Fuel-card and prepaid-card programmes look simple on the brochure and get complicated the moment volume arrives. Reconciliation breaks across the acquirer, the oil marketing company and the corporate sponsor; fraud rules written for retail debit don't catch tank-skimming or odometer mismatch; and the card management system the bank uses for credit cards can't hold a velocity rule that says "1,200 litres per truck per week, diesel only, between 04:00 and 22:00." Redian builds and runs the issuing, switching and settlement stack that sits underneath these programmes — for fuel distributors, fleet operators, corporate-card sponsors and the banks that sponsor BIN ranges for them.
What it does
The platform covers the full lifecycle of a closed-loop or open-loop card programme: BIN sponsorship and card production, cardholder and corporate hierarchy onboarding, authorisation switching, fuel-specific controls (product code, pump grade, litre limits), settlement against the merchant or oil marketing company, and dispute and chargeback handling. It runs as a single system of record so the sponsor bank, the programme manager and the corporate customer see the same balance, the same exception and the same statement.
Fuel programmes carry constraints retail card systems don't. We model product-code restrictions (diesel vs petrol vs lubricant vs non-fuel), pump-level velocity limits, geofenced merchant lists, driver-plus-vehicle two-factor entry, and odometer-capture rules that flag a 50-litre fill on a vehicle that has only moved 8 kilometres. Prepaid programmes — payroll cards, expense cards, government disbursement, allowance cards — share the issuing and switching backbone but swap the fuel rules for KYC tiers, load limits and AML monitoring.
Where it fits
The buyers we work with sit in three groups. Oil distributors and fuel retailers running their own fleet-card brand, usually 50,000 to 2 million active cards across a national or regional network. Banks sponsoring a prepaid or fuel BIN on behalf of a corporate customer, who need a card management system that doesn't pollute their core banking platform. And corporate-card programme managers — fleet aggregators, expense-card fintechs, payroll disbursement firms — who need a white-label issuing and switching backend they can resell.
We see this work most often across Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda), the Gulf, and the Indian downstream market — markets where fuel-card penetration is growing faster than the incumbent processors can keep up with.
Core modules
Issuing and card production. BIN sponsorship support, EMV and magstripe personalisation, virtual cards, instant issuance at branch or depot, embossing file generation, and integration with bureau printers. Cardholder hierarchies model the corporate-to-driver-to-vehicle relationship that fuel programmes need.
Authorisation switching. ISO 8583 and ISO 20022 interfaces to acquirers, scheme connections where the programme is open-loop, and a rules engine that evaluates product code, MCC, time-of-day, geolocation, velocity and balance in under 200 milliseconds. The switch is built on the same authorisation patterns we use in our core banking work.
Programme administration. Corporate self-service portal for card ordering, balance top-up, driver assignment, vehicle assignment, statement download and dispute raising. Sponsor bank back-office for BIN management, fee schedules, commission to distributors, and regulator reporting.
Settlement and reconciliation. Daily netting between acquirer, oil marketing company and sponsor bank. Three-way match between authorisation, clearing file and physical dispensary data where the pump is connected. Commission calculation for the distributor and rebate calculation for the corporate.
Risk and compliance. Real-time fraud rules, transaction monitoring tied to our AML platform, KYC tiering for prepaid load limits, sanctions screening on cardholder onboarding, and audit trail at the field level.
Why Redian
CMMI Level 3 appraised delivery, ISO certified, and a payments team that has shipped issuing and switching work in markets where regulators specifically inspect the card management system. We sit comfortably alongside the bank's existing loan management and BFSI platforms — most fuel-card sponsors already run other Redian-built systems, so the integration cost is low.
Our delivery model is fixed-scope build plus ongoing managed service: we build the programme in 6–9 months, then operate it as a global capability centre extension of the sponsor bank's payments team. Cost certainty on the build, no surprise scope on year-two.
Working with Redian
Talk to us if you're launching a new fuel or prepaid programme, replacing a processor that won't scale past your next BIN, or trying to bring a programme that's currently outsourced back in-house. Start at contact, or read how we built payments and KYC infrastructure for banks in our case studies.