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Modern Card Issuing Vs. Legacy Systems: What is the difference?

Dubai, UAE - September 02, 2022

The magic of seamless, nearly invisible payments is spreading everywhere – on e-commerce sites, investing platforms, music apps, and brick and mortar stores. Everywhere where customers spend their time and money.

Modern card issuing is giving businesses new ways to manage corporate spend, increase employee satisfaction and stay at the heart of customers’ financial lives.

With the help of modern card issuing platforms and their open APIs, cards continue to be a key touchpoint to smarter financial services – catalyzing new commerce, business, and payment landscape.


For over half a century, the traditional bank-led card programs have dominated the card-issuing landscape.

Cards issued by banks are characterized as one-size-fits-all products with limited features – many of which simply don’t serve the ever-changing needs of consumers and businesses around the world.

Fintechs have begun to emerge to deliver experiences that meet the needs of modern consumers and businesses. They have started building flexible, customized platforms, by embedding payments in their flows such as virtual cards with customized controls.

Modern Card Issuing – Paving the way for more accessible financial services

Today, innovative businesses are looking for ways to issue their own cards, setting up custom payment programs while bypassing traditional, burdensome card-issuing methods.

Features like OEM wallet payments such as Apple Pay, custom spend controls, and rich user data insights are on top of mind.

Pioneered by companies like Uber and IKEA, modern card issuing now allows businesses to have their own configurable payment cards and a simpler way to manage payment programs.

Modern card issuing platforms – that have already established partnerships and direct integration points with issuing banks and card networks – can help organizations build card programs to issue cards in a matter of a few clicks. These platforms are often distinguished by:

Open APIs: A card issuing platform with open APIs enables businesses to develop their own card solution, tailored to specific business needs and logic. When the needs expand to new use cases, open APIs will allow organizations to modify and customize their card experience.

Programmatic Controls: Using modern card issuing, businesses can specify exactly when, where, and how cards will be used – to reduce fraud risks and prevent unauthorized or excess spending. Card spending options can be limited by merchant name/category, channel, location, spending amount, and time of use.

Real-time Transaction Data: Having visibility into transaction data can give businesses access to consumer spending habits including the purchase amount, merchant, location, date, time, and currency. These rich, data-driven insights will provide a full picture of consumers’ behavior.

Still looking to learn more about Modern Card Issuing? Contact us now!


Modern Card Issuing vs. Legacy Systems

Looking to launch your own card program?

#Tip By SimpliFi:

To be able to launch a successful card program, partner up with a proven partner who knows your industry, and is equipped to continuously maintain, develop and scale your card product offering. Find out where your modern card issuing provider is heading as a business. And last but not least, figure out your partner’s readiness to: a) respond to your different business use cases/scenarios and b) provide the features and capabilities that you might need in the future.

Want to find out more? Get in touch with our team today!