Karta is redefining what a US credit card can look like for global citizens. The company issues premium US consumer credit cards to international residents with US assets, offering credit limits up to $200K, instant approval decisions, and immediate access through Apple Pay and Google Pay. No SSN or ITIN required.
The product is built around how Karta's customers actually live. That means 24/7 customer service over WhatsApp, the channel their cardholders already rely on for everything else. Delivering that experience end to end required payments infrastructure flexible enough to match it. That's why Karta partnered with Lithic.
The Challenge: Building a Cross-Border Credit Program From The Ground Up
Karta's ambitions put real demands on their infrastructure. They needed to issue consumer credit cards, support real-time transaction decisioning, protect cardholders with strong authentication, and deliver a seamless digital wallet experience- all while serving a customer base that spans borders and expects premium service.
Two requirements stood out:
- Fraud protection that fits their customers. Strong authentication is table stakes for a premium credit program, but standard SMS-based challenge flows don't work well for an international customer base. Karta needed a better way.
- Real-time authorization control. Karta needed to decision transactions on their own logic, in real time, rather than relying on a black-box processor. With a customer profile that doesn't fit traditional credit models, precision authorization control wasn't optional.
The Lithic Advantage: Flexible Infrastructure For a Non-Standard Use Case
Lithic gave Karta the building blocks to construct a card program that reflects how their business actually works, not how legacy processors assume it should.
- 3DS and Tokenization Decisioning with WhatsApp orchestration: For 3DS and tokenization, Lithic handles the decisioning. When Lithic determines a challenge is required, Karta takes over the orchestration layer, delivering the one-time passcode to cardholders via WhatsApp and posting the result back to Lithic. It's the same model for both flows: Lithic provides the authorization intelligence, Karta delivers the experience in the channel their customers already use. The result is strong fraud protection that feels native to the product rather than bolted on.
- Authorization Stream Access (ASA): For transaction authorization, the model flips. Karta enrolls their own endpoint with Lithic's ASA, receives transaction data in real time, and sends back the decision. Rather than offloading decisioning to Lithic, Karta evaluates each transaction against their own underwriting and risk models, giving them full control over approvals, declines, and spend behavior.
- Authorization Rules: Karta configures granular transaction controls through Lithic, including MCC blocks aligned to Interaudi Bank's sanctioned list. Rules are enforced automatically at the network level, reducing compliance overhead and protecting the program from day one.
- Digital wallet support: Karta supports push provisioning across Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, so cardholders can be up and running immediately after approval- no physical card required.
With Lithic handling the payments infrastructure, Karta's team can stay focused on what makes their product differentiated: a premium credit experience designed for the global citizen.
Ready to build a card program that works the way your customers do? Connect with our team to see what's possible.