FIS and Spade partner to put the verified merchant on debit transactions
By Oban MacTavish · 9/28/2026 · 3 min read
FIS has integrated Spade’s real-time transaction enrichment into its debit processing platform. FIS debit issuing clients now have access to verified merchant data from Spade’s Merchant Graph, designed to give cardholders statements they recognize and institutions fewer unnecessary disputes, stronger authorization decisions, and accurate merchant data for analytics and AI.
Spade’s real-time transaction enrichment is now built into FIS’s debit processing platform, one of the leading issuing platforms in the market. Starting today, FIS debit issuing clients have access to verified merchant data from the Merchant Graph, Spade’s record of 99.9% of US and Canadian businesses, and can show cardholders a merchant name and location they recognize in place of a cryptic string. The integration is available now.
Through this partnership:
- FIS built Spade’s enrichment into its debit processing platform and makes the enriched data available to its debit issuing clients inside the platform they already use.
- Spade matches transactions against the Merchant Graph, our verified record of 99.9% of US and Canadian businesses, and returns the verified merchant, its location, brand, and category in real time.
Together, we’re putting the verified merchant in the authorization decision, on the statement, and in the app.
Why a debit statement is hard to read
Card networks allow 25 characters for a merchant name. The merchant and its payment provider fill them to settle a payment, and the result reaches the cardholder as-is. Here are three real descriptors and the business behind each one:
DD *DOORDASH DOLLARGENarrives coded as a restaurant. It was a Dollar General order placed through DoorDash.PP*ITUNESAPPSTarrives coded as theater tickets. It was Apple, paid through PayPal.PMUSA 303010 PHILADELParrives as a string of codes. It was ParkMobile, a parking payment app.
When a cardholder can’t place a charge, they call their bank or dispute it, and the contact center often sees the same string the cardholder does. Many of those calls and disputes are about purchases the customer made and didn’t recognize. Show them the verified merchant and they recognize what they bought, so disputes go down.
The same string feeds everything else the institution does with the transaction: the authorization decision, the spend analytics, the model a data team trains. Each of them inherits whatever the descriptor leaves out.
Spade’s Merchant Graph is a verified record of 99.9% of US and Canadian businesses
Spade built the Merchant Graph to solve this. It is a verified record of 99.9% of US and Canadian businesses, built and maintained over five years and matched against transactions in real time. For each business it holds what the business is, where it operates, what it sells, and which other businesses it resembles, far more than the merchant descriptor and category code in a payment message can carry. It also knows how businesses relate: every location to its brand, and every brand to its owner.
The Graph is rebuilt continuously against a payments world that never sits still. Merchant IDs (MIDs) rotate, processors change, businesses change hands, and a storefront can reopen on the same terminal as something else entirely. Keeping pace with those changes is how Spade holds accuracy above 99% and coverage at 99.9%, including the long tail of small, local, and new merchants.
A lookup, not a guess: every card match is checked against the verified record in under 40ms at p99, fast enough to arrive inside the authorization window, before the transaction clears.
FIS debit issuing clients gain access to accurate, verified merchant data from Spade at the transaction level
FIS debit issuing clients get richer, more precise merchant data at the transaction level, and can put it to work in three areas:
- Show statements cardholders recognize. The verified merchant name and location on the statement and in the app, so cardholders recognize their purchases and have fewer reasons to call or dispute them.
- Make stronger authorization decisions. Spade’s response arrives inside the authorization window, so the decision can take the verified merchant into account.
- Build analytics, AI features, and personalized experiences on accurate merchant data. A true picture of where customers spend, and a record that names the business for any model trained on it.
“A clear transaction record can help customers keep better track of where their money is going, and financial institutions deserve data that helps make that possible,” said Kim Bynan, Head of Issuing Solutions, FIS. “The integration of Spade’s enrichment technology into our debit processing platform is designed to give our clients a cleaner, more complete picture of transactions, so they are better positioned to mitigate dispute volumes and deliver the clear, reliable payment experiences their customers expect.”
“Delivering a modern payment experience starts with understanding the exact origin of every transaction,” said Oban MacTavish, Co-Founder and CEO of Spade. “Integrating with FIS puts enriched merchant data inside one of the leading issuing platforms in the market, setting a new standard for transaction transparency across the financial industry.”
FIS debit issuing clients can ask their FIS team about the integration, and is live on its newsroom. To see what the verified merchant can do for your institution, contact our team at .
