What does it take to move more than half a million active credit relationships without so much as a flicker on a customer’s phone, a checkout terminal, or an issuer’s risk dashboard during the cutover itself? The answer emerged when Avida completed a rapid migration to Enfuce, shifting 556,039 consumer credit cards and 94,009 installment plans in just seven months from contract signing, while keeping services live.
The scale alone would have tested any issuer, yet the program added a crucial twist: digital wallet enablement at go-live. Apple Pay and Google Pay were ready on day one, turning a platform shift into a customer-facing upgrade that reduced friction and encouraged immediate use.
Why this migration matters now
Nordic card portfolios have been in motion as major lenders reassessed direct card strategies and rebalanced capital. That realignment created acquisition windows and set expectations for faster, cleaner integrations that do not erode brand trust.
For Avida, a long-standing Nordic credit market company with a lean footprint, the deal consolidated checkout lending and direct cards across Norway and Sweden and demanded a modern core. Cloud-native issuing, API-first connectivity, and instant wallet provisioning were not differentiators—they were minimum requirements.
How seven months became possible
Speed began with sequencing. Avida and Enfuce structured phased cutovers, parallel test runs, and meticulous data readiness. Cleansed and normalized records reduced rework, while predefined reconciliation paths trimmed decision latency during the final switch.
The result was a tightly managed runway from kickoff to migration, compressing a timeline that often stretches across years. Every sprint served a concrete cutover milestone, keeping governance anchored to measurable outcomes rather than abstract targets.
Engineering for zero downtime and wallet activation
Continuity mattered as much as speed. Cutover windows were planned around live traffic patterns, with fallbacks and end-to-end reconciliations guarding against mismatches. No service disruptions were reported, and authorization quality remained in focus through rapid post-migration tuning.
Wallet readiness amplified the impact. Instant tokenization and provisioning encouraged activation at the moment of change, supporting top-of-wallet ambitions and lifting contactless spend. Early indicators to watch included tokenized share, active rate, and cost-to-serve improvements.
Coordination, platform leverage, and signals from the field
Execution hinged on cross-functional squads—risk, compliance, data, customer service, and tech—working across jurisdictions with distinct rules and reporting demands. Consistent go/no-go rituals and defect triage kept surprises small and reversible.
Platform choice shaped the arc. Enfuce’s modular issuing and processing and fast APIs created a flexible backbone. Co-founder Monika Liikamaa called the program among the firm’s most complex migrations, highlighting the operational rigor involved. Beyond the Nordics, Enfuce’s multi-benefit “multi-pan combo card” with Swile in Brazil signaled a scalable playbook for diverse product stacks.
What comes next for Nordic issuers
The migration left Avida with a unified portfolio, a single feature roadmap, and clearer levers for growth. Sensible next steps were continuous KPI monitoring—churn, NPS, fraud and false positives, authorization rates—and iterative rule tuning to refine customer experience and cost efficiency.
For regional issuers, the lesson was straightforward. Portfolio consolidation paired with cloud-native processing, wallet-first activation, and zero-downtime discipline had become a viable path to faster launches and broader functionality. The blueprint was tested, the risks were managed, and the market’s bar for execution had moved.
