The US economy is rapidly turning into a bank, as major non-financial corporations, including airlines, retailers, and tech giants, pursue immense profits by offering unregulated financial services. This phenomenon, often termed “embedded finance” or “banking-ization,” sees companies like Starbucks holding billions in customer funds and airlines profiting more from co-branded credit cards than from flying.
The article warns that this unregulated expansion of financial activities—which includes high-interest “Buy Now, Pay Later” schemes and digital wallets lacking FDIC protection—is exposing consumers to predatory debt traps, enabling corporate surveillance of financial data, and concentrating systemic risk in a manner that could trigger the next major financial crisis.
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