Card issuance is the process of making a payment-card account or credential available to a consumer or business. It connects financial institutions, payment networks, processors, issuing platforms, regulators, merchants and cardholders. Its impact is visible in everyday spending, business payments and access to credit—but the market cannot be understood from one headline number. Transaction counts, cards in circulation, factory shipments and processor volume measure different parts of the system.
Why card issuance still matters
Cards remain a major channel for noncash payments. In the United States, consumers and businesses made 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s initial findings from its 2025 triennial payments study released July 1, 2026. Cards accounted for more than three quarters of those payments by number.
The same release shows why payment mix needs careful interpretation: debit cards remained the majority of card payments, while credit-card payments grew faster than debit-card payments for the first time in almost a decade. The Federal Reserve also reported that ACH accounted for almost three quarters of noncash payment value. Card payment share by count and ACH share by value describe different dimensions of the market; neither is a complete measure of payment activity.
What “issuance” means—and who does what
Issuance begins when an eligible institution or sponsored program makes a card account or credential available to a customer. The credential may be physical, virtual or both.
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Banks and other eligible financial institutions commonly provide or sponsor the account relationship, underwriting, funding and compliance responsibilities. A fintech may design the customer experience while relying on a sponsor institution and specialized infrastructure.
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Networks
Payment networks route authorization and clearing messages and establish network rules. A network is not automatically the issuer. The institution named on the account and the parties performing program and processing functions can be different.
Processors and issuing platforms
Processors and program platforms supply technology for authorization, ledgering, card production, fraud controls, compliance workflows and program management. Marqeta’s 2025 SEC filing, for example, describes consumer and commercial card issuing, transaction processing and card-program management.
Regulators
Regulators shape eligibility, disclosures, dispute rights, data handling, capital and consumer-protection obligations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s seventh biennial consumer credit-card market report, published December 30, 2025, examines the US consumer credit-card market as of the end of 2024, including promotional rates, transaction disputes, costs and credit availability.
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What the latest regional figures show
| Measure | Geography and period | Reported result | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noncash payments | United States, 2024 | 236.6 billion | Payment transactions across instruments |
| Card share of noncash payments | United States, 2024 | More than three quarters by number | Transaction count, not payment value |
| Noncash payments | Euro area, second half of 2025 | 83.5 billion | Six-month transaction count |
| Card share of noncash payments | Euro area, second half of 2025 | 57% by number | Transaction count |
| Cards in circulation | Euro area, end of second half of 2025 | 872.7 million, up 7.3% year over year | Cards outstanding at a point in time |
| Cards and chip modules shipped | Smart Payment Association members and advisory council members, 2025 | 2.47 billion | Association-member physical output; not global issuance |
The European Central Bank reported 32.9 billion contactless card payments in the euro area during the second half of 2025 and an average of 2.5 cards per inhabitant. “Cards in circulation” is a stock at period end, not the number issued during that half-year.
How issuance changes consumer finance
Access to credit
Issuing decisions determine who receives revolving credit, at what limit and on what terms. The CFPB’s consumer-market review covers consumers below prime, promotional interest rates, disputes and the cost and availability of credit. It is specifically a US consumer-credit-card analysis, not a measure of all debit, prepaid, commercial or international programs.
Payment choice and convenience
Debit, credit and prepaid cards place different funding sources behind a similar checkout experience. Contactless and virtual credentials can reduce friction, while controls such as spending limits, transaction alerts and card locks can give users more control.
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Risk and consumer protection
Issuers and their service providers must manage fraud, account takeover, chargebacks, unauthorized transactions and data security. Rules governing disclosures and disputes affect both the cost of programs and the remedies available to cardholders.
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Businesses use commercial cards for employee expenses, procurement, travel, supplier payments and controlled disbursements. Mastercard’s 2025 SEC filing describes commercial credit, debit and prepaid products for corporations, midsize firms, small businesses and government entities. It also reports that its virtual-card technology was embedded in more than 10 global business-to-business and travel-and-expense platforms by the end of 2025.
Virtual cards can provide a number linked to a defined supplier, invoice, employee or spending rule without requiring a physical card. Visa’s FY2025 CEO message says, “We hold a leading share of about 40 percent in commercial card payments and are expanding into new use cases, like virtual cards for supplier payments and embedded finance for small businesses.” That is Visa’s reported company position, not an independently verified market total.
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Choosing an issuance model
Organizations evaluating a card program should compare the underlying design rather than assume one model is universally best.
Consumer, commercial or prepaid
- Consumer: optimized for personal spending, rewards, credit access or deposit-linked debit.
- Commercial: built around employee controls, accounting data, procurement and business cash flow.
- Prepaid: funded before use and often suited to controlled disbursements or specific-use programs.
Physical, virtual or dual credential
- Physical: useful where terminals, cash access or user expectations require a card.
- Virtual: useful for online, supplier and embedded-finance payments with granular controls.
- Dual: combines a physical card with virtual issuance for speed and flexibility.
In-house or platform-supported
- In-house: offers more direct control but requires substantial licensing, engineering, operations and compliance resources.
- Platform-supported: can shorten launch time and provide processing and program-management tools, while adding dependency on sponsors and vendors.
Available evidence does not establish like-for-like pricing or performance across these choices. The practical questions are who holds regulatory responsibility, how quickly credentials can be issued, which controls and APIs are available, how disputes are handled, and where data and funds are managed.
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Keeping company metrics in perspective
Marqeta reported $382.5 billion in platform processing volume for 2025, compared with $291.1 billion in 2024. Those are Marqeta’s own operating metrics under its definition of total processing volume; they are not a count of cards issued or the size of the global card market.
Similarly, the Smart Payment Association’s 2.47 billion figure combines payment cards and chip modules shipped by its members and advisory council members in 2025. It excludes manufacturers outside that reporting population and cannot be compared directly with cards in circulation or payment transactions.
What the numbers cannot tell you
- There is no single authoritative figure here for newly issued cards worldwide across every issuer, region and card type.
- A payment count measures transactions, not unique cardholders or cards.
- Cards in circulation measure outstanding stock, including cards that may be inactive.
- Shipment data measures physical production for a defined association membership and includes chip modules in the cited figure.
- Processor volume measures one company’s activity and may include transactions processed for many programs.
- Company filings and shareholder messages describe what those companies report about their operations; they are not neutral market-wide estimates.
Bottom line for consumers and businesses
Card issuance remains foundational because it determines which payment credentials exist, who can use credit or controlled funds, and how transactions are authorized and protected. The strongest current evidence shows sustained card use in the United States and euro area, growth in euro-area cards in circulation, continuing physical-card and chip production, and expanding commercial and virtual-card capabilities. The responsible conclusion is not that one network, issuer or platform represents the whole market, but that issuance is a distributed infrastructure linking regulated account providers, networks, technology vendors and end users.
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