QPay Issuer Core¶

QPay offers issuers an abstraction that allows them to offer payment cards and process transactions with a very low compliance burden.

To issue cards with QPay, the issuer can choose to avoid the concerns of card network integrations and drastically reduce the scope of PCI-DSS compliance by simply integrating with one of the issuing processors already integrated into QPay. In this way, the issuer only needs to choose a predefined card template from their chosen processor and create a product based on that template.

When creating the product, the issuer defines the graphic details of the card and the service details with the embossers, such as delivery inputs for the cardholder.

If the Issuer wants to keep full control on card brand relationship, it implements its own processor integrating with the QPay Processor Core, homologate a BIN with the card brand and then integrate to its own processor through the QPay Issuer Core

The product model¶

Everything an issuer configures hangs off one chain, and each link is owned by a different party:

flowchart TD
    PR[Processor] -->|publishes| T[Card template<br/>BINs, EMV applications,<br/>embossing restrictions]
    T --> P[Card product<br/>the offering]
    P --> L[Card layout<br/>one design of the offering]
    L --> E[Certified embosser<br/>approved per layout]
    E --> C[Card]

Card template — the processor's pre-certified configuration for a BIN range: the EMV applications and their AIDs, service codes and DOLs, and the restrictions a design must respect (whether the PAN may be printed on the face, where the cardholder name must sit). An issuer chooses a template; it never authors one.

Card product — the offering the issuer sells: a name, a description, and the template it is built on. The template is fixed at creation, and with it the currency: the currency is derived from the template's BINs rather than chosen, so it cannot drift from the BIN the cards are actually minted on, and the ledger rejects a card whose product currency disagrees with the account behind it.

Card layout — one design of that product, belonging to that product alone. It carries the two facts certification turns on (prints_pan_on_face, cardholder_name_zone) and, optionally, a full graphic specification: palette, artwork placement, and where each personalisation field is printed. A product may carry several layouts, and each card picks one.

Certified embosser — a bureau is approved against a layout, not against the product, because homologation is about a specific design. The issuer exports the product parameters, the embosser homologates it off-platform, and the issuer records the approval and the embosser's own reference for the certified job. Where a layout has several approved bureaus, a priority order decides which one produces a card that does not name one.

A card can only be created once that chain is complete: an active product, a layout of it, and an approved embosser on that layout. GET /api/issuer/card-products/issuing-data answers exactly that question, and Manage Card Products walks the whole setup.

Issuer flows on QPay¶

From onboarding to card issuing¶

sequenceDiagram
    actor Issuer
    participant QPay
    participant Processor
    participant Embosser
    actor Cardholder

    Issuer->>QPay: Choose a Processor
    QPay-->>Issuer: Processor Selected

    Issuer->>Processor: Request User at Chosen Processor
    Processor->>QPay: Create User Account
    QPay-->>Processor: User Created
    Processor-->>Issuer: User Credentials

    Issuer->>QPay: Integrate QPay Issuer Core
    QPay-->>Issuer: Integration Complete

    Issuer->>QPay: Choose Card Template
    QPay-->>Issuer: Template Details

    Issuer->>QPay: Define Card Product and its Layouts
    Note over Issuer,QPay: Layout carries the graphics and<br/>the embossing facts certification turns on
    QPay-->>Issuer: Product Created

    Issuer->>QPay: Export certification parameters
    QPay-->>Issuer: Template + layout bundle
    Issuer->>Embosser: Homologate the design
    Embosser-->>Issuer: Certified, with its own reference
    Issuer->>QPay: Register and approve the embosser for the layout
    QPay-->>Issuer: Layout is now issuable

    loop for Each new card request

        Issuer->>QPay: Issue Cards
        QPay->>QPay: Process Card Issuance
        QPay->>Embosser: Request physical card issuance
        Embosser->>Cardholder: Deliver physical card 
        Embosser-->>QPay: Confirms Cards Issued
        QPay-->>Issuer: Confirmation

    end