Physical card issuance

Physical card issuance is the process of creating, personalising, producing and delivering payment cards to customers. It can combine central issuance for high-volume programmes with instant issuance at branches or kiosks, supported by digital services for ordering, status visibility and card management.

A card issuance API replaces separate batch processes and channel-specific integrations with a consistent connection for ordering cards and receiving lifecycle events. This can simplify operations, accelerate service deployment and support expansion across issuance channels and markets.

Central issuance produces and fulfils payment cards at scale from specialised facilities before delivering them to customers. Instant issuance personalises and provides a card within minutes at a branch or kiosk. Issuers can combine both models according to customer, market and programme needs.

Banks can scale card issuance across markets by using a global issuance network, a single API and flexible central or instant issuance options. They can adapt delivery strategies, customer experiences and service combinations to local requirements without rebuilding the entire operating model.

Cardholders can track and manage physical cards through digital services integrated into a mobile banking application. Depending on the issuer’s services, they can receive production and delivery updates, view card status and securely define, view or change their PIN.