Physical cards are here to stay. It's time to rethink issuance

Takes place on 29 Oct 2026 09:00 AM PDT / 12:00 PM EDT / 05:00 PM CET

Simona Lenghen

15 Oct 2026 / 5 Min Read

For years, innovation in card issuing has focused on digital onboarding and virtual cards. Yet one critical part of the customer journey often remains fragmented, opaque and operationally heavy: the physical card journey.

From production and personalisation to delivery and activation, issuers frequently rely on disconnected processes that create unnecessary customer enquiries, operational inefficiencies and limited visibility across the card lifecycle.

As customer expectations continue to rise, cardholders increasingly expect the same level of transparency and real-time experience from physical card delivery that they get from e-commerce platforms and digital services.

The good news? Modernisation is already within reach and does not require heavy integrations.

Join experts from Nickel, Lithic and Thales to look at how they transformed their physical card operations to gain real-time visibility, accelerate product launches and simplify expansion into new markets, without rebuilding integrations from scratch.

Through practical insights and industry perspectives, discover how leading organisations are turning physical card issuance into a strategic customer experience advantage while laying the foundations for the next generation of card operations.

This session is designed for leaders in:

Card issuing and product management;
Card operations and fulfilment;
Customer experience and customer service;
Payment transformation and digital banking.

Agenda

The operational blind spots hiding in today's card issuance processes;
How Nickel, Lithic and Thales have transformed physical card issuance through real-time orchestration;
The lessons learned from building a more visible, agile and scalable issuance model;
What the future of card operations looks like and how issuers can prepare for it.

Presenters

Anthony Poujol

Head of Cards, Nickel

Esther Groen

Moderator

Kelly Hernandez

Senior Partnership Operations Manager

Cyril Gabon

Vice President and Business Owner for Card Issuance at Thales Payment Services

Keywords:

Payments Cards Orchestration Modernisation digital banking

Countries:

World

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