Overview

Given the pace of change in the payments industry, the ability to instantly issue a fully functional debit card in a bank or credit union branch location can be considered ancient technology, since it has been available for over 15 years. Although the capability is tried and true, the marketplace has changed. What used to be a service driven by small financial institutions as a point of service differentiation is now being embraced by large banks for its ability to deliver a proactive, elegant, and customer-focused response in the face of a card data breach as well as to replace a lost or stolen cards.

Mercator Advisory Group’s research report, Instant Issue Debit Cards: A Second Look, makes the case for instant issuance of debit cards. Besides its benefits to consumers, instant issue has benefits for financial institutions, including the opportunity for branch personnel to explain in-person how EMV chip cards operate. As more branches become equipped for instant issue, the competitive pressures will increase for those financial institutions that don’t offer this service.

“In addition to the convenience of instant issue for banking customers, there are some compelling quantitative reasons for it, both revenue generating and cost savings, that help justify the costs of integration of instant issue into branch sales, operations, and technology, as well as a variety of deployment strategies that can be used to maximize the investment,” comments Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group, and author of this report.

This report has 21 pages and 12 exhibits, including an overview of market providers.

Companies mentioned in the report include: ABnote, CPI Card Group, FIS, Fiserv, Entrust Datacard, Gemalto, JPMorgan Chase, MagTek, MasterCard, NBS Technologies, PNC, TD Bank, TSYS, and Visa.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group’s Debit Advisory Service have access to these reports as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access, and other membership benefits.

Highlights of the report include:

  • Reasons to revisit the instant issuance value proposition

  • Prevailing deployment strategies and considerations

  • How instant issuance works in the three primary variations: temporary cards, low-integration solutions, and integrated solutions

  • Building the business case for instant issue

  • Market providers of instant issuance technology and services

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