LAUNCH OF A CARD ISSUING PLATFORM FOR FINPAY
Building a complete operating environment for a non-bank payment service provider launching its own card issuing capability under a licence granted by the National Bank of Ukraine. In four months, the project moved from first contact to first card authorizations in Ukraine’s national payment card system — with accounts, cards, payments, monitoring, and reporting connected in one controlled platform.
4 MONTHS TO FIRST LIVE AUTHORIZATIONS
From the start of work in late August to the first operations in December, the project covered the full launch path: platform setup, integrations, regulatory testing, and entry into controlled production within the agreed timeframe.
ONE CONTROLLED OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
The project required coordination between several companies and external systems. For FinPay, Lime Systems formed a unified operating environment — from accounts and cards to transaction control and reporting.
REGULATORY-READY CARD ISSUING FROM DAY ONE
At the first stage, FinPay received a working financial platform with accounts, card services, payment infrastructure integration, and readiness for regulatory scenarios required to launch its own card issuing capability. This created the foundation for further development in 2026.
FINPAY: FROM PAYMENT SERVICES TO ITS OWN FINANCIAL PLATFORM
FinPay provides payment infrastructure for e-commerce and digital businesses. The next stage of the company’s development required building its own financial platform — with accounts, a card product, a payment processing environment, financial monitoring, and regulatory reporting.
This was not an extension of an existing service — it was the technological foundation for entering a new regulated market segment.
“In Ukraine, very few non-bank financial institutions obtain a central bank licence for their own card issuing. FinPay became one of three to have done so. For this type of launch, the platform had to be assembled as a complete operating system: with transaction load, regulatory control, and readiness to work from the first stage in mind. This is what the project delivered.”
A FIXED-DEADLINE PROJECT WITH A COMPLETE OPERATING SCOPE
Work on the platform began in late August 2025. By mid-December, the system had to enter controlled production with core operating scenarios already in place: accounts, payments, card operations, and reporting.
The project involved multiple independent parties working in parallel: the UkrCard processing centre, the Kapowai platform, infrastructure contractors, and a settlement bank connected to the Electronic Payment System of the National Bank of Ukraine. Under these conditions, the key task was to build one controlled environment where integrations, accounting, payment logic, and regulatory scenarios worked consistently.
The card issuing component required particular attention. It had to be ready at the first stage: card operations, authorizations, control, and reporting had to operate within the national payment infrastructure, without moving critical scenarios to a later phase.
SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE: ACCOUNTS, CARDS, PAYMENTS, CONTROL
The architecture was designed for a controlled first-stage launch: authorization flows, regulatory controls, and reporting scenarios had to be in place before entering limited production and further rollout.
SCROOGE — ACCOUNTING AND OPERATING FOUNDATION
The Scrooge core banking system was used to deploy the general ledger, accounts, and the basic logic of financial operations. This layer created a unified information space for accounting, payment scenarios, transaction control, and further platform development.
SCROOGE CARD SYSTEM — CARD OPERATIONS ENVIRONMENT
The card direction was implemented on the Scrooge Card System. The first stage included the card back office and the Card Transaction Service financial authorization module, configured for integration with the UkrCard processing centre.
Card operations were embedded into the shared operating environment from the start — together with accounting, payment logic, authorizations, and consistent transaction recording in the system.
WEB PLATFORM — INTEGRATION LAYER
Web Platform provided unified interaction between Lime Systems internal modules and external systems. In this project, it served as the integration layer that connected several independent environments into one controlled architecture.
INTEGRATION WITH THE NATIONAL INTERBANK PAYMENT SYSTEM OF UKRAINE
Integration with the Electronic Payment System of the National Bank of Ukraine was implemented through a dedicated payment system interaction module. This made it possible to include interbank settlements in the overall payment environment of the platform and align them with accounting and internal transaction logic.
PAYMENTS ROUTER — PAYMENT EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT
Payments Router was responsible for processing payment instructions and coordinating interaction between internal operating processes and external channels. It enabled a complete payment route — from the financial operation to its consistent recording in the system.
FINANCIAL MONITORING AND REPORTING
The first-stage scope also included financial monitoring (AML) and reporting modules for a non-bank financial institution. This meant that regulatory requirements were considered at the architecture level of the platform — together with accounts, payment processing, and card operations before launch.
CORE PRODUCT SCENARIOS
The first stage also delivered key business scenarios: account opening, customer onboarding and KYC profile setup, debit card issuing in PROSTIR, Ukraine’s national payment card system, first card authorizations, and financial monitoring requirements.
WHAT THIS ENABLED FOR FINPAY
Within the fixed timeframe, FinPay received a complete financial platform that became the technological foundation for launching its own card issuing capability under the licence granted by the National Bank of Ukraine.
For the business, this meant expanding the existing payment model with a new regulated direction — with accounts, card operations, authorizations, control, and reporting in one operating environment.
It also provided:
- the ability to develop FinPay’s own card product as part of its financial platform, connected with accounts, payments, authorizations, and reporting;
- control over the full operating path — from account opening and card issuing to authorization, transaction recording, and reporting;
- readiness to operate under live transaction load and within the regulatory requirements applicable to a licensed card issuer;
- consistency between business scenarios, accounting, card operations, and regulatory processes;
- a stronger foundation for further development of FinPay’s product capabilities in 2026.
FURTHER PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
The first launch became the starting point for the phased development of the FinPay platform. Work continues with ongoing expansion of functionality, integrations, and product capabilities.
