KYC Determines BaaS Selection
Andy Su, co-founder of Pry, on how fintechs choose the right BaaS partners
KYC is where a fast card launch can turn into a slow bank compliance project. For Pry, the product only works if a founder can create a vendor specific card inside the app with minimal extra steps. If the BaaS partner requires manual reviews, identity document uploads, or follow up calls, the workflow breaks, activation drops, and the prototype stops feeling like software and starts feeling like underwriting.
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In BaaS, KYC is not a side check box. It is part of the account opening and card issuing flow. Platforms tell the fintech what information to collect, then pass or route users through bank and vendor compliance systems before accounts and cards can go live.
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The real split in the market is bundled versus modular. All in one providers like Bond, Unit, and Synctera take on more compliance and operations. Modular stacks pair card issuers like Lithic with separate KYC vendors, which gives fintechs more control over the onboarding flow once they have the scale to manage that complexity.
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Pry’s use case is unusually sensitive to onboarding friction because it wants to issue many virtual cards for vendors, not one card per business. That means even small per customer delays, manual reviews, or extra document requests compound quickly across every new account and every card program expansion.
The market is moving toward cleaner separation between compliance infrastructure and card issuing, which will favor fintechs that want to tune onboarding without rebuilding the whole banking stack. As embedded finance matures, the winners will be the providers that keep bank grade controls in place while making KYC feel like a background API call instead of a support queue.