Beatrice Sava (Senior Consultant, London) recently interviewed Rowland Camrass, Head of Commercial – Issuing at Checkout.com. During their conversation, Rowland discussed Checkout.com strategic move into the card issuing space, the key challenges and emerging trends shaping the sector, and the company’s ambitions and future roadmap.

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1. What market shifts / opportunities led Checkout.com to move into card issuing at this time and how will issuing enable or enhance synergies with Checkout.com’s existing services?

The decision to move into issuing was a natural extension of our strategy to abstract complexity and deliver performance for our merchants. For years, we’ve seen firsthand how fragmented the flow of funds can be, particularly in industries like travel and marketplaces where merchants are both collecting and disbursing capital.

By combining acquiring and issuing on a single, high-performing platform, we eliminate bottlenecks like pre-funding and manual reconciliation, unlocking real capital efficiency for our merchants.

The opportunity emerged from listening to the market. Merchants increasingly expect more than just payments. They want embedded financial services that remove friction and improve conversion. Issuing helps us do exactly that.

And by building it from the ground up on our existing stack, we can offer faster settlement, better control, and seamless integration, delivering exponential value when paired with our acquiring, authentication, and treasury products.

2. What are the top challenges that a player like Checkout.com has to account for when launching an issuing solution and where do you see the verticals and regions with the highest potential for adopting the solution?

Building an issuing solution that meets the performance bar our merchants expect requires deep investment and long-term thinking. It’s not just about offering cards; it’s about managing compliance, card scheme relationships, settlement, spend controls, and integrations in a way that abstracts complexity from the merchant.

As with everything we build, the hard part is execution at scale without compromising reliability or performance. That’s why we’ve focused initial rollout on verticals where capital flow efficiency is mission-critical, like travel intermediaries and fintechs. These businesses benefit enormously from fast fund disbursement and dynamic control over card usage.

Regionally, Europe and the UAE are strong early markets due to regulatory alignment and ecosystem readiness. We’re already seeing meaningful demand from travel businesses using our issuing rails to simplify supplier payments and enhance cash flow management.

3. What product features are next on the roadmap?

Looking ahead, we remained focused on delivering merchant ROI through high-performing digital payments.

We'll be expanding our direct acquiring footprint in the US - our MAPLB (Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank) license application has been accepted, which will enable us to unlock speed and control.

Investment in machine learning and AI, including the emerging space of agentic commerce, will continue to drive high-performing payment performance for merchants.

New research from Checkout.com reveals that agentic commerce could account for one-fifth (21%) of monthly household spending within the next five years. To make this a reality, we’re actively collaborating with a wide range of partners, such as Visa, Mastercard, OpenAI, and Google, to establish global standards for secure, tokenized, and intelligent payments.

We're also doubling down on Issuing as a core Checkout.com product, expanding to new geographies, and delivering new features.  

Finally, we’ll continue to evolve our dashboard and analytics suite, giving merchants a unified, real-time view of their entire payment lifecycle, driving better decisions and better outcomes.

4. What do you usually do in your spare time and any personal goals you have set for yourself ?

In my spare time, most of my energy goes into my baby and two dogs; they keep me happily busy. When I do get a moment to myself, I usually spend it on fitness, whether that’s pushing through a bootcamp class or hopping on my Peloton. It’s my way of unwinding and recharging.

As for personal goals, I’m working toward getting back into Thai kickboxing, a hobby I used to love. It’s challenging, rewarding, and something I’m excited to pick up again.

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