The Case for Configurability in Card Programs

Contents:

• A Simpler Way to Build Card Programs
• Applying Configurability at Scale

Every card program—credit, debit, or prepaid—is defined by dozens of interdependent decisions across pricing, limits, billing cycles, lifecycle states, rewards, disclosures, and controls. These elements evolve independently, and their effects compound across the product lifecycle. Yet the tech underlying most card programs requires engineering intervention to enact even minor changes. These limitations show up in a few consistent ways:

• Slow response times: Fintechs routinely release new features on 2–4-week cycles by leveraging modern and agile operating models¹. Many banks, by contrast, still bundle even minor adjustments into quarterly or semi-annual releases. The result is delayed response to customer behavior and competitive moves.
• High cost of change: When product logic is hard-coded, every modification triggers a full engineering workflow. Costs accumulate regardless of the size of the change, making small optimizations disproportionately expensive. Over time, this constrains product evolution.
• Reduced experimentation: Expensive change discourages iteration. Teams avoid testing new pricing, controls, or features because reversibility is low and failure is costly. This is a structural disadvantage in markets where product-market fit, engagement, and monetization are refined through continuous testing rather than upfront design.
• Compliance exposure: Regulatory change often arrives as granular rule updates. When those rules are embedded in code, updates become slow and fragile, increasing the risk of inconsistency, errors, and delayed compliance.

A Simpler Way to Build Card Programs

Card technology has largely stayed the same while product demands have grown more complex. Traditional platforms were built as monoliths, where changes require custom work and long release cycles.

Newer platforms take a different approach. They use modular architectures built around pre-defined blueprints and reusable bundles, making card programs configurable and easier to launch, adapt, and scale.

When product components are configured rather than coded, issuers can change how card programs are launched, managed, and governed.

• Launching: New programs are launched by selecting and adjusting pre-defined components instead of building new logic. This reduces setup time and ensures new products start from a consistent, proven structure.
• Managing: Live programs are managed by updating configuration—fees, limits, rules, and controls—without engineering work or large release cycles. Changes can be made incrementally as the product evolves.
• Governance: All changes are versioned, reviewed, and traceable. Issuers maintain visibility into what changed, when, and why, making ongoing evolution controlled and compliant rather than risky.

Applying Configurability at Scale

Hard-coded product logic slows launches, raises the cost of change, and increases operational and compliance risk. Zeta Tachyon Product Center addresses these constraints by making product behavior configurable, versioned, and governed by design.

To understand how this approach is implemented in practice—and how issuers use it to launch, manage, and govern card programs—explore the Product Center architecture and capabilities.

References:

1. McKinsey | Why most digital banking transformations fail—and how to flip the odds | 2023