Payment processor Stripe launches card issuing business

Payment processing company Stripe is entering the issuing business with the launch of a new infrastructure product that lets Stripe's business customers create and issue their own branded payment cards for end users.

According to Stripe, the service runs through a single API, streamlining the entire card issuing process and opening up payment options for new types of businesses. To be clear, Stripe is not issuing cards itself directly to consumers, but rather serving as a gateway for other businesses to launch their own virtual and physical cards.

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As for the new business models, Stripe said its issuing service could be used by companies to run the entire card stack for a new digital bank, or provide corporate cards to employees with dynamic spending limits. The company also envisions on-demand platforms like marketplace couriers using the issuing API to let employees pay with a virtual card at specific merchants.

Stripe is primarily targeting marketplaces and other large, technology-oriented companies with the service. Stripe Issuing is certified as an issuing processor, and includes support for Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Read also: Stripe dumps Bitcoin, will other payment processors follow?

"Stripe Issuing fills an equally deep and broad hole in the internet's economic infrastructure as Stripe's original payments products did," said Lachy Groom, head of the new Stripe Issuing division.

"Stripe Issuing provides businesses a complementary set of tools for managing, controlling, spending and moving money. As we work to increase the GDP of the internet, we don't just want to port offline commerce online; we want to enable brand new types of businesses that couldn't exist without the internet, including new ways to store and use money in the physical world."

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