Four tiers, endless opportunities for growth
In a standard cards model, banks offer cards directly to their customers, but there’s a limit to how far, fast and niche a bank can develop cards products. This results in banks leaving growth and revenue driving opportunities untapped.
Cards as a Service, or CaaS, embeds an extra layer into the card-issuing model. In this layer, banks use their existing license and technology to in turn enable businesses to easily develop and launch a card product tailored to meet the needs of their customers. CaaS is a multi-tiered system that offers benefits to both banks and fintechs. For banks, it offers an ability to maximize their existing banking license, grow their customer base and drive revenue without the challenges associated with targeting niche markets. For businesses, especially fintechs, it offers the ability to identify an untapped opportunity and quickly build tailored solutions, while the bank takes care of the regulatory and technical challenges. It’s a win-win for both parties, and with the modern card issuance industry poised to grow 170% in the next three years, it’s a perfect time to prepare to capture the market.
Let’s meet the four players in the CaaS model:
Issuer/processor
The entity that issues cards to the bank. It is responsible for managing the complex processes involved in the authorization, clearing, and settlement of transactions.
Bank
The entity that issues cards to their fintech customer. The bank provides necessary liquidity and credit lines, and enables transaction processing, and can also offer name recognition and confidence in the card product.
Fintech
The fintech accesses the bank’s services to offer a card to the end customer. The card product may serve a niche market. For example, the card offering may serve lawyers recently out of law school who are carrying debt but need capital to open a practice. Within the CaaS model, the fintech can quickly launch a new card product without the need for extensive development and infrastructure setup. This enables them to stay competitive and respond to market demands faster. The fintech is empowered to issue cards that align with their brand identity and enhance customer loyalty.
Customer
The customer is the end user who has access to the card that the fintech is offering.
Why should banks offer CaaS?
Banks can benefit from the CaaS model because it enables them to issue payment cards as a solution to their customers without having to handle regulations, partnerships, integrations or the subsequent financial operations.
Banks can offer out-of-the-box solutions to their customers, handling the entire end-to-end card issuance process on their behalf – from managing all entities and processes across the value chain such as banks, card schemes, processors, identity verification to card fulfillment and delivery.
Making cards available in this model is an attractive offering to fintech customers, as they can fully customize the cards for their own customers, increasing their brand visibility. It also offers them a card that can reach their intended market quickly.
Cards as flexible as you are
With Episode Six Cards as a Service, there are no limits to the number and type of card products and services that you can build and deploy, all in real time. The sky’s the limit.
Within the market, E6 is the only technology provider that has a trifecta of ledger, payments, and cards. See how easy it is to design and deploy your own cards programs. You can learn more in our CaaS ebook.
Wow your customers with card offerings they’ll love. Contact us today.