Who Marqeta is
Marqeta is a card issuing and processing platform headquartered in Oakland, California, and listed on Nasdaq. Through its APIs, companies launch debit, prepaid and credit card programmes with virtual and physical cards, and Marqeta can also manage the programme for them, from fulfilment to chargebacks and reconciliation.
In July 2025 it completed its acquisition of TransactPay, a BIN sponsor licensed as an e-money institution, so Marqeta now provides BIN sponsorship and card issuance in the UK, Gibraltar and the EEA; in the US it works with partner banks as sponsors. Its Gateway JIT Funding lets a programme fund each payment at the moment it happens, 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 a virtual card the moment a customer passes KYC, and a physical card in your design. With Gateway JIT Funding, Marqeta asks the module to fund every authorisation, so the answer comes from your ledger, the customer's limits and your controls by merchant category and country.
How the connection works
The card issuing module creates cardholders and cards through Marqeta's Core API and acts as the gateway for Gateway JIT Funding, which Marqeta calls for every authorisation. Webhooks carry everything else.
A card is created
When a customer passes KYC, the module creates the cardholder and a card from your card product on Marqeta, and the virtual card is ready in the app at once.
Into the wallet
From your app, the customer adds the card to Apple Pay or Google Wallet through in-app provisioning: Marqeta supplies the encrypted card data, and the network creates the token.
Marqeta asks for funding
When the customer pays, Marqeta sends a JIT Funding request to the module over HTTPS, authenticated with the credentials you set for the gateway.
The module decides
It checks the ledger, the limits and your rules, then funds and approves the payment or declines it, within the timeout you set, at most three seconds.
Webhooks follow
Clearing, reversals and card events arrive as webhooks, signed with an HMAC in the X-Marqeta-Signature header, and the module posts each one to the ledger.
Next to other processors
Marqeta 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 work the same on Marqeta as on Thredd, Enfuce or Galileo, and the choice comes down to your markets and your programme manager.
In the UK and the EEA, Marqeta can now be your processor and your BIN sponsor at once, or you can bring your own sponsor. Either way, moving the programme later does not change your apps, and past transactions stay in your ledger.
When Marqeta fits best
A strong fit when
- You want your own ledger to fund and approve every card payment as it happens.
- You issue in the US, or in the UK and the EEA with processor and BIN sponsor from one company.
- You plan more than one kind of card, debit, prepaid or credit, on one platform.
Also worth a look
- A Europe-focused processor with its own e-money licence and network membership, such as Enfuce.
- 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 Marqeta account and contract in place, with Marqeta's own BIN sponsorship in the UK and the EEA, or a partner bank in the US.
The card programme
We set up the card products with you: virtual and physical cards, designs, wallet provisioning and the JIT Funding gateway that lets the module decide.
The keys
API credentials, the gateway's credentials and the webhook signing secret go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in Marqeta's sandbox, which simulates authorisations, clearing and reversals, before your first real card.
