Jack Henry & Associates Inc. is planning to offer its core banking clients a rewards program they can provide to customers, using technology from Saylent Technologies Inc.
Jack Henry, of Monett, Mo., announced the partnership with Saylent on Thursday. It said the Big Rewards program it is developing will allow its customers to offer high-interest checking, cash-back, and merchandise rewards depending on the types of accounts a customer has and their transaction volume.
Big Rewards is expected to be offered online and integrated with Jack Henry's core processing system. Banks that use the program could create loyalty and incentive programs to improve customer relationships.
The program, which Jack Henry will host for clients, is built on Saylent's Account360 product, which the Franklin, Mass., company said can analyze data and offer rewards for payment activity.
Tom Brogan, a research director for the retail banking practice at TowerGroup Inc., an independent research firm owned by MasterCard Inc., said that while there are other rewards programs like this, it is rare for them to be offered "on an integrated basis" through a core processor.
"Where this is a benefit to Jack Henry's customers — and to Jack Henry — is that it will automate the calculation of the rewards," he said, "so there won't have to be external spreadsheet-based work."
Rewards systems built from Big Rewards would likely resemble Citigroup Inc.'s Thank You program, he said.
