Cards remain the backbone of commerce and payments, yet many systems powering cards processing at financial institutions are decades old and struggle to cope with the demands of the digital age. How are the issuers, acquirers, and processors dealing with the legacy challenge?

To answer these questions, Celent conducted about 30 interviews with issuers, acquirers, processors, software vendors, IT service providers, and other industry experts. We also carried out secondary research to seek publicly available information about how cards players have been upgrading their technology platforms.