Building a card-issuing program as a fintech or digital bank is hard. We know because we’ hear the horror stories all the time. You’ll deal with fraudsters, manage chargebacks and customers who become impatient when things go wrong. 

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It’s worse with physical cards. They can be stolen or go missing, and if the customer doesn't report on time, it can become a nightmare for your team to deal with. For context, in  2023, companies and customers in Nigeria lost nearly 800 million naira from stolen and missing cards. 

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To build a great card issuing programme, you need reliable infrastructure, built-in tools to manage fraud detection, compliance and chargebacks. 

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That’s what we’ve built for you.

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With Kora’s card-issuing APIs, you can issue USD virtual cards for your customers to pay for things online or their bills. You can also issue corporate cards for your business needs.

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What are virtual cards, and why are they important for businesses?

Virtual cards are like physical cards but without the plastic. They have the typical features of a physical card, like the cardholder's name, CVV, and PIN, and they’re also linked to a bank account. 

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They’re quite convenient and secure because, unlike physical cards, people don’t need to carry them around. 

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With our card-issuing APIs, you can build a program that fits your needs.

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Use case for card-issuing 

Kora’s Card API suite is for two categories of businesses.

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‍Fintechs, neobanks and businesses who want to issue their own branded cards

Building a card infrastructure is expensive, and this might be a challenge for businesses in the early stages of development. These businesses can use Kora’s APIs to issue cards for their customers. With Kora’s APIs, you can control your card issuing programme and brand the cards to personalise your customers' experiences.

Businesses who want to create corporate cards to manage company payments

Expense management can be hell for business owners. You want to pay for tools, training and other needs. Instead of your teams sharing one card, you can create and manage expense cards from your dashboard.

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Why choose Kora’s card-issuing APIs?

Control funding limit

Before you can issue cards with Kora’s APIs, you need to have a PCI-DSS certification. Being a card issuer is a big responsibility, and having a PCI DSS equips you to protect your customers. However, we understand that businesses have different levels of compliance and risk, so we built our issuing service into tiers. Businesses can select a tier based on their funding limit, compliance level, and business needs. 

Built-in compliance

It’s standard KYC to confirm a customer’s identity before issuing cards to them. While this is challenging for businesses, but we’ve made it easy for you to verify KYC using Kora’s identity APIs. This way, you don’t have to worry about onboarding and KYC verification. Kora’s API suite helps you meet regulatory requirements when issuing cards to your customers. 

Security

Chargebacks can be a thorn in the flesh of issuing businesses. The processing fees can be as high as 50 dollars per transaction without proper processes to manage them. To help prevent this, we’ve built a robust chargeback console on your dashboard. With this, you can promptly respond to chargeback requests and avoid fraud or paying unnecessary fees. 

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In addition, you can set your customer's daily and monthly funding limits to your risk level on all virtual cards to prevent potential fraud or misuse. You also get email alerts when you reach your threshold. 

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Commonly asked questions

How do I apply for card issuance on your Kora dashboard?

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1. Head to merchant.korapay.com and create a merchant account

2. Complete all compliance requirements, including PCI-DSS requirements

3. Go to Issuing on your dashboard, click Customer Cards, then click Request Access. Then select the payment value, select PCI-DSS level and finally select a subscription plan

4. After approval, fund your balance and then Issue cards to your customers

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How do I manage chargebacks?

We created a chargeback console for you on the Kora dashboard. 

On the Issuing tab, go to Disputes. From there, you can manage all chargebacks from your customers and check the status of chargeback requests.

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What’s the biggest requirement for issuing Kora’s card?

Every business that wants to use Kora’s infrastructure to issue cards must have a PCIDSS certification. Card issuing shouldn’t be complicated for businesses. We’ve made it easier for you by building security tools for you to manage fraud, compliance. 

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