Digital Issuance: A Solution Built for This Moment

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a business boon for digital payments solutions – especially for digital issuance for credit union member cardholders.

Earlier this month, PSCU launched its latest solutions evolution simply called, PSCU Digital Issuance.

The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based CUSO announced the creation and rollout of Digital Issuance earlier this month describing it as “seamless, uninterrupted payment experiences [that] enables cardholders to continue transacting digitally, even in the absence of their physical card.”

According to PSCU’s announcement, the new solution is available to credit unions nationwide that are partnered with the CUSO.

“A lost or stolen card can be a major inconvenience for cardholders and credit unions alike. In a lost/stolen situation, not only are members forced to wait for a replacement plastic to arrive in the mail, but credit unions also experience a decrease in transaction revenue,” Cindy McGinness, vice president, Digital Experience at PSCU, said. “This problematic scenario will become obsolete for owner credit unions and their members through the use of PSCU Digital Issuance, which provides the secure, real-time ability for members to continue transacting without interruption.”

According to PSCU, this rollout comes at a time when digital adoption is on the rise as a result of COVID-19. The CUSO’s “Eye on Payments” study in 2019 found that 32% of respondents were likely or extremely likely to use a mobile wallet over the next six months. In 2020, this increased to 38%.

The study showed “usage of mobile wallets among credit union members increased by 40% – up from 15% in 2019 to 21% in 2020 – when asked if they had utilized a mobile wallet in the 60 days prior to completing the survey. In addition, more credit union members (49%) report using a mobile wallet than non-credit union members (28%).”

According to the organization, features of PSCU Digital Issuance include:

• Push provisioning, where users can push active card and/or new card information after a lost/stolen situation directly from the credit union’s app to any of the three major digital wallets – Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay – enabling purchases wherever digital wallet payments are accepted.
• Card add/remove automation, or the capability to automatically associate a newly generated card with the old lost/stolen card without requiring the user to manually add or authenticate the card.
• Card credentials access, which allows users to view the full card number, expiration date and CVV information after going through a multi-factor authentication process.

Last month, Ondot Systems similarly launched a digital issuance feature for credit and debit cardholders.

According to that announcement, “digital issuance is one of the most requested features by both consumers and financial institutions.” Digital Issuance allows financial institutions to offer a digital version of a credit or debit card that credit union members and consumers can add to their mobile wallet, such as Apple Pay, before the physical card arrives.