Regions Financial Corp. has agreed to use a merchant-funded rewards program from Cardlytics Inc. that sends consumers targeted offers through their banking websites.
Under a cash-back program for the Regions Visa CheckCard, retailers establish requirements to qualify for an offer.
For instance, an apparel retailer may choose to offer 10% cash back to consumers who have shopped at a competitor's store in the past month. Cardlytics' software, which is installed within a bank, compares customers' card transactions against available promotions to determine if consumers qualify for any offers.
Offers appear within a customer's list of online card transactions. A customer can click on an offer to activate it and redeem it by using their card at the specific merchant. In Regions' case the reward is deposited into a customer's account within 60 days of making a qualified transaction.
"There's no printing of coupons," Scott Grimes, Cardlytics' chief executive, said in an interview Wednesday. "They don't have to go to another website."
Regions, of Birmingham, Ala., announced the cash-back program Wednesday. It is only the third financial company to announce its use of the technology, but Grimes said Cardlytics is working with numerous banks and has about 30 million consumers in its system.
First National Bank of Omaha recently started a rewards program using Cardlytics' technology, and the prepaid card company AccountNow Inc. said it would roll out a similar program soon.
Cardlytics has about 70 merchants participating in its program, including McDonald's Corp. and Macy's Inc., Grimes said.
"Our assessment of the merchant relationships they had was that it was very well aligned with our customer base in that they were…national, regional and local but also a nice blend of everyday offers," Tom Brooks, the head of Regions' cards and payments division, said in an interview Wednesday.
