The US is the world's largest card market, and one of the most complex to operate in. Businesses trying to build modern card programs at scale have historically had to navigate a maze of local providers, cross-border friction, and payment stacks that were never designed to work together. That complexity has been the ceiling on what's possible.
Today, Nium is launching card issuance in the United States, bringing our global card platform to North America and giving businesses a new way to run card programs at scale, connected to a payment network that spans 190+ countries.
This is the missing piece in a platform built to solve one of the most persistent problems in business payments: fragmentation.
Find out more from Rob Regan, EVP Americas:
US businesses can now build card programs on a platform with global reach
As businesses build out card programs, the complexity stacks up fast, with separate providers, separate integrations, and different compliance requirements in every market they operate in. Reconciliation gets stitched together across systems that were never designed to work as one.
At Nium, we’re taking a different approach. Businesses in the US can now generate cards through Nium's platform, which also connects to payouts in 190+ countries, card programs across APAC and Europe, and embedded FX in 35+ currencies. Whether you operate only in the US or across dozens of markets, the platform grows with you.
Nium has issued more than 41 million card credentials globally in the past year, and that proven infrastructure now extends to the US, ready for both domestic businesses and international companies operating stateside.
Just-in-time funding keeps capital in your account until it's needed
Traditional card programs work by pre-loading money onto individual cards. Every card sits there holding capital, waiting for a transaction that might happen next week, next month, or never at all. Operations teams spend their days managing top-ups, refunds, and reconciliation, while finance teams lose visibility and working capital gets trapped across thousands of cards doing nothing.
With just-in-time funding, cards don't hold money. Transactions authorize in real time against a central funding source, and funds are only drawn at the moment of payment. That means capital stays in your account until you actually need it, one central balance funds every card, manual top-ups disappear, and finance teams get real-time visibility into what's happening across the program.
For businesses processing high volumes of payments, this represents a fundamentally better operating model, one that's already popular across APAC and Europe and is now available in the US.
Travel businesses have some of the most complex payment flows in the world, and that's what we're fixing first
Travel payments are fragmented by nature. A single booking might touch a hotel that wants a virtual card, an airline that settles through BSP, a ground operator that needs a bank transfer, and an independent property that prefers a local payment method. Every supplier is different, every country has its own rules, and every currency adds a layer of complexity.
Travel businesses have been juggling multiple vendors, multiple integrations, and multiple reconciliation systems just to keep this working. Nium brings it together, offering cards, payouts, FX, and reconciliation on one platform, across every region.
Nium has issued tens of millions of card credentials for travel companies across APAC and Europe, and US card issuance is the natural next step for the businesses that already run on Nium globally. Travel is just the beginning. The same infrastructure powers supplier payments, expense management, loyalty programs, tuition payments, employee incentives, and any other use case where businesses need to move money at scale.
US card issuance is available now with more markets and currencies to come
US card issuance is available today with support for Visa and Mastercard. USD is supported at launch, with additional currencies planned as the platform grows.
The US joins Nium's existing card issuance footprint across Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK. Combined with global payouts across 190+ countries, embedded FX in 35+ currencies, and booking-level reconciliation, businesses now have access to one of the broadest global commercial card platforms available.
Our vision is to build the world's most flexible card platform, starting with travel and expanding into new markets, new currencies, and new industries, simplifying how businesses move money everywhere they operate.
If you're building card programs at global scale, or want to, we'd love to talk.
