Visa and CARD91 Partner to Bring Platform-as-a-Service Forex Cards to Issuers

Visa and CARD91 have partnered to enable regulated entities to issue Forex Cards on the Visa network.

This collaboration brings together Visa’s digital payments network and CARD91’s issuance platform-as-a-service solutions to improve the issuance experience for both cardholders and issuers, the companies said in a Thursday (Oct. 3) press release.

“We are excited to work with CARD91 and bring advanced Forex Card solutions to our issuer clients,” Sujai Raina, country manager, Visa India, said in the release. “With the growing propensity of Indians to travel and spend abroad — whether for business, education or leisure, this service will simplify the complexities of Forex Card issuance and management, providing transparency and control.”

The partnership will help regulated entities issue Forex Cards to their customers quickly and efficiently, according to the release.

It will also provide issuers with greater control over card issuance and management, making for a streamline experience for both the issuers and their customers, and enable comprehensive transaction monitoring and fraud risk management of Forex Card transactions via CARD91’s platform, per the release.

“Visa’s extensive experience in the payments industry, combined with CARD91’s cutting-edge technology, creates a powerful synergy,” CARD91 CEO Ajay Pandey said in the release.

CARD91 launched in August 2020 to build a plug-and-play payment issuance infrastructure to allow businesses and banks to roll out co-branded cards.

“We believe the next 100 million users in India will be accessing credit via cards issued by brands and businesses,” the company’s founders said at the time. “Launching card programs is a difficult process since it involves integrating with multiple players. Our goal is to simplify this process for businesses by providing a plug-and-play solution.”

As for Visa, it launched another, separate partnership Wednesday (Oct. 2) with Danish FinTech Cardlay. The companies said this collaboration will improve spend management for commercial card issuers by combining Cardlay’s spend management platform with Visa’s market position, payment network and data capabilities to offer clients “fully embedded” commercial cards and expense management solutions.

“The commercial card landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by growing demand for digital solutions, contactless payments, digital wallet integration and embedded finance,” the companies said in a press release.