Cards at the Core of the Trust Ecosystem
At the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), our focus is on the people and processes behind those credentials. As payments, identification, access and digital identity become more connected, card manufacturing and personalization expertise has an essential role in turning technological possibilities into dependable everyday experiences.
For the financial institutions, government agencies, technology providers and security professionals who gather at TRUSTECH, that connection is increasingly relevant. TRUSTECH’s evolution from its smart card origins to its broader focus on payments, digital identity, biometrics and security reflects how closely these fields now intersect.
The opportunity for our industry is to help shape that convergence. Doing so requires us to bring manufacturing knowledge into the conversation early, strengthen professional expertise and build relationships across the entire credential lifecycle.
Manufacturing Expertise Is Essential to Trust
Cards have long served as trusted credentials. Their familiar form can make it easy to overlook the engineering, materials and production decisions that determine how well they perform.
Contactless and dual-interface technologies illustrate that relationship. A tap may take only a moment, but reliable performance depends on the precise integration of components inside the card.
In a framework published by ICMA, Siva Ravi, director of quality management at Marketing Card Technology LLC, explains how small variations in milling depth, bond pressure and antenna orientation can compromise dual-interface card performance. His work explores how AI-supported quality management can help manufacturers identify risks earlier and prevent defects.
For the wider trust ecosystem, the lesson is clear: production quality deserves attention from the beginning of a credential program. Decisions about components, construction and testing influence whether an innovative concept can become a reliable product at scale.
We need manufacturers, suppliers, personalizers and issuers working together early enough to identify those requirements and address potential problems before credentials reach users.
Connecting the Credential to Its Holder
Biometrics bring another dimension to the relationship between cards and trust. Authenticating a credential and confirming that the person presenting it is authorized to use it are related but distinct responsibilities.
A smart card can authenticate itself to a system, while an integrated fingerprint sensor can help verify its authorized holder. With on-card biometric enrollment, the biometric is retained within the card’s secure element and used to authenticate the cardholder. This approach also introduces a new step in personalization: the user participates in completing the credential after receiving it.
That changes the practical requirements of issuance. Integrating a sensor is only part of the work. Enrollment must also be accurate, secure and understandable to the person receiving the credential. Whether a card is issued in person or delivered to the cardholder, the enrollment experience deserves careful consideration.
For our industry, this reinforces the importance of personalization expertise. As credentials gain new capabilities, the processes used to issue, activate and manage them must evolve alongside the technology.
Bringing Physical and Digital Experiences Together
The relationship between physical cards and digital services creates further opportunities.
ICMA’s coverage of a presentation by CompoSecure research and development engineer Nazar Kovch highlighted card-based capabilities for passwordless login through a FIDO2-compliant security key, alongside biometric authentication, dynamic security codes and contactless access control. These examples illustrate how card technology can support interactions across physical and digital environments.
The strategic question is how to make those capabilities work together for the user. A credential’s value depends on the experience it supports: how someone enrolls, authenticates, gains access or completes a transaction.
Issuance infrastructure belongs in that discussion. Our 2026 ICMA EXPO agenda included a presentation by Ed Tomko of IDEMIA Secure Transactions examining how application programming interfaces can connect legacy systems with real-time physical and digital experiences. The program also addressed collaboration between manufacturers and personalization sites around data readiness, production alignment and quality expectations.
These topics reinforce the need to consider the complete lifecycle. Manufacturing, personalization, issuance and digital services are connected responsibilities. Bringing their specialists together helps ensure that a credential’s physical performance supports the experience promised by the broader system.
Responding to Different Markets and Sustainability Priorities
A global industry must also recognize that markets evolve at different speeds.
In ICMA’s coverage of flat card issuance, Entrust product marketing manager Logan Shurtz described North America and Europe as approaching maturity in flat card adoption, while Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa were in earlier, faster-growth phases. Those observations concern flat cards specifically, but they illustrate why companies need to understand regional adoption patterns when planning products and production capabilities.
For ICMA, global exchange is valuable because it gives professionals opportunities to learn from markets with different infrastructure, customer expectations and operating conditions. An approach that succeeds in one region may require adaptation elsewhere.
Sustainability introduces additional decisions about materials, performance and the evidence behind environmental claims. Our industry needs ways to discuss those attributes clearly.
ICMA’s voluntary EcoLabel Standard Program provides criteria covering reduced material use, recycled content, compostability and biobased content. It distinguishes between a Declared level, based on a manufacturer’s declaration, and a Verified level supported by assessment from a recognized third party.
That distinction matters in a trust-focused conversation. Buyers need to understand what a sustainability claim means and what evidence supports it. ICMA recognizes the importance of transparency, credible standards and independent verification in helping the industry navigate evolving sustainability requirements.
Investing in the People Behind Innovation
Technology will continue to advance, but its successful implementation depends on knowledgeable people.
At ICMA, education is central to our work. Our Advanced Card Education (ACE) accreditation program supports specialized knowledge through manufacturing, personalization and advanced technology tracks. Online ACE-M training also gives working professionals a flexible way to build their manufacturing knowledge.
For companies, professional development is an investment in the expertise needed to evaluate new technologies, understand production requirements and make informed operational decisions. For individuals, it provides a path to deepen their knowledge and demonstrate their capabilities.
Industry exchange complements that education. Through ICMA EXPO and CardTREX, we bring professionals together to explore developments, share technical knowledge and build relationships across the card industry. Our strategic partnership with TRUSTECH extends those connections into the broader payments, identification and security community.
As credentials become more connected, those relationships become more valuable. Manufacturers need insight into emerging applications. Issuers and technology providers need a clear understanding of what it takes to produce, personalize and deliver dependable credentials.
The card industry brings practical expertise to that shared effort. Our responsibility is to keep strengthening it and to ensure that it informs the next generation of solutions from the outset.
By investing in education, encouraging collaboration and supporting informed decisions about performance and sustainability, ICMA helps professionals and companies prepare for that future. Together, we can turn increasingly complex technologies into secure, sustainable and reliable experiences that people can trust.