Surpassing expectations with a strategic digital issuance plan

Since the pandemic, consumers have been highly focused on safe, fast methods of payment. There are several products that allow funds to move faster, however, the question remains of how we can get payment methods to consumers faster as well.

Traditionally, physical plastics take anywhere from 7-10 business days to be delivered to cardholders, leaving a significant amount of time and space for someone else to become top of wallet for your members. Many credit unions have navigated this challenge by implementing instant issue services. For a while, this was a great solution. But, with the implementation of EMV technology, this solution has developed its own unique set of challenges, including the need for printer replacements, increased staff time, and expensive chip profile upgrades.

This leaves the question: how can credit unions meet the challenge of providing quick and easy access to payment methods for their members? The answer for many will most likely be to implement digital issuance, which allows for a virtual representation of a physical plastic to be placed in a digital wallet. This virtual card contains pertinent payment information such as PAN number, expiration date, and CVV2/CVC2, allowing a consumer to make e-commerce purchases. It also leverages tokenization push provisioning to allow a member to use this virtual card at card present locations that utilize NFC technology.

Key features

Digital Issuance provides the following benefits:

• Reduces Friction—eliminates wait time for new or lost/stolen replacement cards
• Intuitive—offers a simple, intuitive process that enables cardholders to add the card to their digital wallet, view the card, and start spending immediately
• Fast—allows consumers to apply for and receive cards quickly through their devices

Digital strategy

There are some additional technologies credit unions need to deploy to create a seamless digital experience for your cardholders. Tokenization is key in this process, and with more than 85% of all retailers now accepting “The Pays” (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.), members should not face many challenges finding places to spend. Push provisioning automates the process of loading a card into the digital wallet, helping reduce user error and frustration.

Many credit unions plan on using digital issuance as part of their goal to transition away from instant issue printers. As part of this strategy, additional integration may be needed to core processing systems to allow for instant access to plastic data. Implementation of APIs between card and core processing systems allow for the real-time sharing of card data, making the member experience even better.

Conclusion

Consumer preferences are always changing. In today’s environment, we are seeing these preferences change rapidly and profoundly. The good news is that even when consumers are free to shop whenever and wherever they wish, they still want the choice of having digital experiences that are powered by their debit and credit cards. Digital card management solutions offer financial institutions a way to meet cardholder expectations while also growing revenue.