Jacob Eisen: Card Programs Can Drive Community Bank Growth

As the financial services competitive landscape continues to evolve, payments have emerged as a critical component of community bank strategies. It extends beyond interchange revenue to deepening customer relationships and driving new product engagement. 

Cards have never been more vital to a payments strategy’s success than they are now. 

For one, consumers and businesses are once again turning to credit and debit cards to support their spending. Consider that Mastercard reported 6% growth in card volume in Q3 2025, and the Mastercard Economics Institute cited an acceleration in consumer spending in many goods categories in 2025 that it expects to continue in 2026. 

With these volumes as a frame of reference, now is the time for community banks to introduce or upscale existing card programs to achieve their business goals, including:

• Increasing customer retention: A card program creates another solution to deepen the customer relationship. Beyond loans and bank accounts, offering a credit or debit card solution creates another avenue for connecting with the customer.

• Expanding deposit growth: Adding cards to your solutions portfolio allows that money to stay within your bank; you create opportunities to keep customer funds in house. This is true whether it is an extension of credit or a debit product.

• Driving interchange revenue: The bottom-line impact of a strong card program is that the revenue gained bolsters a bank’s profitability. With operating margins remaining tight, new or increasing streams of debit and credit card revenue can provide additional earnings support.

This year offers opportunities to bring enhanced debit and credit card programs to your customers. Working with ICBA Payments, you have the flexibility to directly issue your own uniquely tailored credit card program for maximum profitability or to utilize our bank agent model to limit your expenses and risk exposure. You can also better support the overall mission of ICBA by engaging ICBA Payments in support of your debit card program.

No matter what avenue you choose, the ICBA Payments team will serve as an extension of yours, providing consultative support to enhance your offerings. Our role is to help you meet and exceed your performance goals. 

When you issue cards with ICBA Payments, you not only receive deeper discounts from group pricing; you are also choosing to support ICBA and its advocacy efforts on behalf of community banks.

In a world where community bank leaders are inundated with initiatives that need their attention, your card program should rise to the top. It can be a seamless solution that helps your bank thrive. You just need to maximize its potential.