The last post about issuance kicked off a series of emails from friends I thought were kind of interesting. I thought I’d unpack briefly what it all came down to. Quickly understanding who is participating in a card program as one of the following:
- Issuer
- Network
- Distribution (brand)
These are all normally called out clearly on the back of cards that FinTechs offer. I grabbed a few of them and took pictures to show how simple this information is to find. You just look at the back of the card. Here are some examples:
- Issuer – Celtic Bank
- Network – Visa
- Distribution – Ramp
- Issuer – Emigrant Bank
- Network – Mastercard
- Distribution – Brex
- Issuer – Sutton Bank
- Network – Visa
- Distribution – Fold
Sometimes a FinTech pops up that says that are the issuer and sometimes this is true, but it is normally not. More often than not the FinTech is confusing running an issuance program as an issuance partner with being the actual issuer when they say this. While this is very common knowledge for people close to FinTech, it seemed to surprise a few friends how easy this is to figure out.
Some enormous companies have been built to help with card issuance programs. Marqeta is a very popular example of this and is mentioned on the last card.