What It Looks Like To Launch a Card Program With Rain

Launching a card program used to be a multi-quarter project: multiple intermediaries, bespoke bank relationships, and a long list of vendors to coordinate.

Rain was built to remove those layers. As a Visa Principal Member, we issue directly on the Visa network, which means fewer decision-makers, fewer handoffs, and go-to-market timelines measured in weeks, not years. Our partners typically launch in around six weeks, and Rain-powered Visa cards are accepted at over 150 million merchants, so your users can spend virtually anywhere Visa works.

A single integration with Rain can unlock multiple markets over time. The issuance platform is robust enough to support scaled, global programs, but flexible enough to let you design the program you want: consumer or commercial, Rain-managed or partner-managed flow of funds, with on-ramps, wallets, and off-ramps tailored to your specific use case.

Below is what the journey typically looks like from “we’re interested” to “cards are live.”

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Step 1: Scope your program

The first question to answer is how do you want to design your custom program?

• Who are you issuing to? Rain can issue both consumer cards (B2C) and corporate cards (B2B). 
• How do you want funds to move? You’ll choose between two core models: ‍
  
  • _{Option A: Rain-Managed flow of funds. In a Rain-Managed setup, we handle the smart contract and daily settlements with your users. A dedicated smart contract is created when a user opens a card, and they fund and manage it from their own wallet. Rain maintains the ongoing ledger and manages settlement with cardholders, while also handling liquidation to settle with Visa. This keeps your operational footprint light while still giving your users a seamless experience. This model is ideal if you want to move fast, reduce complexity, and avoid building a full ledger and settlement stack on day one.‍}
  • _{Option B: Partner-Managed flow of funds. In a Partner-Managed setup, you keep full ownership and customization of how funds are managed. You maintain the reserve balance, decide whether to approve or decline each transaction via webhook, and build and maintain your own transaction ledger. You also settle directly with your customers, on your own terms, while Rain powers the Visa connectivity and handles liquidation to settle with Visa. This model is a fit if you want maximum control over treasury, collateral types, and customer settlement logic.}

• What parts of the Rain stack do you need? We offer multiple capabilities to power the most effective and flexible card programs, including: 
  
  • _{On-ramps to convert fiat into stablecoins}
  • _{Wallets to secure onchain assets and power card spend}
  • _{Off-ramps to move back into local currencies}
    

By the end of scoping, we’ll have a clear outline of your ideal program design and flow of funds.

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Step 2: Choose the right commercial model

Next, we walk through economics. Rain offers three pricing tiers. Across tiers, the balance shifts between:

• Share of interchange revenue you retain
• Program and platform fees
• Contract duration and commitments

Higher tiers typically come with a larger share of interchange in exchange for higher minimums or longer commitments; lower tiers keep fixed fees lighter for earlier-stage or experimental programs.

We’ll map each option to your expected volume and growth plans so you can choose a model that works in the near term and scales over time.

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Step 3: Get access to the API docs

Once we’ve aligned on design and commercials, and a mutual NDA is in place, we give your team access to our API documentation. It covers card issuance, flow of funds, balances, controls, webhooks, and more.

On request, we’ll also provision a sandbox environment where your engineers can test end-to-end flows without touching real funds.

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Step 4: Sign the agreement

With program design, pricing, and initial technical validation in place, we move to contracting.

The agreement formalizes:

• Your program scope (e.g., Rain-Managed vs Partner-Managed, card types, supported geos)
• Commercial terms (tier, fees, revenue share)
• Roles and responsibilities around compliance, risk, and support

Once the contract is executed, we officially kick off implementation.

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Step 5: Start on implementation

After signing, we set up your implementation experience based on your selected tier.

If your tier includes a dedicated implementation lead, you’ll be introduced to them right away. They will:

• Set up a shared communications channel (most commonly Slack)
• Give you access to our project management tool so you can see timelines, owners, and milestones
• Coordinate across compliance, engineering, and operations on both sides

If your tier does not include a dedicated implementation lead, you’ll still get access to the same organized project management workspace, including timelines, owners, milestones, and implementation checklists so your team can self-guide the rollout, with Rain available for support as needed.

From here, you move through a structured onboarding process that runs in parallel across compliance, development, and production readiness.

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Step 6: Implementation & onboarding

Onboarding is organized into three core tracks—Compliance, Development, and Production access.

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Compliance: getting your program approved

First, we collect the information needed to review your program from a regulatory and risk perspective. The documents we request are standard for any corporate due diligence process. For example: company formation documents, information on the source of funds, and identification details for ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs).

Once everything is received and reviewed, we issue compliance approval, clearing your program to move into production testing.

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Development: integration and testing

In parallel, your engineering team integrates with Rain and validates the full card lifecycle. Core steps include:

1. Review API docs: Your developers get familiar with endpoints, authentication, and webhook patterns.
2. Request sandbox access: We provision sandbox credentials and environments for your team.
3. Test the application flow: You build and test how users sign up, pass checks, and receive cards in your app.
4. Test card creation: Your system calls our APIs to create virtual and/or physical cards, confirming that data and controls are correctly set.
5. Show encrypted card details: You implement display of secure card details as needed for your use case.
6. Test transaction webhooks: You’ll test webhook handling for transactions, card creation, and other events to ensure you’ve tested every user scenario for your program.
   
   1. _{(For Partner-Managed Programs) Build your own ledger & authorization flow: For Partner-Managed programs, you will design, develop, and rigorously test your own ledger and authorization flow. Our API Docs contain detailed information about ledger best practices to help guide your team.} 
7. Submit a demo flow for approval: You’ll submit a recorded demo of the end-to-end user flow from your sandbox environment to Rain. We will closely review each step of the process and provide feedback and approval.  

During this phase, you’ll also kick off card design. We’ll provide templates for both virtual and physical cards, ensuring your designs meet Visa’s requirements. Because of card manufacturing lead times, fully custom physical cards can take up to four months from design to delivery, but we also offer faster-to-market template options if you need to move quickly.

By the end of this phase, you’ve proven that your integration works from sign-up to spend, and your card designs have entered production.

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Production access: controlled ramp-up

With compliance approved and development testing complete, we grant production access and run a controlled rollout. On the production testing and UX side, you will:

• Review and finalize Rain-templated user agreements
• Provide a production-ready demo flow for Rain’s review and approval 
• Conduct limited production testing with real users under controlled conditions
  
  

In parallel, your marketing team will submit all launch materials—such as landing pages, social campaigns, FAQs, and help center content—to Rain for review, feedback, and approval. This review is required to ensure your marketing assets align with Visa and Rain guidelines before going live.

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Ready for go-live and scale

Once production testing meets success criteria, final card terms are in place and approved, marketing materials are ready-to-go, and both teams are confident in system behavior, we mark the program ready for launch.

At this point:

• You can publish marketing materials
• You can expand access from pilot cohorts to your broader user base
• We continue to monitor performance, risk, and card network behavior closely
  

From there, you receive ongoing support from the Rain team covering technical questions, new feature launches, compliance updates, and expansion into new markets over time.

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Bringing it all together

Standing up a credit card program used to be a one-off, multi-year effort. With Rain, it’s a repeatable process:

1. Scope the program and choose your flow of funds
2. Select the commercial model that matches your economics
3. Sign the agreement
4. Move through a structured onboarding process covering compliance, development, production access, and marketing material development

The result is a fully branded, globally accepted card program built on stablecoin-powered rails, running on infrastructure that’s already proven at scale.