Multipass is a financial services provider offering global business accounts, multi-currency payments, and cross-border transaction solutions.
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Card Issuing
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United Kingdom · EMI
Card issuing for UK e-money institutions
Your EMI owns the card programme and the cardholder. A Mastercard or Visa principal member issues and processes under an agreement you sign with it, and the platform ties every card to a safeguarded e-money balance and puts the controls in your customers' hands.
- Virtual at sign-up, plastic when ordered
- Contactless, online and ATM switches per card
- Card balances and holds for CASS 15
- Issuing through Decta or your chosen processor
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Card programmes a UK EMI can run on the platform
Prepaid GBP cards
Customers load a card from their e-money balance and move unspent money back, and a dry run shows the fee and the result before any money moves.
Cards that spend straight from e-money
A card linked to the customer's e-money account places a hold on authorisation and posts the final amount when the scheme settles it.
Controls cardholders now expect
Since the FCA let firms set their own contactless limits, customers want a say. Where your processor supports it, each card has its own contactless, online and ATM switches and spending limits in the app.
Team cards for small businesses
A company issues cards to staff from one business account, sets a limit for each person and reissues a lost card without closing the account.
Card details and PIN in the app
Secure display of card details, PIN delivery, one-time passwords and resets of the PIN retry counter, without card numbers passing through your own systems.
What this licence does not cover
- Consumer credit cards funded from e-money. Safeguarded funds cannot be lent, and credit products need their own FCA permissions.
- A Mastercard or Visa card without a scheme member behind it, unless your EMI becomes a principal member itself.
- Telling cardholders their balance is protected by the FSCS. Card balances are safeguarded e-money, not deposits.
What the regulator asks about your IT
Each requirement, what the platform gives you for it and who owns it after launch.
Pre-integrated issuers such as Decta, and the technical description your issuer asks for in its due diligence.
You sign directly with the issuerA map of who does what between your EMI, the processor and Crassula, with subcontractors and hosting locations.
You, with our input3-D Secure sessions through Decta, approved or declined by the cardholder in your app, plus two-factor login.
Shared with the processorCard balances, open holds and settled spend for every cardholder, exported each day for your reconciliation.
Your finance team, on platform dataA PCI DSS Level 1 platform and a cardholder data endpoint, so card numbers stay out of your back office.
SharedCard transaction history with merchant name, country and category code, so support can check a claim quickly.
Your operations team, with the processorLimits per card and per customer and instant freezes. Sanctions screening runs through a connected provider.
Your MLROA description of how card authorisations flow through the processor and the platform, for your impact tolerances and scenario tests.
You, with our input
Payment rails and providers
Rails your customers can use
MastercardVisaFaster PaymentsCard top-up from e-money3-D Secure
Decta
Mastercard principal member that issues cards for a UK-based EMI under its BIN sponsorship programme, covering personalisation, processing, settlement and disputes. Pre-integrated with Crassula, including 3-D Secure. You contract Decta directly.
ClearBank
UK clearing bank with safeguarding accounts for EMIs, where the funds behind card balances can sit, and Faster Payments for card top-ups.
24/7
real-time processing, no batch window
60+
payment and provider integrations connected
150+
companies run on Crassula
15+
languages the platform speaks
Dates to plan around
Rules that change what you have to build, in the order they apply.
19 Mar 2026
The FCA dropped the GBP 100 contactless cap. Issuers with strong fraud controls set their own limits and must explain any change to cardholders.
7 May 2026
CASS 15 took effect. Money behind card balances is part of the daily reconciliation and the monthly safeguarding return.
Every month
Safeguarding return due within 15 business days of month end, including the funds that back your cards.
Applying to the FCA as an EMI with cards in your plan? Name us in your application.
If cards are part of your business plan, the FCA will want to know who issues them, who processes them and how the money behind them is safeguarded. We show the card flows on a working platform and write that part of the technical file with you.
01
A platform you can demonstrate
A configured environment to show the regulator, not slides.
02
The technical part of your application, prepared
IT systems, card processing outsourcing, PCI DSS scope, security and continuity sections of your FCA application.
03
Providers lined up
Card issuing and processing through Decta, safeguarding through ClearBank, and KYC providers from our network.
Crassula provides technology and documentation support. We do not provide legal or regulatory advice and cannot guarantee the outcome of an application.
How a launch usually runs
Think of an EMI in Bristol whose app pays gig workers the same day they finish a job. Its customers ask for a card so they can spend that money at once. The EMI signs an issuing and processing agreement with a scheme member, and we connect the card product to the platform.
Workers get a virtual card the moment they are verified and can order plastic later, keeping the same card. After the March 2026 change, the EMI kept a GBP 100 contactless limit as its default and let each worker switch contactless or online payments off in the app. Card holds and settled spend go into the daily safeguarding reconciliation from day one.
For the licence itself, see our UK EMI licence guide. New to card programmes? Start with what card issuing is.
Read the licence guides
FAQ
Yes. Issuing payment instruments falls within an EMI's permissions. To carry a scheme brand you either join the scheme as a principal member or, as most EMIs do, work with an issuer that already is one.
No. Crassula is not a scheme member. You contract the issuer directly, and interchange and fees are part of that agreement. The platform is pre-integrated with issuers such as Decta, which has issued cards for a UK EMI under its BIN sponsorship programme.
Since 19 March 2026 firms with strong fraud controls can choose their own limit instead of the old GBP 100 cap, and they must tell customers clearly about any change. The FCA also wants customers to be able to set their own limit or turn contactless off. The per-card switch handles turning it off; a separate contactless limit depends on what your processor supports.
No. Mandatory APP reimbursement covers Faster Payments and CHAPS. Card fraud falls under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which require a refund of an unauthorised payment by the end of the next business day, and under scheme chargeback rules.
Money behind a card linked to e-money is safeguarded like any other e-money. The ledger shows each cardholder's balance, open holds and settled spend, and your finance team reconciles that against the safeguarding account every day.
Expect due diligence on your EMI and its owners, a programme description, scheme approval of the card design and testing of the integration. We supply the technical description and work through the integration tests with the issuer, so virtual cards can usually go live before plastic.
