BIN Sponsorship

What Is BIN Sponsorship?

Every payment card carries a Bank Identification Number — a BIN — that identifies the institution responsible for issuing it. To obtain a BIN, a company must hold direct membership with a card scheme such as Visa or Mastercard, which requires a banking or e-money licence, significant compliance infrastructure, and an ongoing relationship with the schemes themselves.

For most fintechs and programme managers, obtaining this directly is neither practical nor the right use of resources. BIN Sponsorship solves this: a regulated, scheme-member institution — the BIN Sponsor — provides its infrastructure and licences, allowing the Programme Manager to issue payment cards under the sponsor’s BIN.

This arrangement is well established across the payments industry and underpins a large share of the fintech card programmes operating in Europe today.

The Paynetics BIN Sponsorship Model

Paynetics holds direct membership with Visa and Mastercard across both the EU and the UK, operating under its EU e-money licence (Paynetics AD, Bulgaria) and UK e-money licence (Paynetics UK). This makes Paynetics a natural BIN Sponsor for Programme Managers who want to issue cards in European and UK markets from a single relationship.

What sets the Paynetics BIN Sponsorship model apart is the degree of control it gives Programme Managers over their own programme. Rather than routing every transaction decision through Paynetics, the Programme Manager operates its own ledger and authorisation stack — using its processor of choice. Paynetics provides the regulated foundation: the BIN, the issuing accounts, and the settlement with the card schemes.

The result is a partnership that combines Paynetics’ regulatory and scheme infrastructure with the Programme Manager’s operational flexibility and speed.

What Paynetics Provides

As BIN Sponsor, Paynetics is responsible for:

• Issuing a dedicated BIN or BIN range to the Programme Manager

• Opening and maintaining regulated e-money accounts for the Programme Manager’s end-customers

• Performing settlement with Visa and Mastercard on behalf of the Programme Manager

• Maintaining a shadow ledger for compliance, audit, and regulatory oversight

• Managing the scheme-facing chargeback process

• Providing the API and webhook infrastructure through which the Programme Manager communicates card and transaction events

What the Programme Manager Controls

Under this model, the Programme Manager retains full ownership of its card programme’s day-to-day operation:

• Ledger management — the PM tracks balances and manages funds on its own systems

• Transaction authorisation — the PM’s processor makes real-time authorisation decisions, without Paynetics participating in or delaying that process

• Fraud and AML monitoring — the PM runs its own fraud detection and anti-money laundering controls

• Programme design — card features, spending rules, user experience, and programme structure remain entirely in the PM’s hands

This separation is deliberate. It allows experienced Programme Managers to move at their own pace without being constrained by a shared infrastructure, while Paynetics ensures that the regulatory and scheme obligations are met consistently in the background.

How It Works

The Programme Manager creates end-customer accounts in Paynetics via API. When a card is issued by the PM’s processor, it is linked to a Paynetics account via a webhook. From that point, the PM’s processor handles authorisation independently, notifying Paynetics of transaction events as they occur.

Funds move through Paynetics’ Transfers API — initiated by the Programme Manager to reflect authorisations, settlements, and other balance movements. Paynetics settles the net cleared amounts with the card schemes each day, based on clearing files delivered by the PM’s processor.

Throughout, Paynetics maintains its shadow ledger, performs daily reconciliation, and handles any scheme-facing chargebacks or disputes.

Supported Schemes and Jurisdictions

Paynetics supports BIN Sponsorship under Visa and Mastercard, covering the EU/EEA and the United Kingdom from a single commercial relationship.

The model is compatible with a range of third-party processors and is not tied to a single technology stack.

Getting Started

BIN Sponsorship is available to Programme Managers who operate — or are building — their own card programme and processing infrastructure. If you are considering BIN Sponsorship and would like to understand whether the Paynetics model is a good fit for your programme, contact your Paynetics representative or reach out via the Paynetics website.

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