🪪Card Issuing Platforms arenaBuyer checklist

ai-native userPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring

n/aStripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userConnect an agent via an official MCP server

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing✓Lithic—Highnote✓Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userDrive the product through a documented public API

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 4 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

n/aStripe Issuing—Lithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userPoint an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 4 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote~Marqeta✓Adyen Issuing

ai-native userRun the product headlessly / in CI for automation

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userUse an official CLI

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing~Lithic—Highnote~Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userBuild against official SDKs

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userSubscribe to events via webhooks

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userSet up automations that run autonomously in the background

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userOperate the product with natural-language commands

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing✓Lithic—Highnote~Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userExplore an interactive API reference with runnable examples

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userDownload a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userRely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing~Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userTest against a sandbox environment without touching production data

Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

developerApprove or decline each authorization in real time — a webhook or auth-stream endpoint my code answers inside the network's time budget, with a documented timeout fallback I control

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta✓Adyen Issuing

developerEvery authorization event carries decision-grade context — merchant name and MCC, enhanced merchant data, wallet and entry-mode details, partial-approval and incremental-auth signals

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

developerSimulate the whole transaction lifecycle in the sandbox — authorizations, clearings, reversals, refunds, and declines — so my auth logic is tested before a real card ever swipes

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userDefine rules that trigger actions automatically on events

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing✓Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userPerform bulk operations across many items at once

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userSchedule recurring jobs or workflows

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userVersion, review, and roll back my automations

Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

n/aStripe Issuing—Lithicn/aHighnote—Marqetan/aAdyen Issuing

developerCreate a virtual card through the API in one call — PAN, CVV, and expiry available programmatically the moment it's issued — and go from sandbox to a live card without a sales cycle

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

developerThe full card lifecycle is API-driven — activate, pause, unpause, report lost or stolen, reissue with a replacement linked to the original, and permanently close

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ops userOrder personalized physical cards through the API — custom card art, bulk orders, shipping methods and tracking — without managing a card manufacturer relationship myself

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userGive an agent its own card — issue a scoped virtual card to an AI agent with merchant locks, amount caps, and expiry so autonomous purchases stay inside policy, a use the vendor documents by name

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 4 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userAn agent can operate my card program — read balances and transactions, create and update cards, and adjust spend controls through the API or an MCP surface with scoped credentials

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ops userCardholder verification is built into issuance — KYC for consumers and KYB for businesses run through the platform with documented data requirements, review states, and re-verification flows

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

developerShow cardholders their own PAN and CVV without inheriting PCI scope — hosted components or ephemeral-key reveal flows the vendor documents as keeping me out of SAQ D

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ops userFile and track disputes on card transactions programmatically — network reason codes, evidence submission, provisional credit handling, and status webhooks through resolution

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ops userThe platform fights fraud on my issued cards — network fraud scores or its own models surfaced at auth time, suspicious-activity alerts, and tooling to block and reissue compromised cards

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

finance leadSee money move in real time — account and card balances, a transaction ledger that ties every authorization to its clearing, and settlement reporting that reconciles to the penny

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

finance leadI get machine-readable reconciliation artifacts — daily settlement files or report APIs covering interchange, fees, and network adjustments — that my finance stack can consume automatically

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

developerPost-auth events are as programmatic as auth — clearings, refunds, reversals, and chargebacks arrive as webhooks with stable transaction identifiers, so my own ledger never drifts

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userExport all of my data in open formats and leave

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithicn/aHighnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userSelf-host the core product

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring

n/aStripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userDo everything through the API that I can do in the UI

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ai-native userRead the product's source under an open license

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring

n/aStripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userPrevent my data from being used to train AI models

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring

n/aStripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnoten/aMarqetan/aAdyen Issuing

ai-native userChoose where my data is stored (region/residency)

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithicn/aHighnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userControl data retention and deletion

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithicn/aHighnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

ai-native userOpt out of telemetry and usage tracking

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

n/aStripe Issuingn/aLithicn/aHighnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

founderLaunch a card program without becoming a bank — BIN sponsorship, network membership, and program management are the platform's problem, and the time from signup to first live card is documented

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

founderThe platform supports the card types my product needs — debit, prepaid, commercial credit, and consumer credit programs — not just one prepaid rail

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic~Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

finance leadChoose how transactions are funded — prefunded balances or just-in-time funding where my system approves and funds each authorization — with the cash-flow tradeoffs documented

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote~Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ops userSet spend limits per card and per cardholder — amount caps over daily, monthly, or all-time windows, and transaction-count velocity rules — enforced by the platform, not my code

Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing✓Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

ops userRestrict where a card works — merchant category (MCC) allowlists and blocklists, and single-merchant locks — applied at authorization time

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today

~Stripe Issuing~Lithic~Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

developerIssue single-use and tightly scoped cards — one purchase, one merchant, an exact amount — so a leaked number is worthless the moment it's used

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today

✓Stripe Issuing~Lithic✓Highnote✓Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

developerCardholder credentials are manageable through the API — PIN set and reset flows, 3DS enrollment for online use where the region requires it — without support tickets

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta~Adyen Issuing

developerNetwork tokens are first-class — I can see and manage the tokens created for a card, know which wallet or merchant holds them, and revoke them independently of the PAN

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

—Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing

developerCards land in Apple Pay and Google Pay — push provisioning from my app with the entitlements process documented, plus in-wallet card art and manual provisioning as a fallback

Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet

~Stripe Issuing—Lithic—Highnote—Marqeta—Adyen Issuing