Daniel Citron
Payments consultant and author of Issuing Carte Blanche
I've spent more than twenty years in payments and most of that time building, running and improving card programs.
I started my career at a global management consultancy, working on strategy projects for large corporates and public bodies. In 2004 I joined a four-person team and we set up a European bank, became a Mastercard member and, as a card program manager, launched its own prepaid program. We then sponsored card programs for other companies across Europe. Alternative card issuance was still inventing itself, and we learned much of it by doing.
I then spent more than a decade as Chief Solutions Officer and COO of an international fintech. I built and managed the card issuing and acquiring infrastructure behind its gifting and embedded lending businesses in North America and Europe and ran vendor selection for its card programs.
Today I work independently with issuers, program managers, processors and businesses of every size to design, launch and improve card programs. In 2026 I published Issuing Carte Blanche: Beyond Credit Cards, a practical guide to building on the card rails. It's the book I wish someone had handed me in 2004.