The name is derived from the practice of issuing cards to a consumer.
[1] An issuing bank (also called an issuer) is part of the 4-party model of payments.
The parties in the 4-party model are: The issuing bank assumes the primary liability for the consumer's capacity to pay off debts they incur with their card.
There are a few main types of risk for issuing banks, primarily regarding whether the approved transaction(s) will be paid for by a legitimate cardholder.
As of December 31, 2017, there were 20.48 billion credit, debit, and prepaid cards in circulation worldwide.