iCard

What is iCard and what do they do?

iCard is a Bulgarian fintech and licensed electronic money institution, founded in 2007 in Varna and now employing more than 250 people. The company has grown from a local start-up into one of the longer-standing e-money players in the European fintech space, delivering payment solutions to more than 1.8 million clients across over 30 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).

iCard's portfolio spans several product lines: the iCard Digital Wallet for personal payments and money transfers, iCard for Business for multi-currency business accounts and employee debit cards, iCard ATM for cash access, and GiftCard™ for prepaid gift cards. On the merchant side, iCard Direct covers acquiring, payment processing, POS terminals, and e-commerce checkout — including shopping cart plugins and a hosted Direct Checkout page for online retailers. iCard is a principal member of Visa, Mastercard, American Express, BORICA, SWIFT, and SEPA.

Who is it for?

iCard Direct serves payment service providers, financial institutions, banks, ISOs, and large merchants that need a full-service acquiring and processing setup rather than a single-point tool. The company also partners with gambling and e-commerce operators across Europe, reflecting experience with higher-volume, higher-scrutiny verticals alongside standard online retail.

On the personal and business banking side, iCard for Business suits companies that want multi-currency accounts, employee cards, and centralised spend control without opening relationships with multiple local banks.

Why do businesses choose iCard?

• Pan-European reach on a single licence — iCard has passported its e-money licence across all 30 EEA countries, so merchants can operate under one regulatory relationship rather than country-by-country agreements.
• Full acquiring stack in one place — acquiring, processing, risk management, and fraud prevention sit under iCard Direct, reducing the number of vendors merchants need to coordinate.
• Both online and in-store coverage — POS terminals for physical locations and shopping cart plugins or a hosted checkout page for e-commerce, useful for merchants running both channels.
• Experience with high-risk verticals — established relationships with gambling and e-commerce operators mean merchants in these categories aren't starting from scratch on underwriting.
• Long operating history — nearly two decades in the market gives merchants a track record to evaluate, rather than a newly licensed entity.

Businesses using Corefy can simply obtain a MID from iCard and connect it to Corefy's dashboard in a few clicks, without dealing with any integration work.

Is iCard trustworthy?

iCard AD is licensed and supervised by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) as an electronic money institution and operates in accordance with the European E-Money Institutions Directive. Under EEA passporting rules, this licence extends to all 30 EEA member states, giving iCard a harmonised regulatory footing across its operating markets.

As an e-money institution rather than a bank, iCard doesn't accept deposits or lend customers’ funds and, correspondingly, falls outside deposit guarantee schemes. In their place, iCard is required to safeguard client funds in line with e-money regulation — the standard protection mechanism for this licence type. Combined with its founding year of 2007 and continuous operation since, iCard's regulatory profile is that of an established, single-licence EEA e-money institution rather than a newly formed one.