What It Took to Launch Juzt: A Fintech’s Crash Course in U.S. Compliance

Four weeks since the U.S. launch of the Juzt Card, Access Finance CEO Ivan Arnaudov said demand from customers has exceeded expectations, surpassing the goals agreed to with the bank.

The product — a totally digital, unsecured credit card — comes at a time when the industry is experiencing an influx of new subprime consumers after widespread delinquencies on college loans. Arnaudov considers that timing bad fortune, rather than coincidence.

But the path to the market wasn’t easy. The company invested over two years preparing for a U.S. launch with Cross River Bank, only to have the deal terminate under regulatory scrutiny weeks ahead of rollout. The Bank of Missouri was ready.

The partnership, with Mastercard as the network and The Bank of Missouri as issuer, enabled the company to launch across 50 states. It also necessitated tighter systems for compliance, new infrastructure, and a new onboarding strategy, which now forms a central pillar of Juzt’s competitive edge.

Arnaudov said The Bank of Missouri’s recent regulatory scrutiny forced Access to design its U.S. systems with stricter compliance and vendor oversight from the start.

To secure regulatory and The Bank of Missouri endorsement, Access Finance relied on its playbook from Europe, particularly when it came to using open banking data to score applications.

Access Finance built the whole system based on real-time data. It was the way to detect fraud, determine affordability, and provide instant decisions with no deposit fees.

As opposed to secured cards that involve a cash deposit or prepaid cards that don’t have a line of revolving credit, the Juzt Card issues a real revolving line of credit to customers who have little or no credit.

Online applications make it easy for customers to begin spending online within about 10 minutes. They can opt for a physical card for a one-time shipping fee and receive one through the mail. Physical-card customers later paid to get the digital one.

To manage risk, initial limits are between $400 and $1,000. The card begins using VantageScore 4.0 but will switch to a proprietary behavior-based scoring model that incorporates bank data, income sources, and paying habits over time.

That model, set to be externally validated within a year, will enable Access to raise limits automatically for excellent payers.

“We’d like to meet individuals before they’re students, while they’re freelancing, or when they’re just getting started,” explained Arnaudov. “They can develop with us and then graduate to mainstream credit.”

It’s a proposition that taps into a volatile moment within the credit cycle.

Though demand for subprime products has fallen off over the last few quarters, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau specifically warned last week about a “silent slide” into delinquency for previously prime borrowers, particularly those now seeing renewed payments on student loans.

Arnaudov believes it’s the turning point.

“There’s a consumer base that was previously top tier and now can’t be qualified,” he explained. “They don’t require a lecture. They require a bridge.”

He projected that over 100 million Americans can be helped by the greater availability of starter credit. His approach targets digital natives — young people, gig economy workers, immigrants — who are accustomed to fintech interfaces but might be stymied by traditional underwriting.

That emphasis entails a significant investment in education and account management through an app.

“We have a tremendous number of people who don’t have a credit card,” he observed. “They don’t particularly know what a billing cycle is or when due dates are. We therefore created self-service tools and support to assist them.”

Access Finance selected i2c as its technology backbone for its flexibility, regulatory compliance, and strong relationships with issuing banks. Those characteristics, Arnaudov explained, would be crucial when the company was looking to move into banking-as-a-service and release new financial products on demand.

Entering the U.S. subprime market also entailed gearing up for fraud. “The first week, we had a flood of synthetic identity attacks,” Arnaudov claimed. “But we caught almost everything.”

It’s based on open banking data, identity verification, and machine learning to recognize anomalies in real time. That technological investment isn’t only about security — it’s also about future-proofing its score engine.

The company’s data science team is already working on training models to predict behavior, repayment risk, and fraud schemes.

“Mastercard’s purchase of Finicity provided us with the backbone we required,” he continued. “We’re bringing in transactional insights, utility bill payments, and spending across merchant categories. It’s all building our 360-degree view of risk.”

This strategy, aside from getting approval from The Bank of Missouri, also prepares the company for long-term growth. Arnaudov added that the infrastructure was built to implement savings products, insurance add-ons, rewards programs, and embedded financial products over the next three to five years.

The appeal to consumers is straightforward: no deposits, instant decisions, and space to expand. But in reality, it’s a sophisticated coordination between partnerships, compliance, and data science.

The Juzt Card is Access Finance’s first U.S. product, but it is based on over 13 years’ experience operating across five European countries. It also has an insurance arm in Europe and a partnership with telecoms for embedded financial products.

In the U.S., the company is concentrated on scaling a single product and demonstrating the company’s model. “We’re building the foundation for long-term trust, and we’re not another fintech launching a card,” Arnaudov explained.

Such a message rings true at a moment when millions of consumers are slipping subtly into subprime status — and are searching for lenders who understand more than a score.