those needs earlier.
That creates the possibility of a more proactive banking model. Instead of waiting for a business customer to say, “I need help,” the institution may already have signals indicating that a conversation should take place.
The opportunity for financial institutions: This puts relevant payment insights into the hands of the people responsible for managing customer relationships, and the data creates value when it changes an action, a conversation, or a decision.
The Bigger Opportunity
The broader message I took away from FinovateFall is that technology itself is unlikely to be the differentiator. Nearly every financial institution will have access to AI. Most will continue improving their digital experiences; embedded finance will continue expanding, and Fintech partnerships will continue evolving. The more important question is how institutions use those capabilities to create stronger and more valuable customer relationships.
That is where merchant services become especially interesting.
Payments can connect many of the priorities financial institutions are already focused on:
Non-interest income.
Commercial deposits.
Treasury relationships.
Lending opportunities.
Customer experience.
Data intelligence.
Relationship retention.
Viewed through that lens, merchant services is no longer simply a processing product. It becomes part of the infrastructure supporting the broader commercial banking relationship. For that reason, financial institutions should periodically evaluate whether their merchant services strategy and partnership models are helping them achieve broader commercial banking objectives or simply processing transactions. The institutions that will be best positioned for long-term success may be those that view merchant services as a relationship strategy.
Capable of supporting deposit growth, strengthening client engagement, creating actionable data insights, and uncovering new commercial banking opportunities. That brings us back to the question that stayed with me throughout FinovateFall:
Who will own the commercial banking relationship in the years ahead?
The answer may depend, in part, on who owns the payment relationship today.