---
title: "Adyen Issuing"
description: "Create virtual and physical cards for your users."
url: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing"
source_url: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing.md"
canonical: "https://docs.adyen.com/issuing"
last_modified: "2023-03-01T13:29:00+01:00"
language: "en"
---

# Adyen Issuing

Create virtual and physical cards for your users.

[View source](/issuing.md)

##### Get in touch

Interested to learn more about Adyen Issuing? [Fill out this form](https://www.adyen.com/issuing#form) to let us know.

Build your card program with Adyen Issuing—our customizable card issuing solution.

With Adyen Issuing, you can:

* Create fully customizable virtual and physical cards from Mastercard and Visa.
* Receive authorization requests on your own servers so you can approve or decline any authorization.
* Create transaction rules to automatically approve or decline authorizations.
* Use a single pool of funds for all card payments or maintain balances per card.

Adyen operates in the background, allowing you to manage account creation, customize your own cards, and handle your funds. You will always be the point of contact for your users.

In an Issuing integration, you'll have a balance platform where you create accounts, manage balances, and issue cards using the Balance Platform API.

## Supported countries/regions

Adyen Issuing is currently supported in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

## Acquiring regions

An acquiring region is a specific geographic area where your payments are processed through local banking networks and regulatory frameworks. An acquiring region can consist of a single country (for example, the USA), or a group of countries (for example, Europe/EEA). These regions are defined based on shared financial standards, currencies, and legal requirements.

Based on the [countries/regions that are supported for Adyen Issuing](#supported-countriesregions), we get the following acquiring regions:

* Europe/EEA
* United Kingdom
* United States

## Core concepts and resources

The [Configuration API](https://docs.adyen.com/api-explorer/balanceplatform/latest/overview) contains a set of resources to handle accounting and payment processing for your users.

For each user and card you want to issue, you need to create the following resources:

* An **accountHolder**: A user's entity within the balance platform. Depending on your account structure, the account holder can either be your company, or your customers.

* A **balanceAccount**: Account where funds are held for an account holder. All financial activity happens through balance accounts. Each account holder can have one or more balance accounts for accounting flexibility, but in most use cases, a single balance account is sufficient.

* A **paymentInstrument**: The card itself, an externally-facing payment instrument for interacting with funds on the associated balance account. Creating a payment instrument issues a card. Each balance account can have one or more payment instruments that can deduct funds from it.

You can additionally create:

* **transactionRules**: Rules that are applied to automatically approve or deny authorization when a user attempts to pay with a payment instrument.

You will also have a balance account for your company called a *liable balance account*. This balance account will contain your funds for loading cards and performing balance transfers.

### Example account structures

Create an account structure that suits your use case. For example, you can create:

* A 1-1-1 relationship with one **accountHolder**, one **balanceAccount**, and one **paymentInstrument**.
* A 1-N relationship with one **accountHolder** with multiple **balanceAccounts** and **paymentInstruments**.

![Example account structures](/user/pages/docs/07.issuing/AccountStructures.svg?decoding=auto\&fetchpriority=auto)

## Webhooks

Many of the actions and events within your balance platform are asynchronous. These events include payments, captures, and refunds. You need to rely on webhooks to receive these events.

An Issuing integration is incomplete without accepting and handling webhooks.

## PCI compliance

The scope for PCI compliance depends on your use case—the type of cards you'll issue and how the cards will be used. To know whether PCI compliance requirements apply to your use case, reach out to your Adyen contact.

## Next steps

[required](/issuing/get-started)

[Get started](/issuing/get-started)

[See an overview of the steps from signing up to going live.](/issuing/get-started)

[required](/issuing/integration-checklist)

[Integration checklist](/issuing/integration-checklist)

[Learn what you need to do to build your Issuing integration.](/issuing/integration-checklist)
