84% of banks to invest in card tech, Celent report finds

A new Celent report reveals that 84% of retail banks surveyed globally in 2026 intend to invest in their card issuing and processing systems. The finding, published in "Decoding Card Issuing and Processing Solutions: Partnering for Success in Payments," highlights a forthcoming technology spending cycle. Legacy financial institutions are being forced to modernise infrastructure that is increasingly viewed as unsustainable.

This investment push is a direct response to a new breed of fintech issuers that have fundamentally altered the competitive landscape. While traditional banks remain hampered by aging platforms—whether developed in-house, bought from legacy vendors, or outsourced to established scale processors—challengers have treated card rails as a hotbed for innovation. These agile players have successfully leveraged tokenization, artificial intelligence, digital assets and embedded finance to drive rapid change and capture new business opportunities.

The urgency for banks to upgrade comes despite the proliferation of competing payment methods like real-time payments and Buy Now Pay Later. Cards have refused to become a stale product, maintaining their position as a primary payment method across global markets. For investors and market professionals, the resilience of card rails, combined with their newfound technological versatility, points to a sustained market rather than a declining asset class.

The commercial implications for the vendor and integration ecosystem are significant. To capitalise on this expected spending, card issuing and processing vendors are aggressively pitching differentiated capabilities. Celent’s broader research series, which includes nearly 600 pages of detailed profiles across 27 different solutions spanning four editions, attempts to structure this vendor selection process. It builds on prior analysis of digital cardholder engagement and the shift toward AI-first experiences.

For retail bank leaders, particularly heads of cards, issuing, and digital channels, the strategic priority is partner selection. Celent concludes that issuers must systematically assess their current platforms against these newly highlighted best practices. Executives are advised to demand precise roadmap details from incumbent vendors to close existing capability gaps. Crucially, banks must also actively explore alternative partners in the broader market to ensure they are not left behind by the pace of card innovation.