For most retail investors, trading today feels effortless. Money moves quickly, portfolios update in real time, and access to global markets increasingly feels native to the apps people already use. What rarely enters the conversation is the infrastructure making that experience possible. According to Michael Petrilli, Director of Next Gen Investing at ViewTrade, financial services are becoming deliberately invisible, not because the work is simpler, but because technology has absorbed the complexity.
Invisible finance does not mean finance is less important or less regulated. In many ways, it is more complex than ever. What has changed is where that complexity lives. Instead of being exposed to end users, it is increasingly embedded within platforms and handled behind the scenes. “The complexity is definitely there,” Petrilli says. “What’s happening is that with technology and the way we’ve built our infrastructure, the customer doesn’t have to see it. And that’s what makes it seamless and easy.”
ViewTrade operates almost entirely in that background layer. As a B2B provider, the firm supplies embedded investing infrastructure that allows fintechs, financial institutions, and non-bank platforms to offer market access without building brokerage operations from scratch. Its technology supports equities, options, fixed income, private markets, and cross-border investing, all while managing custody, clearing, compliance, and settlement requirements across jurisdictions.
That model has become more relevant as investing grows increasingly global. Capital moves across borders faster than ever, and smartphone adoption continues to expand access to financial markets worldwide. “Capital is global,” Petrilli says. “If you take the way you’re doing business in the US and just try to apply it across the globe, it’s going to fail. Every market is different.”
Embedded finance platforms aim to bridge those differences without forcing users to confront them. Through API-first architectures, firms like ViewTrade allow clients to integrate investment functionality directly into their products, while the infrastructure provider handles regulatory and operational complexity in the background. From the user’s perspective, the experience feels unified. From the infrastructure perspective, it is highly modular.
“A customer just sees their buying power,” Petrilli explains. “The way to calculate that can be complex and depends on where you are in the world. We do all the complicated automation behind the scenes and then build an API on top of it.”
The same principle applies to margin calculations, foreign exchange, tax handling, and market entitlements, all of which vary significantly across regions. Abstracting those systems allows platforms to scale internationally while remaining compliant, which is increasingly essential as demand grows from outside traditional financial centers.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to play a supporting role in this evolution. At ViewTrade, AI is currently used to help explain financial concepts and portfolio changes rather than to make autonomous investment decisions. “We see AI as a support tool,” Petrilli says. “If someone wants to understand why their margin is at a certain level or what changed in their portfolio, AI can help answer those questions.”
Over time, AI could play a larger role in personalization. Petrilli points out that traditional investor profiles often become outdated as circumstances change. More frequent, adaptive engagement could help align portfolios with real-world needs. Even so, he emphasizes that technology does not replace human relationships. AI can streamline processes and improve clarity, but emotional support and trust remain human responsibilities.
Younger investors are accelerating expectations around seamless access. Gen Z investors, Petrilli notes, are comfortable with fractional investing, automation, and real-time feedback. “There’s no waiting around,” he says. “It needs to be smooth, frictionless, and efficient.”
They also expect access to multiple asset classes within a single experience, from equities and options to crypto and alternative investments. Meeting those expectations often forces fintech founders to confront a strategic decision: build internally or partner with specialists.
“This is always the build or buy question,” Petrilli says. “Time to market matters. Partnering with specialists allows firms to launch in months instead of years.”
Looking ahead, invisible finance may extend further into trading hours and settlement cycles. Extended and overnight trading are already in demand, particularly from investors outside US time zones. “The technology is ready,” Petrilli says. “What needs to catch up are operations and regulation.”
By the end of the decade, he expects settlement cycles to move closer to real time, global investing to feel more unified, and portfolios to reflect assets across regions and classes within a single interface. Legal borders and time zones will remain, but participation will feel less constrained by them.
“The goal is to be trusted and reliable within the industry,” Petrilli says. “If someone wants the best infrastructure for global markets, they should know where to go, even if the end investor never sees us.”
As embedded finance continues to mature, invisibility may become its defining feature. Not because finance disappears, but because the infrastructure finally works well enough that investors no longer have to think about it.
Last modified: January 9, 2026
