As the payments landscape continues to evolve, card issuer processors—whether traditional incumbents or innovative neo-processors—face unique challenges related to payment scheme complexity, costs, compliance and fraud reduction. The good news is that there are also numerous opportunities that they can embrace. To remain competitive and meet customer expectations, these processors must navigate a dynamic ecosystem and adapt to rapidly changing trends.
The payments world is becoming increasingly complex, and integrating multiple schemes requires detailed planning. Processors must connect to multiple payment schemes—such as Visa and Mastercard—and support a diverse range of digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. This complexity can make integration more costly, maintenance more challenging, and lead to potential points of failure.
Additionally, they face the high costs associated with implementing tokenisation, driven by high development outlays and industry-standard transaction-based charges. However, processors can assess the impact of these costs on their business using user-based pricing models, which provide more predictable costs and simplify budgeting.
They also need to consider the impact of customer expectations and operational efficiency. Today’s customers are powerful and ready to vote with their feet if they are unhappy with a product or service. They demand seamless experiences, including instant virtual card issuance, immediate card replacements, and effortless digital wallet push provisioning. Although these expectations might sound straightforward, meeting them while maintaining operational efficiency is a significant challenge.
It doesn’t stop with keeping up with customer demands and cost requirements. Processors must also adhere to the latest fraud prevention principles and comply with current regulations. Provisioning cards into wallets requires building decision flows. These often change, so adding to development costs. Preconfigured rules in decision engines, as required by wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, ensure the easiest path for successful push provisioning. Remaining compliant with the latest industry standards and regulations is essential but resource-intensive.
At Thales, we’re anticipating development in this sector will likely focus on further streamlining integration processes. By simplifying the setup with a single connection to multiple payment schemes, processors can reduce complexity, lower costs by up to 30% and boost reliability. This approach will also facilitate easier scheme swaps, enabling faster adaptation to new business strategies.
We also believe the trend towards comprehensive tokenisation services will continue, with increased support for major digital and emerging IoT-based wallets. Simplified implementation through low-code development will be crucial, enabling developers to quickly integrate tokenisation features using minimal custom code, saving time and reducing errors.
Efforts to keep the customer at the heart of the payments process will continue. For example, providing frictionless customer experiences will remain a priority. Solutions that enable instant virtual card issuance, immediate card replacements and seamless digital wallet push provisioning will become standard. These features will enhance customer satisfaction, reduce churn, and improve loyalty. Additionally, there will be a greater push for efficient management of tokenised cards through user-friendly interfaces, enhancing customer support capabilities. As part of this approach, bank staff can quickly resolve tokenised card issues, improving overall customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Processors should prioritise solutions that offer streamlined integration with multiple payment schemes. This approach reduces complexity, lowers maintenance costs and enhances system reliability.
They should also invest in comprehensive tokenisation services supporting a wide range of digital and emerging IoT-based wallets. Low-code development solutions can further simplify the implementation process, allowing for quick and error-free integration. Adopting user-based pricing models can also deliver more predictable costs compared with traditional transaction-based charges.
Another area to focus on is delivering seamless and frictionless customer experiences. Instant virtual card issuance, immediate card replacements and effortless push provisioning for digital wallets are features that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
It is also important to take steps to enhance fraud detection and compliance. This involves using preconfigured rules in decision engines to ensure successful provisioning for wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Finally, they should consider improving customer support efficiency through user-friendly token management interfaces. This method resolves issues quickly and enhances the overall customer experience. Giving staff the tools needed to manage tokenised cards effectively is essential, which is key to maintaining high service levels.
As the payments industry continues to evolve, both legacy and neo-card issuer processors face significant challenges and have a number of opportunities. By addressing the current challenges and keeping up to date with emerging trends, these processors can unlock significant value that boosts their bottom line and improves the payments experience for consumers. At the same time, they can be at the vanguard of setting new standards in the industry. Embracing simplified integration, comprehensive tokenisation, seamless customer experiences, advanced fraud detection and efficient customer support will be essential for their success.
Log in to access complimentary passes or discounts and access exclusive content as part of your membership. An auto-login link will be sent directly to your email.
We use an auto-login link to ensure optimum security for your members hub. Simply enter your professional work e-mail address into the input area and you’ll receive a link to directly access your account.
Instead of using passwords, we e-mail you a link to log in to the site. This allows us to automatically verify you and apply member benefits based on your e-mail domain name.
Please click the button below which relates to the issue you’re having.
Sometimes our e-mails end up in spam. Make sure to check your spam folder for e-mails from The Payments Association
Most modern e-mail clients now separate e-mails into different tabs. For example, Outlook has an “Other” tab, and Gmail has tabs for different types of e-mails, such as promotional.
For security reasons the link will expire after 60 minutes. Try submitting the login form again and wait a few seconds for the e-mail to arrive.
The link will only work one time – once it’s been clicked, the link won’t log you in again. Instead, you’ll need to go back to the login screen and generate a new link.
Make sure you’re clicking the link on the most recent e-mail that’s been sent to you. We recommend deleting the e-mail once you’ve clicked the link.
Some security systems will automatically click on links in e-mails to check for phishing, malware, viruses and other malicious threats. If these have been clicked, it won’t work when you try to click on the link.
For security reasons, e-mail address changes can only be complete by your Member Engagement Manager. Please contact the team directly for further help.
