Sustained excellence demands continuous innovation and an expanding array of offerings to keep end users engaged and loyal.
The July 2025 PYMNTS Data Book, an analysis stemming from a PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa DPS collaboration survey of 451 United States-based payment executives, highlights that top-performing issuers are already plotting their next strategic moves.
At the heart of sustained growth and profitability for modern card issuers lies customer lifetime value (CLTV), a singular, defining metric. Issuers who achieve high CLTV, defined as generating an average of more than $2,500 per cardholder over the total time they remain a customer, are twice as likely to report strong business performance compared to their counterparts.
Specifically, 44% of high-CLTV issuers report strong business performance versus 22% of low-CLTV issuers. To keep relationships robust, issuers must focus on improving retention, strive to reduce churn and consistently attract high-value customers.
The Months Ahead
Some of the key features and priorities high-CLTV issuers are embracing in the coming months include:
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- Driving Innovation With Flex Credentials: Ten percent of high-CLTV issuers are prioritizing flex credentials for innovation in the coming year. This focus is not merely about novelty but about enabling unified and contactless user experiences, a key attribute high-CLTV issuers specifically seek in their processor partners. High-CLTV FinTechs already differentiate themselves through innovative direct issuance strategies such as single-use virtual cards (29%) and instant issuance to digital wallets (33%), prioritizing speed, convenience and enhanced security to cater to tech-savvy customers.
- Using Advanced Analytics and Enhanced Performance Tracking: High-CLTV issuers are making investments in advanced analytics, with 18% explicitly prioritizing this area for innovation within the next year. This commitment aligns with the broader industry recognition that enhanced performance tracking and predictive analytics are hallmarks of a technologically best-in-class platform, a view shared by 67% of all issuers. These capabilities also allow issuers to understand cardholder behavior, identify critical trends, and thus, make data-driven decisions that enhance retention and reduce churn.
- Prioritizing User-Centric Design and Addressing Pain Points: Beyond specific feature innovation, high-CLTV issuers are focused on foundational platform enhancements, as 20% of issuers prefer a user-centric design when upgrading their issuing platforms, prioritizing features that directly enhance the user experience before back-end overhauls. Digital-only banks and large national banks are more likely to prioritize user-centric upgrades. However, this path is not without its hurdles; nearly one-third of all issuers cite integration issues as their most significant challenge with card-issuing platforms.
High performance demands a holistic approach centered on maximizing CLTV. High-CLTV issuers must continuously diversify revenue streams, use partnerships, lead with highly personalized customer experiences and prioritize user-centric design in platform upgrades.
