Iceland’s most innovative bank has replaced its traditional loyalty program with Meniga’s personalized card-linked offer solution

Today at Money2020, Meniga announces that Íslandsbanki, one of Iceland’s leading banks, has deployedMeniga’s Card Linked Offer (CLO) program to provide their digital banking customers with personalized and relevant discounts from local merchants.

Meniga’s CLO solution utilizes proprietary machine-learning algorithms to identify and forecast consumer spending behavior. Merchants get access to uniquely attractive customer segments that only contain consumers very likely to be interested in their products, consumers get highly relevant and deep discounts served in the context of digital banking, and banks turn costly loyalty programs into new revenue streams while at the same time vastly improving digital engagement.

The CLO program is available to all of Íslandsbanki’s customers and is estimated to reach more than 30% of households in Iceland. The scale makes the program particularly attractive to merchants. The program presently includes offers from a wide variety of businesses – from ready-made food outlets, clothing retail to fuel and travel-agencies, offering deep discounts up to 50%.

While the CLO market is relatively mature in the US, European banks are finally starting to pick up pace. With merchant deals served across Íslandsbanki’s digital platform as well as Meniga’s own B2C personal finance management application, this deployment is Europe’s first fully integrated multi-platform card-linked offer program – a great example of the kind of innovation post-PSD2 Europe is likely to deliver.

BragiFjalldal, Meniga’s CMO, comments: “As one Iceland’s most innovative businesses, it is an honour to partner with Íslandsbanki on this latest offering. In order to stay competitive, banks must innovate in their digital user experience as well as in their business model. With CLO, banks do both at the same time by delivering personalized, deep discounts to their customers and building a new source of revenue.”

He added: “Most leading European banks have CLO somewhere on their roadmap and they understand there is a clear first mover advantage in this space. With PSD2 around the corner, now is the time to make a move.”

Íslandsbanki is recognised for its innovation and customer satisfaction, and was among the very first banks in Europe to offer its customers a comprehensive a personal finance solution in 2009 when the bank became the first to deploy Meniga’s personal finance technology.

“The past 8 years Íslandsbanki has enjoyed an excellent partnership with Meniga. We truly value Meniga’s strive and focus to improve customer digital experience and we look forward to build on our relationship. With the introduction of CLO Íslandsbanki will offer superior value to its customers and retailers. It is a big step for Íslandsbanki to launch a cutting-edge CLO program, strengthening Íslandsbanki’s position in payments in an increasingly competitive market”, says Sveinbjorn S. Gretarsson, Head of Payments at Íslandsbanki.

Meniga has been operating a CLO program in its domestic market for three years, delivering globally-leading metrics in terms of user engagement and offer conversion.