Issuer processors in Europe
60 verified European providers, ranked European-origin first (39 EU/EEA-origin). Card transaction processing - authorisation, clearing, settlement. Compare by EEA data residency, licence and regulator - each verified at source.
The issuer processor is the switch that says yes or no to every card transaction - authorisation, clearing and settlement between your programme and the scheme. It is bought, not built: certifications, scheme connections and uptime are the product, and switching later is expensive enough that processors deserve contract scrutiny early (portability, exit terms). Where processing sits in the stack - and what surrounds the card: the card programme checklist and the honest scheme map.
60 verified providers
Last source verification in this list: 2026-07-19. How we verify →
🏦 Local IBANs: NL
Adyen (Netherlands) - global acquiring, card issuing and banking; Adyen Issuing offers BIN sponsorship for platforms plus business accounts with NL IBANs. Credit institution (bank), DNB; passported across the EEA (CRD IV). A rare EU-HQ global processor. Agentic-ready - named partner in Mastercard Agent Pay (AI-agent commerce).
Bankart d.o.o. (Ljubljana; NLB group) - Slovenia's domestic card & payments processor / switch; card transaction processing for SI banks + SEPA instant central infrastructure.
Borica (Bulgaria; owned by 19 Bulgarian banks) - national card switch and processor operating the Bcard national scheme, and a TPP for Visa/Mastercard. Licensed by the Bulgarian National Bank (3 payment systems).
🏦 Local IBANs: ES
Cecabank (Madrid, Spain) - wholesale bank offering BaaS to FIs, fintechs and corporates: payments, securities services, treasury and digital solutions; a settlement/agency bank enabling fintech payments and IBANs.
CR2 (Dublin, Ireland; founded 1997) - digital-banking and payments software (BankWorld): digital banking, wallet, card issuing, ATM and merchant acceptance. 90+ bank implementations across 50+ countries. Irish-owned.
🏦 Local IBANs: LT GB
DiPocket (Lithuania; + UK) - card issuing and IBAN accounts; Visa & Mastercard Principal Member. EMI, Bank of Lithuania (EEA) + FCA (UK). SEPA + SWIFT, LT IBANs and UK Faster Payments.
Edenred Payment Solutions (ex-PrePay Solutions / PPS; UK + Belgium) - card issuing, BIN sponsorship and in-house processing; Mastercard + Visa primary issuer. FCA EMI (UK, FRN 900010) + PPS EU SA (NBB Belgium, passported to 7 EU countries). Part of Edenred SE (FR, listed); founding member of Mastercard BIN Sponsor Plus.
Enfuce (Finland) - card-as-a-service and BIN sponsorship across the EEA and UK; Visa & Mastercard Principal Member. Dual EMI (FIN-FSA + UK FCA, via Enfuce License Services). Visa holds a stake.
Fenige (Poland) - National Payment Institution (KNF, IP42/2017) and Visa/Mastercard member, running its own PCI-DSS processing platform directly to Visa/Mastercard.
Global Payments Europe (Prague, Czechia; ex-MUZO) - CEE acquiring, card issuing processing and ATM management hub of the Global Payments group, serving 40+ regions from Prague. Payment Institution (Czech National Bank). NB: subsidiary of Global Payments (US) - ownership flag. Register-sourced: Payment institution (PI), Czech National Bank, ref 27088936; passported to 29 EEA states.
IT Card (Warsaw, Poland) - Poland's largest transaction processor (founded 2008); card issuing (1.6m+ cards), 3DS, the Planet Cash ATM network (~7,400) and Planet Pay POS acquiring. Licensed via Planet Pay - National Payment Institution (KNF), Visa Principal Member + Mastercard acquirer - offering 'fintech-in-a-box' BIN sponsorship. Operates PL/CZ/HR; SIBS (PT) took a majority stake (completed 2026). KRS 0000640662.
JCC Payment Systems (Cyprus) - acquirer for Visa/Mastercard and acquiring processor for Amex/Diners. EMI, Central Bank of Cyprus (licence 115.1.3.55, Dec 2022).
Lusis Payments (Paris, France; founded 2003) - the TANGO payments engine (TANGO V8): acquiring, routing, switching and authorisation across ATM/POS/internet/mobile; a payments hub and legacy-replacement platform.
Market Pay (France; created 2016 as Carrefour's payment arm; 60% sold to AnaCap in 2020, Carrefour ~30%) - omnichannel payments platform; 3bn transactions and 320k terminals across 9 EU countries; acquired Novelpay.
Monext (Paris; Credit Mutuel Arkea group) - payment processing, acquiring & issuing platform; card digitization / X-Pay provisioning into Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay.
Nexi (Italy; Borsa Italiana-listed 2019) - leading Italian acquirer and issuer processor, formed by merging Nets (2021) and SIA (2022); acquired Computop.
OpenWay (Belgium) - Way4 white-label card issuing and payments software. Unlicensed technology.
🏦 Local IBANs: CY GB
payabl. (Limassol + London; since 2011) - acquirer/PSP: card acquiring, business accounts, virtual IBANs and 300+ payment methods. EMI, Central Bank of Cyprus (passported EEA) + FCA EMI (UK).
🏦 Local IBANs: BG GB
Paynetics (Bulgaria; + UK) - card issuing, BIN sponsorship and accounts; dedicated IBANs (SEPA + SWIFT) plus UK sort-code accounts. Dual EMI: BNB (No. 44) + FCA (942777; formerly TPR 900785).
Redsys (Spain; est. 2011) - Spain's interbank processor / switch, owned by Spanish banks (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell and others); ~90% of Spanish e-commerce, 19.7bn+ transactions and EUR 505bn/yr. Supports cards and Bizum.
RS2 (RS2 plc, Mosta, Malta; founded 1988; Malta SE-listed) - BankWORKS payment-processing software (issuer + acquirer processing) plus merchant solutions, deployed in 27 countries. Software / processing.
SDK.finance (Lithuania) - core / orchestration software platform (white-label, with a source-code option). Unlicensed technology.
SIBS (SIBS SGPS, Lisbon, Portugal; since 1983; controlled by 27 Portuguese banks) - operator of the Multibanco and MB WAY domestic schemes and a pan-European processor; MB WAY covers 94% of Portuguese issuers, operating in 25+ countries. Acquired a majority stake in Poland's IT Card / Planet Pay (completed 2026) for CEE expansion. European scheme + processing.
Silverflow (Amsterdam, Netherlands; founded 2019) - cloud-native card processing with one direct connection to the card networks, for PSPs/acquirers/banks. Clients incl. Deutsche Bank, Bolt, payabl., Buckaroo.
Tietoevry Banking (Finland) - Nordic core banking and card/payment-processing software. Parent Tietoevry divested its Tech Services unit (not Banking) to Agilitas PE, Sep 2025.
Transact Payments (Malta + Gibraltar) - card issuing and BIN sponsorship across the UK and EEA; Visa & Mastercard Principal Member. EMI (Malta MFSA + Gibraltar FSC). Being acquired by Marqeta (US) - sovereignty flag.
🏦 Local IBANs: FR
Treezor (France) - BaaS, card issuing and tokenization; Visa & Mastercard Principal Member. NB: Societe Generale entered exclusive negotiations to sell 100pct of Treezor to French investech Shares (2026).
Truevo (ex-Swish Payments, rebranded 2017; Malta) - acquirer/PSP: acquiring, gateway and OCT payouts across 120+ currencies; Visa + Mastercard full member. MFSA-licensed FI (C62721).
Valitor (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) - Icelandic acquirer, card issuer and payment-gateway company serving merchants in Iceland and Europe. Payment Institution (Central Bank of Iceland). NB: acquired by Rapyd (USD 100m, 2022) - now Rapyd's European acquiring arm. Register-sourced: Payment institution (PI), Central Bank of Iceland, ref 5006830589; passported to 30 EEA states.
🏦 Local IBANs: EE
Wallester (Estonia) - card issuing and BIN sponsorship; Visa Principal Member (since 2018), Mastercard via partner. Estonian FSA payment institution; UK entity holds an FCA EMI. Wallester Business EUR IBAN accounts (issued via LHV Bank, EE).
Walletto (Lithuania) - card issuing and acquiring with BIN sponsorship; Visa & Mastercard Principal Member. EMI No. 33, Bank of Lithuania (since 2018).
Worldline (France) - large EU acquirer and issuer processor; acquired Ingenico (2020) and runs the PAYONE JV. FCA Payment Institution authorisation (UK).
Asseco SEE (Serbia) - regional SEE banking and payments software group (part of Warsaw-listed Asseco), operating across 23 countries. Unlicensed technology.
BKM (Interbank Card Center, Turkey; bank-owned) - operator of the Troy domestic card scheme, the BKM Express wallet and the national card switch.
BPC (Switzerland) - SmartVista core and payments software (issuer and acquirer processing). Unlicensed technology.
Chip Card (Serbia) - card transaction processor (since 2004) holding an EMI licence from the National Bank of Serbia (May 2021).
PayCore (Turkey) - card-processing technology for banks and PSPs; a PCI DSS / BKM / Visa / Mastercard-certified processing centre.
Payten (Serbia) - the ASEE payments arm: issuing/acquiring processing, personalisation, e-commerce and POS (Monri) across SEE.
B4B Payments (UK; + Lithuania) - card issuing, BIN sponsorship and embedded payments. FCA (UK) + Bank of Lithuania (EEA); Mastercard Principal Member. Part of Banking Circle Group since 2021; 19+ years across UK/EU/US.
Compass Plus Technologies (Nottingham, UK; founded 1989) - TranzWare card issuing and transaction-processing software (card/account management, EMV issuance, clearing/settlement and fraud via FraudAxis), used by banks and processors globally.
Decta (UK; + Cyprus, Ireland) - card acquiring, issuer processing and BIN sponsorship; certified Visa/Mastercard/UnionPay processor. EMI, Central Bank of Cyprus (115.1.3.54) + Central Bank of Ireland + FCA (UK). 50+ settlement currencies.
emerchantpay (UK; main operations in Sofia, Bulgaria) - global acquirer/PSP across online, mobile, in-store and POS; ~USD 155m revenue. FCA Authorised EMI and Visa/Mastercard Principal Member.
Episode Six (UK; + US) - ledger and issuer-processing software platform. Unlicensed technology.
Manigo (Manigo Connect Ltd, UK) - white-label BaaS / cards-as-a-service orchestration: own ledger, card issuing and BIN/EMI sponsorship, launchable with or without a licence. Fully-managed plus API.
Monavate (UK; + Lithuania) - card programme issuing and BIN sponsorship; Visa / Mastercard / Discover Principal Member. UK FCA (901097) + UAB Monavate (Bank of Lithuania, LB002139, EEA). EEA card rail via the Lithuanian entity.
Moorwand (London, UK) - BIN sponsorship and issuing (Mastercard, Discover, UnionPay). FCA EMI (FRN 900709). UK-only licence post-Brexit; EEA reach via partner Harmoniie SAS (ACPR EMI, France).
Paymentology (UK-incorporated; global) - global issuer-processor, Visa Cloud Connect certified. NB: DFSA censure in 2020 (misleading licence claim).
Teya (ex-SaltPay; London HQ, Icelandic roots; founded 2019) - SME payments group: SME acquiring and lending (Liberis partnership), and owner of Paymentology + MeaWallet (issuer processing / tokenization). UK e-money via YoYo Wallet; Teya Iceland hf. (FCA-registered).
Thredd (ex-GPS, UK; since 2007) - issuer-processor, Visa + Mastercard certified, 100+ customers across 44 countries, with strategic financing from Visa. Software / processor.
Tribe Payments (UK) - issuer/acquirer processing technology; licences passported into the EEA for prepaid issuance.
Trust Payments (UK + Malta) - international acquirer/gateway; GBP 5bn+ annualised across 20k+ businesses; Visa/Mastercard Principal Member. FCA Authorised PI (UK) + MFSA-licensed (Trust Payments Malta Ltd, EEA, since 2012).
Worldpay (UK roots, ex-RBS WorldPay; now US-owned) - global merchant acquiring across UK/EU/US. Acquired by Global Payments (US) for USD 24.25bn from GTCR/FIS (signed Apr 2025, closed Jan 2026). Contrast / US-owned.
Fiserv (Milwaukee, US; NYSE: FI) - global processor (First Data USD 22bn, 2019) with the Clover POS platform. European acquiring rail: European Merchant Services B.V. (EMS, Netherlands - ex-ABN AMRO JV, 100% Fiserv since Sep 2023; DNB-licensed PI) plus the CCV acquisition (NL). Contrast / US. Register-sourced: Payment institution (PI), The Netherlands Bank, ref F0007; passported to 30 EEA states.
Galileo (US) - issuer-processor (SoFi-owned) providing core processing for large neobanks via partner issuing banks.
Highnote (US; since 2020) - issuing-as-a-service via sponsor banks.
i2c (US; since 2001) - issuer-processor running global card programmes via issuing banks.
Lithic (US) - developer-first issuer-processor working with the client's issuing bank; not a bank itself.
Marqeta (US) - issuer-processor via sponsor banks (Sutton ~96%, Evolve, WebBank, Cross River); not a bank itself.
Pismo (Brazil; global) - cloud-native core banking and issuer-processing software; acquired by Visa (Jan 2024, USD 1bn).
Wirecard (Germany) - former DAX-30 payments and issuing group. NB: DEFUNCT - filed for insolvency 25 Jun 2020 after EUR 1.9bn was declared 'missing' (balance-sheet fraud; CEO arrested), triggering BaFin reform (FISG 2021). Kept as a proof-of-value entry for why licence and risk transparency matter.
FAQ
What is issuer processing?
The authorisation, clearing and settlement engine behind a card programme - the system that says yes/no to each transaction. Fintechnologica lists 60 verified issuer processors (39 European-origin); many card-issuing platforms bundle processing, others let you bring your own.
Does the processor affect data residency?
Yes - the processor sees every card transaction, which is exactly the data GDPR/CLOUD Act buyers care about. A European processor with EEA hosting keeps the transaction stream in the EEA even when the scheme is Visa/Mastercard.