Specialization Turns Interchange Durable
The future of interchange
Specialization is what turns a fragile interchange business into a durable one. The winners are not just offering a prettier checking account or card, they are picking a customer with a specific money problem, then wrapping banking around that workflow so spend is higher, retention is stronger, and they can layer in software or lending. That is why generic neobanks faded while focused products like Slash, and broader suites like Brex and Ramp, kept compounding.
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Vertical focus works when the target segment has unusual payment behavior. Slash went after agencies, crypto businesses, and e-commerce merchants that mainstream banks often avoid, and those customers spend heavily on cards, like ad buying, which produces more interchange than startup customers whose biggest expense is payroll over ACH.
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The product usually has to do more than banking. In B2B, the sticky version is software plus money movement. Vertical ERP products absorb both workflow and cash flow, so a user is not just storing money there, they are invoicing, reconciling, paying vendors, and sometimes borrowing inside the same tool.
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As companies scale, the specialization can change form. Brex started as a card and banking product for startups, then added software, and in enterprise moved deeper into specific workflows like travel and procurement through Navan and Coupa, using those integrations as both distribution and upsell channels.
The next phase is more segmentation, not less. New fintech winners are likely to look either like software companies that monetize payments after owning the workflow, or like financial products built for hard niches that horizontal platforms cannot easily copy. The market is moving from generic neobanks toward tightly scoped operating systems for specific kinds of spend.