Who Galileo is
Galileo is a card and payments processing platform from Salt Lake City, part of SoFi Technologies since 2020. In 2026 SoFi launched SoFi Tech Solutions, one brand for what it offers enterprise clients: processing, core banking ledgers, a payment hub, and risk and fraud tools. Galileo's website and documentation now carry that name.
Through its APIs, companies run card programmes on Visa, Mastercard or Discover, with physical and digital cards, without building the processing themselves. It also lets a programme decide every authorisation on its own systems, in real time, which is why it is one of the issuer processors our card issuing module connects to.
What it does in your platform
Card issuing
Issues your programme's cards, ready in the app at once with the physical card in the post, and sends every authorisation to the module, so the answer comes from your ledger, the customer's limits and your fraud rules. Settlements, reversals and adjustments come back as events and keep the ledger in step.
How the connection works
The card issuing module creates accounts and cards through Galileo's API, answers its real-time authorisation requests and receives its events. Galileo's credentials stay in your platform's secrets, never in your apps.
A card is created
When a customer passes KYC, the module creates the account and a digital-first card on your programme, so the customer can pay before the physical card arrives.
Into the wallet
From your app, the customer adds the card to Apple Pay or Google Pay. The module asks Galileo for the encrypted card data the wallet needs, and the card network creates the token.
Galileo asks the module
When the customer pays, the authorisation reaches Galileo over the card network, and Galileo posts it to the module with a JSON Web Token signed with a shared secret.
The module decides
Within the two seconds Galileo allows, the module checks the balance in the ledger, the customer's limits and your fraud rules, and approves or declines.
A fallback, set in advance
If an answer is ever late, Galileo applies the fallback you chose for the programme and sends the module a timeout event.
Settlement follows
Settlements, reversals and adjustments arrive as events, resent if your endpoint is busy, and each one is posted to the ledger.
Next to other processors
Galileo is one of several issuer processors the card issuing module connects to. The card screens, the controls and the ledger belong to the module, so they behave the same on Galileo as on Marqeta, Thredd or Enfuce, and the choice comes down to your markets and your programme manager.
A card lives on one processor, so moving a programme later is a migration you plan with your sponsor bank and the network. Your apps stay the same, and every past transaction stays in your ledger.
When Galileo fits best
A strong fit when
- You want your own ledger to approve every card payment, with a fallback you set for any late answer.
- You want cards customers can use in the app on day one, with the physical card to follow.
- You want the choice of Visa, Mastercard or Discover for your programme.
Also worth a look
- A processor with its own licence and BIN sponsorship in Europe, for cards issued to EU customers.
- A processor you already have a contract with: it becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Galileo account and contract in place, together with the sponsor bank and the network your programme needs.
The card programme
We set it up with you: network, digital and physical cards, activation and PINs, the countries where cards work, and the fallback for late authorisations.
The keys
Galileo's API credentials and the shared secret behind its authorisation requests go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in Galileo's client validation environment, which simulates authorisations, settlements and reversals, before your first real card.
