Thales Modern Card Program

Modern card issuance to unleash new potential

Banks, wallet providers, and card issuer processors want to energise their brands through modern card programmes: their customers expect to be in control, via their mobile device, 24/7 of all their payment cards’ life cycle steps. They demand services to be instantaneous, simple yet secure. 

As innovation in payment is set to accelerate drastically with new services beyond mobile payment such as 3-D Secure, Click-to-Pay, pay by instalments, alerts and control, card issuers want a new card issuing platform capable of launching new services quickly and cost-efficiently. 

They need to invest in a new card issuance architecture that is scalable for the years to come.

The good news?

This new mobile user experience revolution and the upsurge of digital cards, virtual cards and physical cards bring tangible benefits to card issuers:  more card acquisitions, transactions, and fewer frauds for online purchases.

From “physical-first, digital-later” to “digital-first, physical-later”

The rise of eCommerce stimulates new payment methods for online purchases. 

At the same time, the mobile banking app is now the preferred communication channel for cardholders interacting with their banks.

There are three main drivers for card issuers to shift to a modern card program:

1. Cardholders count on real-time service delivery and settings —no more trips to the branch or paper applications form. Everything from ordering a card to getting its PIN code or setting spending limits should be easy to do, immediate, and just a few clicks away.
2. Cardholders want to be in control, preferably via the mobile banking app or a web interface. In essence, the mobile phone is the new bank branch. It’s open 24/7, and there is no waiting in line.
3. Cardholders expect a comprehensive offer from their banks, including all physical, digital and virtual cards, to meet all their payment needs at stores and online.  As innovation accelerates, the mobile app becomes a services marketplace with easy new services discovery and frictionless onboarding.

The challenge?

Tech-forward fintechs, neobanks and crypto-exchange platforms have already implemented this digital-first, all-in-one mobile app.

We foresee that all card issuers will adopt this approach in the short and medium-term. 

Quite simply, the consumer demand for this new mobile experience is too strong to be ignored by incumbents.

With a modern card programme, card issuers can leverage new benefits in four essential domains and increase their business:

• Enhance UX by providing 24/7 services via the mobile app will stimulate card acquisitions, trigger the top-of-wallet effect and lead to more transactions.
• End-user engagement will surge with new products such as virtual cards, push-to-wallet and push-to-merchant services and additional innovative services.
• Marketing and branding will be strengthened by new physical card ordering and tracking services as well as through brand consistency across the entire products and services.
• Operating costs will be reduced thanks to the scalability and the elasticity of the cloud platform and the digital delivery channel will slash costs and help reduce charges associated with traditional customer touchpoints. Faster release cycles will shorten time to market for new features and functionalities.

For example, the instant issuance of a virtual card, immediately available at account opening and ready to be tokenised and pushed into digital wallets and merchants stimulates the usage of EMV tokens.  This results is a measured +15% of overall transaction volumes and +10% in card acquisition (for existing customers in North America.)

A modern card programme is a win-win-win initiative: 

• A win for cardholders who are in control and get the perfect card for each payment situation they face. 
• A win for card issuers who increase card acquisition and transactions and reduce online payment frauds thanks to EMV tokenisation. 
• A win for merchants who improve the payment journey for online shoppers and the overall conversion rate.

To launch such a modern card program, card issuers must re-invent their card issuing platform.

They need to integrate their existing core banking systems (accounts management, transactions management, fraud, authorisation, claims and settlements management) with a real-time, secure modern front-end that can scale up with the latest innovations introduced by payment schemes.

March 8, 2021: Mastercard Accelerates Deployment of Digital First Solutions
Mastercard Engage platform expansion provides customers with fast and easy access to new set of qualified technology partners  (businesswire.com/)