European payments technology company Nexi has struck a long-term agreement with Visa to bring fully managed card issuing services to German banks, offering institutions a way to modernize their card programs without taking on additional operational complexity.
Under the partnership, Nexi will handle the end-to-end process of issuing Visa cards on behalf of German banks, covering implementation, ongoing operations, regulatory compliance, and product development. Banks plug into Nexi’s stack and get a ready-made issuing capability rather than building or managing it themselves.
Nexi calls this model “Nexi Ready” and has already run a version of it in Italy, where it serves more than 100 banks and millions of cardholders. Germany represents a significant expansion of that approach into one of Europe’s largest banking markets.
“This partnership with Visa will accelerate a paradigm shift in the way issuers in Germany are supported by third-party specialists like Nexi,” said Christian Segersven, Co-lead of Issuing Business at Nexi Group. “Serving more than 100 banks and millions of cardholders, we provide banks fully managed, end-to-end issuing products targeting individual cardholder needs with digital-first experiences. This enables banks to move faster and invest where it matters most.”
Tobias Czekalla, Country Head of Visa Germany, described the deal as a validation of a broader trend. “Nexi brings a proven ability to deliver scalable payments capabilities and a new era of fully managed issuing products, and this collaboration recognizes the need for banks to modernize faster while benefiting from Visa’s global network, innovation drive and security expertise.”
The product lineup available to German banks will include premium cards for affluent customers, SME and business cards with spending controls, and digital-first propositions aimed at younger customers. Visa’s tokenization, fraud tools, and global network underpin the offer.
The managed issuing model, sometimes described as a shift from “make” to “buy,” has been gaining ground across European banking as institutions weigh the cost and complexity of maintaining proprietary card infrastructure against the speed advantages of outsourcing to specialists.
German banks, which now exceed 320 BaFin-licensed institutions, have historically been cautious about such arrangements, making Nexi’s entry into that market a test of whether the model can take hold in a more conservative environment. The partners said they will work together to bring the combined service to market, though no specific bank names or launch timelines were disclosed.
