Visa’s Alliance with FIS Equips Smaller Banks with Big-Issuer Card Tech

A joint strategic expansion by Visa and FIS may shake up the credit card marketplace for community and regional banks.

The joint agreement will give smaller banks access to high-end payment technology without the expense of creating an entire infrastructure from scratch — a determining factor if they are to compete with an oversaturated card marketplace.

The alliance is valuable because it lowers the entry costs for a set of products that are increasingly desired by consumers. They also give smaller banks ways to grow revenue and hold on to customers in a tough climate.

This encompasses adding digital wallets, customizing advertising, and improving defense against fraud — abilities smaller banks couldn’t acquire previously.

By embedding Visa’s issuing operations with the FIS payments infrastructure, FIS aims to make Visa’s tools comparable to those of industry giants with whom they often compete.

According to Experian, the average American holds almost four active credit cards. Without sophisticated digital capability, smaller issuers risk losing their clientele, whom their better-equipped peers can easily woo.

The agreement, signed in June 2025, highlights the changing competition in the card-issuing market. FIS will have the new technologies available later this year, offering banks a quick way of going live.

As the large banks keep investing heavily in research and development, the smaller banks have no option but to rely on technology partnerships like this one if they hope to compete.

FIS’s expanded relationship with Visa offers just such a lifeline.

Stop payment features, for example, enable cardholders to prevent regular payments without the need for customer service assistance.

That’s less strain on support teams and greater user control — a win-win, especially for lightly manned institutions.

Wallet link capability lets banks roll out branded digital cards straight into a customer’s phone without the need for an app download. This sort of instant delivery keeps the bank card on top of the wallet and reduces drop-off during setup.

From the sales perspective, FIS also offers a campaign manager that will let smaller issuers leverage cooler outreach tools like augmented reality events.

While big banks have long-run multichannel campaigns, community banks have not always had the capability to keep up with that momentum. Now, they can vie for eyeballs without having to start over from zero.

Fraud is a top priority for big issuers and small issuers alike, but smaller issuers can’t afford to spend money on single-purpose solutions. The holistic fraud prevention capability introduced with the Visa-FIS expansion goes after e-commerce specifically — that is, where most chargebacks occur.

By baking in advanced detection and approval logic, these financial institutions can authorize more legitimate transactions and reject bottom-line-killing chargebacks.

This isn’t the first time FIS has strategically collaborated to expand what its customers are able to do.

Over the past few years, the company has collaborated with Oracle to enhance core infrastructure, PwC to advance compliance and strategy services, and even with the Fulham Football Club to explore new avenues of brand engagement — all with the aim of putting technology in the hands of smaller players.

In early 2025, FIS also named Affirm its pay-over-time partner for debit cards, allowing its customers to have installment payment options available.

As Visa’s Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore put it, “Our collaboration with FIS is making it easier for financial institutions of all sizes to compete more effectively by offering solutions that drive growth and enhance customer retention.” 

That’s something the smaller banks are likely eager to hear. With card-based payments on the line, community and regional banks can ill afford to be spectators while the technology arms race rages on. Visa’s alliance with FIS is their shortcut to the finish line or, at the very least, their best shot at keeping up.