Want to compete with Revolut? Migrate your card platform first.

A practical guide for banks, processors and fintechs

With 50 million+ customers globally and $4 billion revenue, Revolut isn’t just a competitor - it’s a new model. Customers are gravitating towards digital-first challengers offering superior UX, instant onboarding, and personalized services.

But you don’t need magic to create a winning digital payment service—it’s all about the right strategy and next-gen technology.

So what does a truly modern card and wallet service look like?

1. Product Experience: +30% customer growth

Traditional:
Basic card issuance, tokenized into Apple/Google Pay.

Modern:
Combo of digital cards + wallets, issued instantly and tailored to customers:

• Multicurrency with favorable exchange rates online

• Combo-products: debit, credit, prepaid

• Built-in extras: BNPL, insurance, micro-investments

• Omnichannel usability: the best of digital and physical purchasing experience

• Real-time cross-border payments

Aite Group found that instant card issuance can boost activation rates by up to 32%.

Enfuce reports that enabling multiple digital wallets led to a 30% growth in customers.

2. Pricing & Payment Flexibility: +25% Net Interest Margins

Traditional:
Fixed pricing tiers, slow to adapt.

Modern:
Behavior-based pricing + flexible payment plans via smart APIs:

• Save more  →  get interest or waived fees

• Spend more  →  unlock cashback

• Use BNPL  →  split payments post-purchase in-app

• Celebrate milestones  →  receive personalized offers

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports that implementing differential pricing strategies has led to 25% increase in Enhanced Net Interest Margins.

3. Loyalty & Lifestyle: 10x greater spend

Traditional:
Static tiered programs.

Modern:
Personalized rewards based on lifestyle and values:

• Eco-focused?  →  Plant trees instead of points

• Travel lover?  →  Lounge access & travel protection

• Experience seeker?  →  VIP events & curated perks

Mastercard’s insights reveal that personalized marketing drives a 29% increase in transactions and a 10x increase in spend.

4. Smart Partnerships: 10M clients per year

Traditional:
Limited integrations with general-purpose partners.

Modern:
Open APIs for diverse, dynamic partner ecosystems—enabling AI-driven customer matching based on behavior and preferences.

SmartPay in Vietnam started as a digital wallet and transformed into a digital wallet ecosystem with 40M clients within 4 years.

5. Engagement & Lifecycle: +20% usage

Traditional:
Generic email campaigns and static user flows.

Modern:
Omnichannel, event-driven engagement that evolves with the customer:

• Contextual tier upgrades

• Life-event-triggered offers

• Real-time card & wallet notifications

• Consistent CX across app, web, and kiosks

Digital-first personalization reduces dormancy and boosts usage by 20%+.

What can power all this?

You need a digital-first issuing and processing platform that’s as flexible as your roadmap. A platform that:

• Issues cards and wallets instantly

• Supports physical, virtual, and hybrid payments

• Enables seamless omnichannel service

• Personalizes offers in real-time

• Manages the full lifecycle—from KYC to fraud disputes

✅ That’s Way4 by OpenWay.

The future is already here

• By 2029, 1,4 billion cards—35% of global issuance—will be issued via modern card platforms.

• Digital wallet adoption is expected to reach 64% of the global population by 2028.
  
  

Global innovators already rely on Way4:

Enfuce, Mastercard Processing Services, Raiffeisenbank Processing Centre, Banesco, Corpay, Lotte, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, and more.