Tell us a little about yourself and Lithic.

I’m Alli Nilsen and I lead Lithic’s bank strategy and relationships. I’m based in Salt Lake City and love working in payments because it requires so much cross-functional problem-solving. The space is constantly evolving so there’s never a shortage of growth and learning opportunities — which I love!

Lithic is a leading card issuing and processing technology company built for teams that want to build with powerful infrastructure. Lithic’s API-first platform enables businesses to build card programs, move money, and issue debit, credit, and prepaid cards to consumers and businesses with unmatched ease and flexibility.

What key challenges do you see fintechs facing when launching card programs, and how does Lithic address them?

It’s no secret that the sponsor bank regulatory environment has changed, and that means navigating shifting expectations and sometimes ambiguous regulations. It might feel like you need to have a crystal ball to know how to navigate sponsor banks, network partners and all the other vendors to launch your program. By partnering with the right people who have that “know-how” and expertise, you don’t have to read your daily horoscope. One of the reasons I adore working at Lithic is I’m surrounded with these exact types of folks.

Another challenge is that the card networks come with their own special vocabulary, processes, and rules. If you don’t have deep card experience, it can be confusing and overwhelming — not everyone is fluent in what ICA, FTSRE, ABU, Easypath/1192, DEX, MIP, CIQ, APW, and NSIF mean. And on top of that, different players in the ecosystem may use the same terms but mean slightly different things. So we provide education and support along the way as we migrate or launch new card programs.

So how does Lithic address these challenges? Our card platform is best-in-class. Our transaction authorization rules are one example; they give programs unprecedented control and insight to mitigate both fraud and “good” cardholder disruption. For example, thanks to our shadow testing — where programs can run rule sets in real transactions in “shadow mode” — programs can test out multiple rule sets at once and get robust reporting on what transactions were denied and why. This all helps cut down on fraud without disrupting good cardholders with an overly blunt instrument.

We’ve had many reps building out the operations needed to make our customer programs successful— such as with Mercury and Novo. Card programs are a highly cross-functional space and you can’t do it well with only one pillar in place.

Which is where the team comes in. We have a team of folks with extensive experience and deep knowledge across all functions – legal, compliance, risk, finance, technical card network partnerships, and others. They bring experience from Stripe, Visa, Netspend, Chime, Amex, Bluevine, CurrencyCloud, and The Bancorp, to name a few.

How do you see embedded finance and card issuance evolving, and what role will platforms play?

Platforms will need to evolve as the fintech industry responds to both new regulations and changing cardholder expectations. Each partner will have their own unique needs as they look to solve specific market challenges, and will want the ability to do that with an API first, nimble platform that offers tons of flexibility and self-service configurability.

Platforms will continue to play a big role, we’re continually working with bigger and bigger companies interested in embedded card products, and this trend is only going to grow.

At the end of the day, the thing that won’t change is working with a good partner that’s willing and able to provide the support and guidance an embedded card program needs to have a smooth and successful experience.

How can people get a hold of you?

You can find me on LinkedIn, get additional information through Lithic’s website or hunt me down at one of our industry conferences. I’m hard to miss with the curly red hair!

One Personal Question: What did your grandparents do for a living?

My paternal grandparents were a civil engineer and a nurse. My maternal grandparents were ski instructors and owned the first ski shop in Park City, Utah. My grandpa, Gene Zenger, took the silver medal in 1971 in the World SkiBob Competition.