(I work on Issuing.)

The cards draw from a Stripe balance, which can be funded from a connected bank account (or ordinary Stripe charges).

Hey Lachyg - it seems that this is designed party to allow companies to issue cards on behalf of their customers. Is there a way to draw the funds directly from the customer's checking account? Potentially being on the hook for a charge if something goes funky with the customer seems like a big risk for the Stripe Issuing user.

Also, my understanding of payments is that the issuing bank is a big recipient of the fees that merchants pay. (This is of course what makes rewards cards possible.) In this case, Stripe is the issuing bank, so presumably gets a big chunk of the fees. Are there plans to share that with the Stripe Issuing developer? (For example, let's say I plan to launch the Zip Line Adventure Bonus Card - ZLABC. For every dollar a ZLABC customer spends, they get a point, and after 10,000 points I pay for them to go on a zip line adventure at a partner park. As a normal bank, I could fund that because I get somewhere in the 1%-2% of each transaction that my customer spends. In this case, Stripe gets it, but if Stripe shares some of that with me, I could find my wacky wimpy rewards card idea.)

If I use my normal VISA card at a retailer they pay an interchange fee right?

If I create a physical card through stripe, and I use that card at a retailer does the retailer still pay a interchange fee? If so who does that go to? How does that system work?

Normal interchange would apply to the merchant but for debit cards it's pretty small. Interchange accrues to the issuer which in this case appears to be Stripe (and/or its issuing partner).

Why would the interchange fee be any different or get paid to anyone else in this instance?

Will this be launched worldwide? If not, which countries in the first phase?

We're starting out in the U.S., but have a number of other markets in-flight. Please let us know about your use case on the invite form (https://stripe.com/issuing) — that'll help us prioritize where to go next :)

I have reached out, just now, please begin the discussions with us asap because we are in the middle of going with Emburse and would consider this instead.

Emburse are great! They provide far more in the way of user a user experience to set controls, manage budgets, etc. We'd highly encourage going with them! (Stripe Issuing is an API-first product -- if you want to build software like Emburse, we would be more suitable.)

Roger from Emburse here. We're built on top of Stripe :D

Comdata?

We would be entirely API used for QA automation.

Looked through the docs and meets the same needs that Emburse meets.

Great use case! If you fill in the form at https://stripe.com/issuing (or email me at [email protected]) we'll get back to you soon.

Thanks. Is there any documentation available on this? I can't find how a card is connected to specific bank account.

Docs: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing

Cards draw from a Stripe balance (which is funded by payments that go through Stripe (or top-ups).)