The taxonomy
The partnership taxonomy
Everyone calls it a partnership. These ten definitions tell you which kind you are looking at, and each one turns on a single question you can answer from the announcement.
Nine of the ten put a product in front of somebody else's customers. The tenth is a technology purchase, which stays inside the company that bought it. Drawing that line is what this taxonomy is for.
Embedded finance placement
A financial product is presented inside a non financial company's product flow and sold under that flow. The host owns the customer relationship.
The product sits inside an integrated flow the host controls, and no competing product is shown alongside it.
Bank sponsorship
A chartered bank provides a regulated capability, such as deposit taking, card issuance or lending authority, that a non bank uses to bring a product to market.
The charter itself is the object of the agreement. No other type turns on a charter.
Infrastructure distribution
One financial company provides the capability another financial company uses to reach its own end customers. The provider reaches those customers through the partner. Neither party needs a charter, and the partner is not a non financial host.
The capability leaves the partner and reaches an end customer. If it stays inside the partner, this is a technology purchase instead. Look at where the capability ends up, not at who pays whom.
What is recorded against it · Full definition with boundary cases
Non financial provider distribution
A company outside financial services supplies a capability, and a financial company distributes it onward to its own customers under its own relationship. The provider reaches those customers through the financial company and holds no relationship with them.
The provider is not a financial company. Everything else matches infrastructure distribution, which needs a financial company on both sides. The capability still has to reach an end customer, or this is a technology purchase.
What is recorded against it · Full definition with boundary cases
Lender distribution agreement
One party originates or refers loan volume that the other funds, buys or services. Includes forward flow arrangements where volume is committed in advance.
Loan volume moves between the parties. A referral that stops at an introduction is referral and lead flow instead.
Carrier distribution agreement
A carrier appoints a counterparty to place its policies. Includes MGA and MGU appointments where underwriting authority is delegated.
An appointment exists, and the counterparty can bind. A party that only hands over an interested consumer is referral and lead flow.
Marketplace placement
The product is listed alongside competitors on a third party surface the partner controls.
Competing products sit alongside it and the flow is not integrated. In an embedded placement the host shows one product and controls the flow.
Referral and lead flow
The partner hands over an identified prospect and the receiving party completes the sale.
No integration and no shared flow. The handoff is the whole arrangement.
White label
The product is sold under the partner's brand. The originating company is not disclosed to the end customer.
Brand attribution, not integration depth. An embedded placement usually names the provider. A white label does not.
Affinity and group distribution
Access is granted to a defined membership, employee base or association.
The population is closed and defined, rather than open to any customer of the partner.
Technology vendor
Software or a service the company buys and consumes internally. It is not a route to an end customer and it is not a capability the company resells.
The company buys something it uses itself, and none of its customers ever touch it. Look at who reaches the customer, not at how the deal is priced.
What is recorded against it · Full definition with boundary cases