As payments infrastructure continues to modernize, expectations for card issuing platforms are rising. In a recent podcast conversation on the Tech Disruptors Podcast, Marqeta CEO Mike Milotich joined Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Diksha Gera to discuss what a modern card issuing platform must deliver to meet today’s market demands. The conversation highlighted how Marqeta is supporting the next phase of embedded finance, enabling continued growth in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), and differentiating itself through platform capabilities and competitive advantages.
What sets modern payment platforms apart
According to Milotich, a modern card issuing platform must deliver flexibility, configurability, and real-time capabilities that legacy platforms lack. For example, Marqeta's 100% API-based, cloud-native platform offers nearly 400 APIs that function like building blocks customers can assemble in unique ways. Customers also have more control and can define rules and respond to authorizations directly, while real-time processing and webhooks allow instant reactions to incoming data, powering dynamic rewards and other adaptive features that legacy platforms cannot support.
Meeting the needs of the evolving embedded finance market
Milotich shared that as embedded finance continues to expand across non-financial platforms, Marqeta is focused on helping businesses meet rising expectations with a full-stack solution. Many embedded finance providers are not payments experts or want to validate a concept before making deeper investments, increasing demand for proven, scalable solutions. Marqeta addresses this need by combining modern technology with value-added services, banking and money movement capabilities, and program management support, offering flexibility across debit and credit, consumer and commercial use cases without forcing trade-offs between innovation, reliability, and scale.
The growth of Buy Now, Pay Later
BNPL is shifting from a merchant-driven model to a consumer-driven one, with BNPL features increasingly embedded directly into cards. Milotich noted that Flexible Credentials are accelerating this shift by allowing a single card to support both debit and transactional lending without requiring changes to the card. This approach was introduced by Visa through Visa Flexible Credential (VFC), with Mastercard One coming soon. Marqeta supports the top global BNPL providers with its technology, and is the first processor certified for VFC, with VFC cards launched for Affirm and Klarna.
Payments infrastructure as a strategic foundation
The conversation underscored that decisions about payments infrastructure are foundational and strategic for businesses. As embedded finance evolves and models like BNPL continue to grow, the platforms companies choose will determine their ability to innovate, scale, and differentiate. For organizations ready to move beyond legacy constraints, modern, flexible infrastructure is already enabling what comes next in payments.
Listen to the full podcast conversation to learn more about how modern issuing platforms like Marqeta’s are driving innovation across payments.
