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The Global Affinity Finance Club is Finaccord’s quarterly newsletter about affinity financial services worldwide. Through this, Finaccord publishes top line information about key strategic developments in affinity and partnership marketing of financial services around the world, segmented between affinity insurance news, bancassurance news and affinity banking news. This service differs from that provided by other research companies because its focus is genuinely global, often translating news that only appears in languages other than English. In addition, it concentrates exclusively on affinity and partnership marketing strategy. Affinity and partnership marketing strategy is an important component of general distribution strategy for a majority of large banks and insurance companies serving consumers and small businesses as successful partnerships potentially allow them to access groups of customers that they cannot always reach by themselves. If you would like to join Finaccord’s Global Affinity Finance Club, contact us by telephone or send us an email to info@finaccord.com. Thereafter, each quarter, we will send you a link to the page of our website with fresh news and future editions of this document.
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AFFINITY INSURANCE
BANCASSURANCE
AFFINITY BANKING
Global Affinity
Finance Club
Finaccord’s newsletter about affinity financial services worldwide
Welcome back to your Club! The summer may have been full of sporting distractions in the shape of Euro 2012, Wimbledon and, of course, the London Olympics and Paralympics, but these do not seem to have held up a wide array of initiatives in the world of affinity and partnership marketing. As detailed in this new Summer 2012 edition of the Global Affinity Finance Club, significant new bancassurance joint ventures have been created by AXA, Cigna and Liberty Mutual in China, Turkey and India, respectively, while Genworth Financial has entered into an interesting partnership with MAPFRE in Latin America for the distribution of creditor and lifestyle protection products. In the payments arena, much attention has been focussed once again on the creation of partnerships designed to facilitate the develop-ment of mobile payments. Deals involving China UnionPay, Master-Card and Monitise are particularly prominent in this respect. Meanwhile, in the UK, two major retail brands have established new relationships for selling insurance. Specifically, John Lewis has se-lected Ageas and RSA as new non-life insurance partners while Tesco has begun working with Aviva as its provider of protection-related life insurance products. The UK Post Office, too, is also in the news having reconfigured its long-standing tie with Bank of Ire-land and initiated a new link with HSBC that aims to improve ac-count access for the bank’s customers. With best regards, Alan Leach
Director aleach@finaccord.com
For our published reports, news and more please visit
www.finaccord.com
2012 SUMMER
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Affinity Insurance News 4
ASSISTANCE 4
Aria Assistance partners with Pannone
for specialist legal assistance 4
Porsche to promote AXA's breakdown
recovery service for a further three years
4
MAPFRE's Chinese assistance unit se-
cures mandate with Fujian Benz Auto-
motive 4
COMMERCIAL INSURANCE 4
American Bar Association endorses
cyber liability insurance from Chubb 4
Moderna Försäkringar secures multi-
year commercial affinity deal 4
Zurich tees up new golf affinity scheme
with Circle Golf 4
LIFE INSURANCE 5
Aviva gains life insurance distribution
deal with Tesco's banking arm 5
BNP Paribas Cardif renews partnership
with Magazine Luisa up to 2015 5
Itaú Unibanco terminates insurance
marketing partnership with retail chain 5
LV= wins five-year tie with RAC for
protection-related life insurance 5
MDS and Towers Watson sign employ-
ee benefits joint venture agreement 5
Scottish Friendly links with BGL Group
for Beagle Street venture 6
MOTOR INSURANCE 6
AXA enriches offer to Spanish associa-
tion for motorcyclists 6
Daimler Financial Services and Zurich
disclose success of branded motor insur-
ance 6
PRODUCT INSURANCE / WAR-
RANTIES 6
Domestic & General renews contracts
with electronic appliance groups 6
MAPFRE Warranty creates partnership
with Mexican office equipment specialist
6
Assurant and GCube partner to protect
commercial solar energy projects 7
TRAVEL INSURANCE 7
ACE secures travel insurance deal with
RAC 7
Ageas wins John Lewis travel insurance
mandate 7
MAPFRE Assistance provides free trav-
el cover to African airline passengers 7
Solid Försäkringar rolls out agreement
with Nordic online travel group 7
GENERAL 8
Swiss insurers agree to sell each other's
products 8
Liberty Mutual's Indian joint venture
receives green light to start operating 8
John Lewis selects RSA for household,
pet and wedding cover 8
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Bancassurance 8
CREDITOR INSURANCE 8
Genworth Financial establishes Latin
American tie with MAPFRE 8
HOUSEHOLD INSURANCE 8
RSA renews household insurance deal
with UK's second-largest building socie-
ty 8
LIFE INSURANCE / RETIREMENT
SAVINGS 9
AXA and ICBC launch a joint venture
for life insurance in China 9
Cigna and Finansbank create life insur-
ance and pensions joint venture 9
Manulife launches insurance and wealth
management products through Indone-
sian bank 9
Manulife commences the sale of term
assurance for business clients through
Nomura Securities 10
Manulife and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
UFJ firm up partnership for fixed annui-
ties 10
GENERAL 10
BAWAG P.S.K. and Generali renew
bancassurance agreement up to 2023 10
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Affinity banking 10
AFFINITY BANK ACCOUNTS 10
BMO customers given opportunity to
generate AIR MILES from everyday
banking 10
AFFINITY CARDS 10
Société Générale launches new bank
card with French golfing federation 10
AUTOMOTIVE FINANCE 11
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Ally Financial strengthens ties with
Mitsubishi Motors in North America 11
CO-BRANDED CARDS 11
Chase unveils a new Marriott Rewards
card for Canadians… 11
…and adds a debit card to its US range
of co-branded Disney products 11
HDFC Bank launches co-branded cred-
it cards with Indian frequent flyer pro-
gram 11
Western Union and UnionBank intro-
duce prepaid Visa card in the Philip-
pines 12
CONSUMER FINANCE 12
BNP Paribas Personal Finance and
Sberbank finalise their consumer credit
joint venture 12
INTERNATIONAL REMITTANCES
12
China UnionPay and MoneyGram link
for emergency cash service 12
ICBC to use Western Union for inward
and outward account-based transfers 12
Western Union makes inroads into
Myanmar 13
INTER-BANK DISTRIBUTION 13
American Express and Uralsib Bank
forge Russian card-issuing agreement
13
Bank Internasional Indonesia and JCB
combine for platinum card launch 13
Discover network to bring PayPal pay-
ments to in-store locations across the
US 13
Scotiabank issues a new suite of Ameri-
can Express travel rewards cards… 13
…and signs expatriate referral agree-
ments with banks in both China and
India 14
UnionPay takes action to expand its
card business in Australia 14
MOBILE PAYMENTS 14
China UnionPay and China Mobile
agree to co-operate for mobile pay-
ments 14
MasterCard forges mobile payments
alliance with Everything Everywhere in
the UK... 14
... and with Deutsche Telekom in Ger-
many 15
MasterCard and Westpac launch new
pilot application for mobile payments
15
UK earmarked as first European launch
market for moneto 15
Mobile Money Network enables
smartphone users to buy direct from
UK media group 16
Monitise combines with Bank of China
for mobile payment programs in Hong
Kong... 16
... and links with The Co-operative
Bank for mobile payments and banking
in the UK 16
Targobank and BASE introduce con-
tactless mobile payments in Germany
16
Partners pioneer contactless payments
in the Czech Republic 17
Wirecard works with Deutsche Tele-
kom for German mobile payments
initiatives... 17
... and with myTaxi for processing taxi
fare payments via smartphone 17
ONLINE PAYMENTS 17
MasterCard links with eNett Interna-
tional for travel industry payments 17
RETAILER CARDS 17
Citi Retail Services rolls out new credit
card with fuel retail chain 18
GE Capital links with New Zealand
supermarket chain for credit card
launch... 18
... and renews multi-year credit card
program with Sam's Club 18
GENERAL 18
Bankinter extends relationship with
charity serving individuals with hearing
difficulties 18
Bank of Ireland and the UK Post Of-
fice extend partnership through to 2023
18
HSBC agrees account access deal with
the Post Office for UK customers 19
MasterCard links with shopkick loyalty
scheme specialist 19
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Affinity Insurance News
ASSISTANCE
Aria Assistance partners with Pannone for specialist legal assistance
Aria Assistance – which is the newly independent firm that emerged from the management buyout of Europ Assistance's UK and Ireland division – has selected law firm Pannone's Af-finity Solutions brand to provide legal assistance services to its customers. Aria Assistance mar-kets itself as a full-service assis-tance company and provides both insured and uninsured products, primarily in the areas of travel insurance and assis-tance, international private med-ical insurance, and roadside as-sistance.
Porsche to promote AXA's breakdown recovery service for a further three years
AXA Assistance has announced the renewal of its previous dis-tribution partnership with luxu-ry sports car manufacturer Por-sche for a further three years. The deal, which originally dates back to 2009, means that all purchasers of new or approved Porsche vehicles in 34 Europe-an and North African countries are given the option of acquiring AXA's roadside breakdown and recovery products.
MAPFRE's Chinese assis-tance unit secures mandate with Fujian Benz Automotive
In China, MAPFRE Asistencia, via its local Road China Assis-tance unit, has won a new con-tract with Fujian Benz Automo-tive for the provision of road-side assistance services. Road China Assistance is positioning itself as one of the most promi-nent providers of extended war-ranties and breakdown recovery insurance in China, and the deal with Fujian Benz Automotive, a joint venture of Daimler with the Fujian Motor Industry Group which currently produc-es around 40,000 vehicles each year, will strengthen its hand in this arena.
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COMMERCIAL INSURANCE
American Bar Association endorses cyber liability insur-ance from Chubb
In the US, the American Bar Endowment, a non-profit affili-ate of the American Bar Associ-ation (ABA), has named the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies as its preferred pro-vider of cyber liability insurance for ABA members. Chubb’s cyber liability policy for law firms covers losses which may not usually be covered by a pro-fessional liability policy, includ-ing cyber breach notification
costs. To minimise third-party coverage overlaps, a firm can designate its cyber or profes-sional liability policy as primary insurance and the other as ex-cess insurance. Law firms that select their cyber liability policy as excess coverage may be eligi-ble for a premium discount.
Moderna Försäkringar se-cures multi-year commercial affinity deal
In Sweden, Moderna Försäkrin-gar has entered into an agree-m e n t w i t h Glasbranschföreningen, a trade association for enterprises active in glass-related activities such as glazing, to offer commercial in-surance. The association has around 600 members in total.
Zurich tees up new golf affin-ity scheme with Circle Golf
In the UK, Zurich Insurance has announced that it has be-come the underwriter for the Par Excellence commercial af-finity scheme run by Circle Golf, a trading division of Glas-gow-based broker Circle Insur-ance Services, after signing a long-term deal with the golfing specialist. The scheme includes around 600 golf clubs across the UK and has been active for around 20 years.
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LIFE INSURANCE
Aviva gains life insurance dis-tribution deal with Tesco's banking arm
In the UK, Aviva has secured an exclusive five-year deal with Tesco Bank, the banking arm of the eponymous retail group, to provide protection-related life products for its UK retail cus-tomers. The agreement, which will begin later in 2012, will en-tail the marketing of Aviva’s core protection products, in-cluding life and critical illness cover plus specialised over 50s life insurance. These products will be available online via Tesco Bank or over the telephone. Customers will also be able to obtain information through some of Tesco’s 2,900 stores. This deal expands Tesco’s exist-ing relationship with Aviva as the insurer already provides a private medical insurance scheme for Tesco’s employees.
BNP Paribas Cardif renews partnership with Magazine Luiza up to 2015
In Brazil, BNP Paribas Cardif and Magazine Luiza, one of Brazil's largest retail chains, have agreed to continue their partner-ship up to 2015. BNP Paribas Cardif has held a distribution relationship with Magazine Lui-za since 2005 and under the terms of this new exclusive agreement, it will continue to
market its protection insurance products through the 730 stores operated by the chain through-out Brazil, and via its websites. Sales of extended warranties, which are not covered by this agreement, remain the responsi-bility of Luizaseg, a joint venture formed in 2005.
Itaú Unibanco terminates in-surance marketing partner-ship with retail chain
In Brazil, the insurance arm of Itaú Unibanco has announced the termination of its partner-ship with retail chain Lojas Americanas, first established in 2005, for the marketing and dis-t r i b u t i on t h r o u gh F A I (Financeira Americanas Itaú Crédito) of insurance and pen-sion products to the customers of the retail brand. Specifically, Lojas Americanas is expected to sell to Itaú Unibanco its equity stake in FAI for BRL 83 million and to acquire the operating rights held by FAI for the pro-motion of financial products. This termination has to be ap-proved by the regulatory author-ities after an appropriate transi-tional period.
LV= wins five-year tie with RAC for protection-related life insurance
In the UK, LV= has signed a five year partnership deal with RAC. Through LV=, RAC will offer its customers a telephone-
based advice service for protec-tion-related life insurance prod-ucts including income protec-tion, critical illness and life cov-er, and issues such as inher-itance tax planning. Customers will also be able to purchase term life and over 50s insurance products via the RAC website. The two firms aim to combine their marketing expertise to help increase awareness among RAC customers, advertising in mem-ber magazines as well as using both direct and online market-ing.
MDS and Towers Watson sign employee benefits joint venture agreement
In Portugal, international pro-fessional services company Towers Watson and Portuguese broker MDS have signed a joint venture agreement to establish a benefits brokerage consulting service which will combine Towers Watson’s consulting expertise in pensions, healthcare and risk management with MDS’s experience in employ-ment benefits. This joint ven-ture, effective from September 2012, aims to provide an effec-tive response to changes in the employee benefits market, with the introduction of new client services and additional expertise.
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Scottish Friendly links with BGL Group for Beagle Street venture
In the UK, BGL Group, a lead-ing broker of personal and com-mercial insurance, has estab-lished a partnership with Scot-tish Friendly Assurance for the creation of a new online life in-surance brand, Beagle Street. Specifically, Beagle Street aims to modernise the way in which consumers buy life insurance, making it cheaper, simpler and more accessible. Specifically, Beagle Street provides custom-ers with instant cover, as soon as they buy, and with no need for medicals. The majority of customers are expected to pur-chase entirely online, although a team of telephone advisors are on hand if customers prefer. The policies can be acquired both directly from the Beagle Street website and through vari-ous online comparison sites.
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MOTOR INSURANCE
AXA enriches offer to Span-ish association for motorcy-clists
In Spain, AXA has announced that it is offering free, automatic membership of Club14 to all customers taking out one of its motorcycle insurance policies. Club14 is a not-for-profit asso-ciation created in Spain in 2006
with the aim of offering benefits to motorcyclists; it has around 150,000 members and has up-dated its offering both with the launch of a new website (www.club14.es) and through increased use of social networks. Membership of Club14 gives access to a wide range of bene-fits such as driving courses, mo-tor magazine subscriptions and discounts on equipment, acces-sories and spare parts.
Daimler Financial Services and Zurich disclose success of branded motor insurance
Daimler Financial Services, the captive automotive finance company belonging to Daimler, has named Zurich as its 'insurer of the year' in the automotive segment for 2011. In fact, Zur-ich is one of around a dozen strategic partners used by Daim-ler in the insurance sector and across the 14 countries where the partnership is active, the val-ue of motoring-related insur-ance policies managed by Zur-ich and sold by Daimler rose by 58% to EUR 90 million in 2011. Moreover, for Daimler Financial Services, motoring-related insur-ance is considered to be a strate-gic growth sector with the more than 500,000 such policies sold during the first half of 2012 rep-resenting a record for the manu-facturer brand.
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PRODUCT INSURANCE / WARRANTIES
Domestic & General renews contracts with electronic ap-pliance groups
Electronic appliance groups Electrolux and Indesit have both signed new contract exten-sions with warranty specialist Domestic & General for the provision of warranty services across Ireland and the UK. Electrolux has worked with Do-mestic & General in this field since 1979 and under the new agreement Domestic & General will administer and manage Electrolux’s warranty schemes through to 2017, including those of the AEG and Zanussi brands, as well as that of Elec-trolux itself. Indesit, including its Cannon, Hotpoint and In-desit and brands, first joined with Domestic & General in 2000 and the new deal will ex-tend their contract through to 2018.
MAPFRE Warranty creates partnership with Mexican of-fice equipment specialist
In Mexico, MAPFRE Warranty has established a partnership with Lumen, a leading company in the country's office equip-ment market with a network of 49 outlets, for the provision of an extended warranty product for up to three years following expiration of manufacturer guar-
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antees. In addition to warranty cover, the proposition also in-cludes a telephone-based tech-nical assistance service.
Assurant and GCube partner to protect commercial solar energy projects
In the US, Assurant has entered into a distribution agreement with GCube Insurance Services, a specialist provider of insur-ance for the renewable energy industry, for the provision of comprehensive insurance and warranty management packages for commercial solar energy projects. Specifically, GCube will offer and market on a na-tionwide basis Assurant's solar project insurance policies for commercial-sized solar energy projects in the range of 100kW to 3 MW. The insurance bundle offers property and liability cov-erage as well as a warranty man-agement program, allowing de-velopers to address risks affect-ing financing for certain pro-jects.
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TRAVEL INSURANCE
ACE secures travel insurance deal with RAC
ACE Group has entered into a partnership with RAC in the UK, to offer travel insurance under the RAC brand. RAC cur-rently provides a range of motor
-related services and products to its 7 million private and corpo-rate members, including its core roadside assistance service. The travel insurance product will be sold through a dedicated online insurance channel as well as via its team of European break-down recovery specialists.
In fact, the new travel insurance product range has been de-signed to offer a choice of cover from a competitively-priced basic policy through to a com-prehensive executive policy. A bespoke driving product has also been launched for custom-ers driving to Europe on holiday with additional cover included as standard for satellite naviga-tion systems, safety and aware-ness kits (visibility vest, triangle and portable breathalyzer kit), carjacking, emergency overseas vet bills and golf equipment.
Ageas wins John Lewis travel insurance mandate
In the UK, Ageas has disclosed that it has secured a travel insur-ance partnership with retail group John Lewis. Ageas will underwrite the travel insurance product and handle the sales, administration and claims ser-vices. Working with John Lewis Insurance, the retail group's in-surance division, the product is designed to meet a wide range of travel requirements with both single-trip and annual policies available.
MAPFRE Assistance pro-vides free travel cover to Afri-can airline passengers
MAPFRE Assistance has en-tered into a partnership with ASKY, a Togo-based airline serving 19 destinations in cen-tral and western Africa, for the provision of automatic travel insurance for all of its passen-gers, which could reach around 500,000 by the end of 2012. By means of this agreement, MAP-FRE Assistance continues its expansion in sub-Saharan Africa where it has already secured a number of partners in the insur-ance and travel sector.
Solid Försäkringar rolls out agreement with Nordic online travel group
In Sweden, Solid Försäkringar has established a new distribu-t i o n a g r e e m e n t w i t h eTRAVELi, Scandinavia's lead-ing online travel agency group. The agreement specifies that eTRAVELi will offer Solid's travel insurance products to its customers in the Nordic coun-tries and over time across the whole of Europe. The two com-panies have co-operated in the past and intend to build on their prior experience with the new agreement.
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GENERAL
Swiss insurers agree to sell each other's products
In Switzerland, Concordia and Schweizerische Mobiliar have commenced a strategic distribu-tion partnership to cross-sell each other's insurance products. Specifically, Concordia is one of the largest accident and health insurance providers in Switzer-land, while Schweizerische Mo-biliar specialises in the provision of risk life and non-life insur-ance.
Liberty Mutual's Indian joint venture receives green light to start operating
In India, Liberty Mutual has dis-closed that Liberty Videocon General Insurance, a joint ven-ture created in December 2010 in partnership with Videocon Industries (a diversified con-glomerate), has received the necessary license from the coun-try's insurance regulatory au-thority to commence its opera-tions. Headquartered in Mum-bai, Liberty Videocon General Insurance will provide multi-line insurance underwriting capabili-ties nationally to various distri-bution channels, with an empha-sis on personal insurance prod-ucts.
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John Lewis selects RSA for household, pet and wedding cover
In the UK, RSA has disclosed that it has been selected by John Lewis, a retail group, for the provision of household, pet and wedding insurance to be sold through John Lewis Insurance, the group's insurance unit. RSA began underwriting pet and wedding cover from the end of July 2012 and will start under-writing household insurance from January 2013. The pet product will offer three different levels of cover and includes 24-hour help and advice from vet-erinary nurses working for vetfone plus complementary treatments, such as physiothera-py, acupuncture and behavioural treatments. There is also no up-per limit for vets’ fees, regard-less of the age of the pet. Mean-while, the wedding product, which can also cover other events, is characterised by six levels of cover, and includes cover for cancellation or rear-rangement, loss or damage, fail-ure of suppliers and wedding rings.
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Bancassurance
CREDITOR INSURANCE
Genworth Financial estab-lishes Latin American tie with MAPFRE
Genworth Financial has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement across 18 countries in Latin America with MAPFRE for the provision of creditor and lifestyle protection insurance products. MAPFRE is an attrac-tive partner for Genworth Fi-nancial given its status as the second-largest insurance group in the region with an extensive network of distribution partners, including banks. Meanwhile, MAPFRE anticipates benefiting from the specialist expertise of Genworth Financial in creditor and lifestyle protection insur-ance products, which include cover for risks such as tempo-rary incapacity and unemploy-ment.
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HOUSEHOLD INSURANCE
RSA renews household insur-ance deal with UK's second-largest building society
In the UK, RSA has announced the renewal of its partnership with the Yorkshire Building So-ciety for a further five years. Un-der the terms of the renewal, RSA will provide household in-
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surance to customers of the Barnsley, Chelsea, Norwich & Peterborough and Yorkshire building society networks, all of which are owned by the York-shire. Guided by the Yorkshire's marketing proposition, the new household insurance product offers a wide choice of cover levels to suit customers’ needs, ensuring that they only pay for what they require.
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LIFE INSURANCE / RE-TIREMENT SAVINGS
AXA and ICBC launch a joint venture for life insurance in China
In China, ICBC-AXA Life has been officially launched follow-ing approval from China’s State Council and all relevant regula-tory bodies. This is a life insur-ance joint venture between AXA, China Minmetals Corpo-ration (Minmetals) and Industri-al and Commercial Bank of Chi-na (ICBC), replacing AXA-Minmetals Assurance which had been established previously in 1999. Under an equity transfer agreement reached in 2010 be-tween AXA and Minmetals, ICBC bought 60% of AXA-Minmetals and became the ma-jority shareholder of the compa-ny; AXA, which will provide product development and risk management support, and Minmetals own respective resid-
ual shares of 27.5% and 12.5%.
ICBC-AXA Life operates in more than 20 major cities and provinces in China; its head-quarters are in Shanghai, with Beijing and Guangzhou also serving as hubs. It aims to ex-pand across China to provide insurance advice and services to meet the increasing needs of Chinese people, including prod-ucts related to education, family protection, wealth management and retirement. Moreover, ICBC-AXA Life has access to ICBC’s customer base of 282 million individual customers and 4.11 million corporate clients through its service network.
Cigna and Finansbank create life insurance and pensions joint venture
In Turkey, Cigna has unveiled a long-term distribution agree-ment with Finansbank, the country's fifth-largest privately-owned bank, for the sale of life insurance and pension products. Specifically, the deal involves the acquisition by Cigna for a consideration of EUR 85 mil-lion of a 51% stake in Finans Emeklilik, the sixth-largest life insurance and pensions provider in Turkey selling mainly through the bancassurance channel, thereby converting the company from a captive to a joint ven-ture. As part of the agreement, Finansbank will receive sales commissions and will also par-
ticipate in the results of the joint venture as a continuing share-holder in Finans Emeklilik. Cigna anticipates that the joint venture will provide it with op-portunities to reach and serve a rapidly-expanding middle class market in Turkey through the bank's network of branches. Moreover, by leveraging Cigna's direct distribution expertise, it is hoped that Finansbank will be able to provide consumers across Turkey with new ways to purchase life insurance and pen-sion products.
Manulife launches insurance and wealth management products through Indonesian bank
In Indonesia, Manulife and Bank Danamon have agreed to begin offering a range of Manu-life products to a broad base of the bank's customers through its network of 3,100 branches across Indonesia. The initiative aims to enhance insurance and wealth management offerings to a wider range of customers na-tionwide and follows the origi-nal creation of the partnership between the two companies in October 2011. The three new products being marketed offer different types of protection as well as a diverse range of invest-ment options, through 14 unit-linked funds, that can cater to the specific wealth accumulation needs of customers.
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Manulife commences the sale of term assurance for busi-ness clients through Nomura Securities
In Japan, Manulife has entered into a distribution agreement with Nomura Securities to sell different types of term assur-ance for business customers. Specifically, these are designed to help executives to prepare for the various business risks they face. They may be used as a fund for business contingencies, such as when an executive faces adverse circumstances, or as an executive retirement bonus, used when a director or other member of management retires.
Manulife and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ firm up part-nership for fixed annuities
In another deal in Japan, Manu-life has commenced sales of in-dividual fixed annuities denomi-nated in foreign currency (Australian or US dollars) through the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Specifically, the product enables customers to receive an annuity in the select-ed foreign currency over the course of their lifetime. Manu-life in Japan is a subsidiary of Manulife Financial, a leading Canada-based financial services group with operations in Asia, Canada and the US.
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GENERAL
BAWAG P.S.K. and Generali renew bancassurance agree-ment up to 2023
In Austria, banking group BAWAG P.S.K. and Generali have agreed to renew their exist-ing co-operation agreement through to 2023. This agree-ment entails the distribution of Generali's non-life insurance products through BAWAG P.S.K's branches with life insur-ance products provided by BAWAG P.S.K. Versicherung, a joint venture company in which Generali and BAWAG P.S.K. hold 74.9% and 25.1% of the share capital, respectively. The partnership between the two companies has existed since 2007 when BAWAG Versicher-ung and P.S.K. Versicherung merged to become BAWAG P.S.K. Versicherung.
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Affinity banking
AFFINITY BANK AC-COUNTS
BMO customers given oppor-tunity to generate AIR MILES from everyday bank-ing
In Canada, BMO Bank of Mon-treal has launched a co-branded bank account in conjunction with the AIR MILES rewards
program. This new product, known as the BMO AIR MILES Bank Plan, allows cus-tomers to earn miles through a variety of everyday transactions, including spending on the asso-ciated debit card (at an earnings rate of one mile for every CAD 30 of expenditure). Customers are also able to accumulate bo-nus miles each year for having maintained a minimum account balance, or for having held the related BMO Gold AIR MILES MasterCard credit card, for which the annual fee is CAD 99. At a time when more and more Canadians are opting to use debit cards rather than credit cards, the two partners state that this is one of only a small num-ber of schemes that allow con-sumers to generate additional benefits from non-interest bear-ing payment cards.
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AFFINITY CARDS
Société Générale launches new bank card with French golfing federation
The range of affinity bank cards run by Société Générale contin-ues to grow with an addition to its 'Sport' collection. Having supported the Fédération Fran-çaise de Golf for many years, it has now launched a bank card with a golfing image in associa-tion with it; this card is available as a standard or gold Master-
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Card and carries a range of ben-efits, such as earning points to-wards green fees for the Golf National. The card, which can operate as a debit card or as a deferred debit or credit card, carries an annual fee of EUR 24.
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AUTOMOTIVE FINANCE
Ally Financial strengthens ties with Mitsubishi Motors in North America
Mitsubishi Motors North Amer-ica has selected Ally Financial to be a preferred provider of leas-ing and financing for its new 100%-electric Mitsubishi i mod-el, and for other vehicles in the Mitsubishi range. Specifically, Ally Financial will work along-side the manufacturer brand's captive Mitsubishi Motors Cred-it of America. Ally Financial currently plays a significant role in dealer and consumer financ-ing within the Mitsubishi net-work, and the new agreement expands upon this by providing a broader range of products at approximately 400 Mitsubishi Motors dealerships in North America.
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CO-BRANDED CARDS
Chase unveils new Marriott Rewards card for Canadi-ans…
In Canada, Chase Card Services and Marriott Rewards – the loy-alty scheme belonging to the Marriott International group, which operates more than 3,500 hotels and other properties across 74 countries – have launched a co-branded credit card, namely the Marriott Re-wards Premier Visa card. The new card will allow Canadians to earn Marriott Reward points at an accelerated rate on all pur-chases and to accumulate free stays, in addition to receiving automatic Silver Elite status within the loyalty program. The normal annual fee is CAD 120, although this will be waived dur-ing the first year. Furthermore, new cardholders will receive a welcome bonus of 30,000 points, along with an annual free night stay. This new card, which notably does not levy a currency charge for foreign transactions, is the fourth co-branded card from this duo in North Ameri-ca, as Chase already issues three Marriott Rewards credit cards (all of them on the Visa net-work) in the US.
…and adds debit card to its US range of co-branded Dis-ney products
Meanwhile, in the US, Chase
and The Walt Disney Company have announced the latest addi-tion to their range of co-branded payment instruments, in the form of Disney's Visa debit card. The new card – for which customers can choose one of four character-based de-signs – attracts no annual fee and is available with virtually all of Chase's regular bank ac-counts. Cardholders will benefit from discounts on merchandise purchased at regular Disney stores, and on spending at retail and hospitality locations within the resorts themselves. Custom-ers will also be able to gain ac-cess to private character meet-and-greet sessions within the parks and resorts, including a free photograph to take away. This is the first debit card to be available in the group's line-up of co-branded products in the US, which already includes two credit cards.
HDFC Bank launches co-branded credit cards with In-dian frequent flyer program
In India, HDFC Bank, the country's second largest private sector bank, and JetPrivilege, India's largest frequent flyer program (operated by Jet Air-ways), have joined forces to launch a range of co-branded credit cards offering benefits and rewards in the form of JPMiles, the program's currency. The cards will be offered in World, platinum and titanium
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variants, all carrying the Master-Card logo.
Western Union and Union-Bank introduce prepaid Visa card in the Philippines
In the Philippines, Western Un-ion and UnionBank have launched a prepaid Visa gold card incorporating Western Un-ion money transfer functionali-ty. The card is the first of its kind in the Philippine market to allow cardholders to initiate Western Union transactions di-rectly onto the card via text message, through a customer service hotline, on the Western Union website or by visiting any participating Western Union agent location in the country. The card will also allow card-holders to split payouts, which will direct part of a remittance onto the card with the rest re-ceived in cash. The card will also offer many Filipinos a way of storing, saving, tracking and ac-cessing their funds in a country where only around 27% of adults have a traditional bank account. The Philippines is the first country in the Asia-Pacific region where Western Union has launched a prepaid card, extending the company’s stored-value products and services to nine countries worldwide, in-cluding Argentina, Austria, El Salvador, Germany, Panama, Peru, the US and the UK.
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CONSUMER FINANCE
BNP Paribas Personal Fi-nance and Sberbank finalise their consumer credit joint venture
In Russia, Sberbank and BNP Paribas Personal Finance have finalised their agreement for a consumer credit joint venture, as indicated in previous editions of the Global Affinity Finance Club. This agreement was sealed at the end of August, and the joint venture (called BNP Pari-bas Vostok) will be 70%-owned by Sberbank and 30%-owned by BNP Paribas Personal Finance. However, it will trade using the Cetelem brand with the aim of expanding consumer credit in Russia through a range of sim-ple products at reasonable inter-est rates. Cetelem believes that it currently holds 4.5% of the Rus-sian point-of-sale market, and has ambitions to become the market leader through new agreements with distributors that it intends to sign in the wake of this deal.
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INTERNATIONAL REMIT-TANCES
China UnionPay and MoneyGram link for emer-gency cash service
C h i n a U n i o n P a y a n d MoneyGram International have
agreed to expand emergency cash support for UnionPay cardholders travelling overseas. Under the terms of the agree-ment, all outlets of MoneyGram will provide emergency cash support to UnionPay cardhold-ers, making up to USD 5,000 available in the event of unfore-seen circumstances. In addition, the parties will co-operate to expand the range of UnionPay’s global fast remittance service, enabling remittances to be paid to UnionPay cardholders through MoneyGram outlets worldwide.
ICBC to use Western Union for inward and outward ac-count-based transfers
Western Union has signed an agreement with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) which will enable the bank's customers to send or re-ceive money from their online accounts to anywhere on West-ern Union’s network. Customers will be able to receive funds in either US dollars or Chinese renminbi. Indeed, Western Un-ion already provides account-based transfer services to several banks in China, including the Agricultural Bank of China, Chi-na Everbright Bank and the Postal Savings Bank of China. All of these banks allow their customers with on-line banking to direct international money transfers received via Western Union to their bank accounts,
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while China Everbright Bank also offers its customers out-ward remittance services.
Western Union makes in-roads into Myanmar
Western Union has also initiated a relationship with Myanmar Oriental Bank for the provision of international money transfer services. By means of this deal, Western Union becomes one of the first money transfer compa-nies to operate in Myanmar, paving the way for the develop-ment of formal international money transfer services shortly after Australia, the EU, the US and others decided to lift invest-ment and trade bans against the country. Myanmar Oriental Bank is among the first group of private banks in the country au-thorised to operate foreign cur-rency services.
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INTER-BANK DISTRIBU-TION
American Express and Uralsib Bank forge Russian card-issuing agreement
American Express and Uralsib Bank have revealed that Uralsib Bank will become an American Express card-issuing partner in Russia. The new credit cards will be designed to meet the require-ments of Uralsib Bank’s cus-tomers and to carry a range of
benefits traditionally associated with the American Express brand. Moreover, they will be issued in both Euro and US dol-lar versions as well as a local currency version.
Bank Internasional Indonesia and JCB combine for plati-num card launch
Japanese payment card company JCB International has an-nounced that Bank Internasion-al Indonesia (BII) has launched the first ever JCB platinum card in Indonesia in the shape of the BII-JCB Platinum Credit card. BII, a subsidiary of Maybank since 2008, operates over 360 branches and 1,190 ATMs in Indonesia, a market in which JCB has been active since 1983. Furthermore, approximately 80,000 merchants in Indonesia accept the JCB card for pay-ment. Cardholders will be enti-tled to membership privileges including a jointly-developed loyalty point program as well as all regular JCB benefits. The new card will be marketed to a range of affluent customers in Indonesia including both Indo-nesian citizens travelling to Ja-pan and Japanese consumers residing in Indonesia.
Discover network to bring PayPal payments to in-store locations across the US
PayPal has revealed that it will extend its offline strategy by
teaming up with Discover to bring PayPal to more than 7 million merchant locations across the US, with international expansion of the program a fu-ture possibility. Starting in 2013, participating merchants will be able to accept PayPal through their existing relationship with Discover; merchants will be able to use their existing point-of-sale hardware, including card readers and terminals, to pro-cess the payments.
Scotiabank issues a new suite of American Express travel rewards cards…
Three new credit cards aimed at regular travellers – namely the Scotiabank American Express card, along with its gold and platinum variants – are now available to Canadians, signify-ing a new distribution alliance between American Express and Scotiabank. Cardholders will be able to earn rewards points, at varying levels, that can then be exchanged for a range of travel benefits. For example, the gold card (which carries an annual fee of CAD 99) allows consumers to earn four reward points for every Canadian dollar spent on dining, entertainment, groceries and petrol. Rewards points do not expire and are not subject to seat restrictions or booking fees, meaning that the entire cost of a trip (including taxes) can be funded from points. It will also be possible to convert points
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into credits for Scotiabank in-vestment accounts or to use them to pay off credit card bal-ances. The new cards also fea-ture complimentary travel cover for medical emergencies and damage to rental cars.
…and signs expatriate refer-ral agreements with banks in both China and India
As part of its wider StartRight Program for Newcomers, Sco-tiabank has formed distribution alliances with two foreign retail banks, namely China's Bank of Xi'an (in which the Canadian firm is already a minority share-holder) and India's Kotak Mahindra Bank. Under these referral schemes, prospective emigrants, foreign workers and international students will be able to apply for and open a Scotiabank account before leav-ing China or India. Upon arrival in Canada, they then simply need to visit a local Scotiabank branch in order to activate their account. Bank of Xi'an operates around 115 branches across western China (where it employs 2,300 staff) and also owns two separate rural banks. Kotak Mahindra Bank, on the other hand, has around 375 branches spread across more than 200 locations in India.
China UnionPay takes action to expand its card business in Australia
In Australia, UnionPay has signed multi-party agreements with several Australian organisa-tions, including Cabcharge (an Australian taxi financial services company), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Mac-quarie University, National Aus-tralia Bank (NAB) and Tourism New South Wales. The agree-ments set forth the terms of co-operation regarding the ac-ceptance and promotion of Un-ionPay cards and services. Un-der the agreement with CBA, the bank's 190,000 merchants will accept UnionPay cards within two years. Moreover, Macquarie University will add UnionPay POS terminals and ATMs to the campus and will also introduce the UnionPay online payment system. Mean-while, UnionPay's agreements with CabCharge, NAB and Tourism New South Wales are all designed to promote the Un-ionPay brand to foreign visitors to Australia.
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MOBILE PAYMENTS
China UnionPay and China Mobile agree to co-operate for mobile payments
In its home market, China Un-ionPay has announced that it
has forged an agreement fo-cussed on mobile payments with China Mobile. Both parties will consequently co-operate in re-search and development of both technology and technical stand-ards for mobile payments, as well as jointly promoting the industry. The main area of initial co-operation will be the devel-opment of additional SIM card-based payment functions for mobile phones for remote trans-actions, such as bill payment and online shopping, as well as contactless transactions at shop-ping malls, convenience stores, vending machines and other places displaying UnionPay’s Quick Pass logo or China Mo-bile’s Mobile Phone Wallet logo. The parties plan to launch pilot projects in several cities in Chi-na.
MasterCard forges mobile payments alliance with Eve-rything Everywhere in the UK...
In the UK, MasterCard and Everything Everywhere, the country's largest telecoms com-pany, have announced an exclu-sive, five-year partnership to develop mobile and digital pay-ment solutions for Everything Everywhere’s 27 million cus-tomers in the UK. This new partnership aims to support the accelerated adoption of secure mobile payments by combining technology and financial assets to create new services that will
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make paying for goods and ser-vices easier for people and small businesses.
One of the first products to launch through the partnership will be a co-branded prepaid solution for mobile devices that allows customers to make pay-ments using NFC technology. This will enable millions of Eve-rything Everywhere customers to make contactless payments at more than 100,000 merchants in the UK.
Over the course of the partner-ship, MasterCard and Every-thing Everywhere intend to ex-pand its scope into other areas, including person-to-person money transfers, loyalty rewards and digital payment services that will enable consumers to have the same shopping experience whether paying in-store, online or using their mobile device. In addition, the two companies will develop services that allow small business customers to accept payments using mobile devices, with more details scheduled for release later in 2012.
... and with Deutsche Tele-kom in Germany
Furthermore, with an initial fo-cus on Germany and Poland, MasterCard has put in place a partnership with Deutsche Tele-kom for the development of mobile payments. Specifically, the agreement aims to make
mobile payments a reality for Deutsche Telekom’s 93 million mobile customers across Eu-rope. The first consumer roll-out will take place in Poland lat-er in 2012. Also during 2012, it is anticipated that German con-sumers will be introduced to mobile payments, initially in a trial with mobile phone tags and cards, continuing into the first half of 2013 with a mobile wal-let service which will also be open to other issuing banks and partners. Deutsche Telekom will issue the MasterCard products via its subsidiary company ClickandBuy, the owner of an e-money licence. Products will also be launched over time in other European markets in which Deutsche Telekom is ac-tive.
MasterCard and Westpac launch new pilot application for mobile payments
In Australia, MasterCard and Westpac have announced a new pilot contactless mobile pay-ment application for Android smartphones. The pilot will see android handsets equipped with special secure NFC-enabled SIM cards, meaning that no fur-ther hardware or accessories are required. Linked to the user's virtual MasterCard debit card, the phone will be able to pay for goods on an in-store basis at merchants accepting Master-Card PayPass payments.
UK earmarked as first Euro-pean launch market for moneto
In partnership with MasterCard, DeviceFidelity and Vincento Payment Solutions have an-nounced the commercial launch of the European version of moneto, the direct-to-consumer NFC prepaid mobile wallet app for the iPhone, specifying that the UK will be the first launch market in Europe, following on from launch in the US earlier in 2012. The moneto prepaid mo-bile wallet uses a combination of MasterCard's PayPass technolo-gy and DeviceFide l i ty ’ s iCaisse4X case to eventually en-able contactless payments on the iPhone at nearly 500,000 merchant locations in 41 coun-tries. Powered by the technology behind Kalixa, Vincento’s flag-ship prepaid MasterCard card, moneto is configured as a com-prehensive mobile commerce solution that provides the con-venience, control and flexibility of mobile prepaid payments in a secure and mobile environment.
The partners believe that the moneto mobile wallet service differs from other mobile NFC programs as it will be available to most smartphone users irre-spective of wireless carrier. Lat-er in 2012, iPhone consumers will be able to order the service d i r e c t l y f r o m t h e www.moneto.com website and users will be able to link their
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bank account or credit card to fund moneto prepaid accounts. Subsequently, the service will also be available to Android consumers in the UK and then to additional European coun-tries.
Mobile Money Network ena-bles smartphone users to buy direct from UK media group
In the UK, media group Associ-ated Newspapers has signed a strategic deal with Mobile Mon-ey Network (MMN), adding the firm's instant mobile checkout technology to its web and print titles. Initially, the partnership will focus on the launch of a mobile checkout app powered by MMN's proprietary technolo-gy, enabling users to make pur-chases directly from the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, select-ed shopping supplements, the Mail Shop online and from w i th in the app i t s e l f . Smartphone users will be able initially to identify and buy fea-tured products using a unique product code, with further func-tionalities, including image recognition, set to follow.
Later phases of the agreement will focus on driving sales con-version from advertiser cam-paigns featured across the port-folio or from the Mail Shop's own product range whether this appears in print, online or em-bedded within the app. MMN is a joint venture between Best
Buy Europe, Monitise, Visa Eu-rope and telecoms entrepreneur Charles Dunstone.
Monitise combines with Bank of China for mobile payment programs in Hong Kong...
In Hong Kong, Bank of China and Monitise have formed a partnership to explore new ways for people to make payments using their mobile phones. The companies will jointly develop and launch mobile payment pro-grams through the bank's ser-vice channels in Hong Kong, where it has built a network of over 260 branches and 580 ATMs. The services will employ Monitise’s enterprise technology platform, used to process over 1 billion transactions annually. Moreover, the schemes will build on the prior relationship of Monitise with ATM and pay-ment card company JETCO, which has a payment system supported by Bank of China in Hong Kong.
... and links with The Co-operative Bank for mobile payments and banking in the UK
Meanwhile, Monitise has stated that it will offer mobile payment and banking services to custom-ers of The Co-operative Bank as part of a three-year deal. Cus-tomers will have several options, including smartphone apps and
SMS-based alerts, through which they can check balances, generate mini-statements, find ATMs and receive balance up-dates and alerts. The service is available to all customers of The Co-operative Bank registered for online banking as well as all accountholders of smile, the bank's dedicated online bank.
Targobank and BASE intro-duce contactless mobile pay-ments in Germany
Targobank, Crédit Mutuel’s consumer banking brand in Germany, and BASE, a tele-coms brand operated by E-Plus Gruppe, have launched a part-nership for a contactless mobile payments system which they say is the first of its kind in Germa-ny. Customers can obtain a MasterCard payment chip at all BASE stores and Targobank branches plus the two organisa-tions' respective websites. Once the chip is attached to a mobile phone, customers can make payments at all terminals which are equipped with NFC technol-ogy. This new offer is available alongside a MasterCard credit card issued by Targobank for a fee of EUR 25 per year. Several German merchants, including AppelrathCüpper, Christ, Doug-las, Hussel and Thalia Buch-handlungen have already started to operate NFC terminals while others, such as ARAL, EDEKA, familia, McDonald‘s, tegut and Tengelmann, are cur-
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rently planning to make this form of payment system availa-ble. The two partners also an-nounced that they are working on further products in the area of mobile payments and that they intend to launch a mobile wallet in the future.
Partners pioneer contactless payments in the Czech Re-public
In the Czech Republic, Komerční banka, Samsung, Te-lefónica and Visa Europe have launched what they consider to be a breakthrough technology in payments. As of the final week of August 2012, the 2,000 fast-est-reacting owners of a Sam-sung Galaxy SIII handset could simply swap their existing SIM card with a special payment SIM card. These SIM cards were available for free at 19 special-ised O2 Guru stores across the Czech Republic, with a pre-charged credit of CZK 250 pro-vided by Komerční banka, ena-bling users to pay for goods and services with their mobile phones. This launch built upon the success of a pilot project carried out in 2011 which indi-cated that the market was ready for payments innovation.
Wi recard works wi th Deutsche Telekom for Ger-man mobile payments initia-tives...
In Germany, technology and financial services provider Wire-card has been selected by Deutsche Telekom as a strategic partner for its mobile payment program. Wirecard will imple-ment the technical processes for issuing a new co-branded Mas-terCard payment card, expected later in 2012, and will support Deutsche Telekom in both pro-cessing payments and assisting with the preparation for the launch of its mobile wallet, scheduled for 2013.
... and with myTaxi for pro-cessing taxi fare payments via smartphone
In another deal involving Wire-card, it has disclosed that smartphone app myTaxi now allows consumers to order and pay for taxis through the same application, with technical sup-port from Wirecard. The pay-ment service, launched in Ger-many in July 2012, is being in-troduced in stages international-ly throughout 2012 in several European cities. The myTaxi application allows customers to locate nearby cabs and order one to their location; the new payment feature allows the cus-tomer to pay the taxi fare at the end of the journey, using a cred-it card securely linked to the ap-
plication. The customer then only needs to enter a PIN to confirm the payment.
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ONLINE PAYMENTS
MasterCard links with eNett International for travel indus-try payments
MasterCard and eNett Interna-tional, a provider of specialist payment solutions for the travel industry that is part-owned by Travelport, have signed an agreement which provides inno-vative payment and reconcilia-tion solutions for the travel in-dustry through the use of Virtu-al Account Numbers (VANs). The partnership aims to facili-tate high volumes of global pay-ments over a five-year period and sets MasterCard up as the exclusive payment partner for all eNett VANs generated in Eu-rope. The two organisations be-lieve that at a time when there is pressure in the travel sector to cut costs and increase revenue, solutions like eNett VANs not only enable agents to focus on revenue generation rather than administration but also reduce risk and help businesses to get more out of the valuable data that is in their possession.
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RETAILER CARDS
Citi Retail Services rolls out new credit card with fuel re-tail chain
In the US, Citi Retail Services, a division of Citigroup, and CIT-GO, a fuel company, have launched a new private-label consumer credit card that allows CITGO's customers to earn at a rate of 0.05 US dollars per gal-lon for fuel purchases at all of its outlets. Launched at the be-ginning of September, the two partners believe that the pro-gram is one of the most robust rewards offerings in the indus-try. In particular, the new card offers customers a long-term savings opportunity with no minimum or maximum purchas-es required. However, rewards are only available in conjunction with fuel purchases.
GE Capital links with New Zealand supermarket chain for credit card launch...
In New Zealand, following a tender process, GE Capital has launched a new Visa credit card in association with Countdown, a supermarket brand belonging to the Woolworths group, with the latter perceiving this to be a logical entry point for the super-market to enter the financial services sector. Each year, more than 80 million payment card transactions are processed through the network of 161
Countdown stores. The new launch follows the introduction of a gift card in 2011 and the development by Woolworths of a successful financial services business in Australia.
... and renews multi-year credit card program with Sam's Club
In the US, GE Capital Retail Bank, a consumer lending unit of GE, and Sam’s Club, a divi-sion of Wal-Mart Stores, and a leading membership warehouse club, have announced the re-newal of their multi-year agree-ment to continue providing a credit card program to club's members. Specifically, GE Capi-tal’s retail finance business, an operating entity that provides financial solutions to retailers to help grow their customer sales, will continue to manage the Sam’s Club relationship and to service the account. The financ-ing program is available at more than 600 Sam’s Club locations across the US and Puerto Rico and can also be used at Wal-Mart stores, as well as for online purchases through the Sam's Club website and at all outlets where the Discover card brand is accepted. GE Capital Retail Bank began providing a net term credit program for mem-bers of Sam’s Club in 1993 with revolving credit programs added in 1995.
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GENERAL
Bankinter extends relation-ship with charity serving indi-viduals with hearing difficul-ties
In Spain, Bankinter has estab-lished a co-operation agreement with the Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas (CNSE) that aims to facilitate access to bank-ing services to individuals with acute hearing difficulties. This relationship will include the pro-vision of training services for bank employees so that they are better able to serve the needs of such individuals. This follows on from similar partnerships struck up with other charitable organisations including a previ-ous initiative with the CNSE which led to both the inclusion of videos incorporating sign lan-guage on the bank's website and the development of a video-calling facility.
Bank of Ireland and the UK Post Office extend partner-ship through to 2023
Bank of Ireland and the UK Post Office have revealed that they have agreed a new contract and operating model for the joint venture financial services business that will see their rela-tionship continue through to 2023. Post Office Financial Ser-vices (POFS), the joint venture entity, has secured over 2.8 mil-lion customers in total since its
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launch with deposit balances of more than GBP 17 billion, a loan book of around GBP 3 bil-lion and with a range of insur-ance products also offered.
In future, the two companies intend to carry on developing a recognised consumer financial services brand in the UK that represents a serious alternative to the major UK banks albeit with banking products now sup-plied directly by Bank of Ireland to the Post Office. Bank of Ire-land will continue to be respon-sible for product development and delivery while the Post Of-fice will continue to have prima-ry responsibility for product sales and marketing and ensur-ing that all customer interactions meet its brand values.
HSBC agrees account access deal with the Post Office for UK customers
In a second development in-volving the UK Post Office, a new agreement with HSBC means that from spring 2013, HSBC and First Direct personal current account customers will be able to access their bank ac-counts and carry out a range of transactions at all 11,500 Post Office branches around the UK. Services to be made available under this new partnership will include cash deposits and with-drawals, cheque deposits and balance enquiries. HSBC cur-rently operates 1,200 branches
and 3,600 ATMs, and so the new distribution deal will signifi-cantly expand the number of locations at which HSBC and First Direct customers can gain access to their money and inter-act with their current accounts.
MasterCard links with shopkick loyalty scheme spe-cialist
In the US, MasterCard has re-vealed that it is joining forces with shopkick, a loyalty scheme accessible via a smartphone app that was introduced in August 2010. Specifically, MasterCard cardholders are now able to earn rewards and special offers from shopkick when making qualify-ing purchases with a MasterCard card linked to the company's Buy & Collect program at par-ticipating retailers across the country. The proprietary reward currency, known as 'kicks', can be redeemed for gift cards, mu-sic downloads, movie tickets or other offers. Furthermore, in addition to everyday opportuni-ties to earn 'kicks', consumers will receive 250 bonus 'kicks' for each MasterCard card that they link to the Buy & Collect pro-gram for a limited period of time. It is anticipated that the relationship will help merchants to increase sales and better measure the effectiveness of their location-based marketing efforts.
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ACE Group, 7 AEG, 6 Ageas, 7, Agricultural Bank of China, 12 AIR MILES, 10 Ally Financial, 11 American Bar Association, 4 American Express, 13 AppelrathCüpper, 16 ARAL, 16 Aria Assistance, 4, ASKY, 7 Associated Newspapers, 16 Assurant, 7 Aviva, 5 AXA, 4, 6, 9 AXA Assistance, 4 Bank Danamon, 9 Bank Internasional Indonesia, 13 Bank of China, 16 Bank of Ireland, 18, 19 Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, 10 Bank of Xi'an, 14 Bankinter, 18 BASE, 16 BAWAG P.S.K., 10 Best Buy Europe, 16 BGL Group, 6 BMO Bank of Montreal, 10 BNP Paribas Cardif, 5 BNP Paribas Personal Finance, 12 Cabcharge, 14 Cetelem, 12 Chase, 11, 21 China Everbright Bank, 12 China Minmetals Corporation, 9 China Mobile, 14 China UnionPay, 12, 14 Christ, 16 Chubb, 4 Cigna, 9 Circle Insurance Services, 4 CITGO, 18 Citi Retail Services, 18 Citigroup, 18 Club14, 6 Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 14 Concordia, 8 Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas, 18 Countdown, 18 Crédit Mutuel, 16 Daimler, 4, 6 Deutsche Telekom, 15, 17 DeviceFidelity, 15 Discover, 13, 18 Domestic & General, 6 Douglas, 16 EDEKA, 16
Electrolux, 6 eNett International, 17 E-Plus Gruppe, 16 eTRAVELi, 7 Everything Everywhere, 14, 15 familia, 16 Fédération Française de Golf, 10 Finansbank, 9 First Direct, 19 Fujian Benz Automotive, 4 Fujian Motor Industry Group, 4 GCube, 7 GE Capital, 18 Generali, 10 Genworth Financial, 8 Glasbranschföreningen, 4 HDFC Bank, 11 HSBC, 19 Hussel, 16 ICBC, 9, 12 Indesit, 6 Itaú Unibanco, 5 JCB International, 13 Jet Airways, 11 JetPrivilege, 11 John Lewis, 7, 8 Komerční banka, 17 Kotak Mahindra Bank, 14 Liberty Mutual, 8 Lojas Americanas, 5 Lumen, 6 LV=, 5 Macquarie University, 14 Magazine Luiza, 5 Manulife, 9, 10 MAPFRE Asistencia, 4 MAPFRE Warranty, 6 Marriott International, 11 MasterCard, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 McDonalds, 16 MDS, 5 Mitsubishi Motors, 11 Mobile Money Network, 16 Moderna Försäkringar, 4 MoneyGram, 12 Monitise, 16 Myanmar Oriental Bank, 13 myTaxi, 17 National Australia Bank, 14 Nomura Securities, 10 Pannone, 4 PayPal, 13 Porsche, 4 Postal Savings Bank of China, 12 RAC, 5, 7 RSA, 8 Sam’s Club, 18 Samsung, 17
Sberbank, 12 Schweizerische Mobiliar, 8 Scotiabank, 13, 14 Scottish Friendly, 6 shopkick, 19 Société Générale, 10 Solid Försäkringar, 7 Targobank, 16 tegut, 16 Telefónica, 17 Tengelmann, 16 Tesco Bank, 5 Thalia Buchhandlungen, 16 The Co-operative Bank, 16 The Walt Disney Company, 11 Tourism New South Wales, 14 Towers Watson, 5 UK Post Office, 18, 19 UnionBank, 12 Uralsib Bank, 13 Videocon Industries, 8 Vincento Payment Solutions, 15 Visa, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18 Wal-Mart Stores, 18 Western Union, 12, 13 Westpac, 15 Wirecard, 17 Yorkshire Building Society, 8 Zanussi, 6 Zurich, 4, 6
Organisations in this issue
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About GAFC
The Global Affinity Finance Club is
Finaccord’s quarterly newsletter about
affinity financial services worldwide.
Through this, Finaccord publishes top
line information about key strategic
developments in affinity and partner-
ship marketing of financial services
around the world, segmented between
affinity insurance news, bancassurance
news and affinity banking news.
This service differs from that provided
by other research companies because
its focus is genuinely global, often
translating news that only appears in
languages other than English. In addi-
tion, it concentrates exclusively on
affinity and partnership marketing
strategy.
Affinity and partnership marketing
strategy is an important component of
general distribution strategy for a ma-
jority of large banks and insurance
companies serving consumers and
small businesses as successful partner-
ships potentially allow them to access
groups of customers that they cannot
always reach by themselves.
If you would like to join Finaccord’s
Global Affinity Finance Club, contact
us by telephone or send us an email to
info@finaccord.com. Thereafter, each
quarter, we will send you a link to the
page of our website with fresh news
and future editions of this document.
About Finaccord
Finaccord is a leading market research, publishing and consulting company specializing in financial services. We provide our clients with insight with a particular focus on marketing and distribution strategies, including affini-ty and partnership marketing.
Our areas of expertise include: affinity and partnership marketing; automotive financial services; bancassurance; com-mercial non-life insurance brokers; consumer intelligence; creditor insur-ance; distribution channels; extended warranties; insurance and assistance linked to payment cards and bank accounts; mobile gadget and telephone insurance; retailer financial services; small business financial services; and travel insurance and assistance.
Our international network of consult-ants is able to deliver information quickly and accurately across a range of countries worldwide, basing re-search projects on robust data and knowledge rather than supposition and theory.
© Finaccord Ltd., 2012 Registered in London No. 4542931 The Office Farringdon 24 Greville Street London, EC1N 8SS
Phone: +44 20 3178 2556 Fax: +44 20 7198 7902 Email: info@finaccord.com www.finaccord.com
Does your organisation have
news about its affinity or part-
nership marketing relationships
that we missed in this newslet-
ter? To produce it, we systemat-
ically research close to 300 ma-
jor financial services institu-
tions from around the world
each quarter. However, if you
would also like us to include
your company in this research,
please send an e-mail to analy-
sis@finaccord.com and we will
ensure that it is tracked in fu-
ture quarters.
To access the archive of news
from the Global Affinity Fi-
nance Club please visit
www.finaccord.com/afi
Finaccord’s latest published reports include:
Travel Insurance and Assistance in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe GBP 2,495
Travel Insurance and Assistance in Southern and Western Europe GBP 2,495
Commercial Non-Life Insurance Brokers in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe GBP 2,495
Commercial Non-Life Insurance Brokers in Southern and Western Europe GBP 2,495
Global Mobile Operators: Strategies in Insurance and Assistance GBP 1,995
Global Mobile Operators: Strategies in Payments and Banking GBP 1,995
Global Mobile Operators: Strategies in Payments, Banking, Insurance and Assistance GBP 2,995
Insurance and Assistance linked to Payment Cards and Bank Accounts in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe GBP 2,495
Insurance and Assistance linked to Payment Cards and Bank Accounts in Southern and Western Europe GBP 2,495
Payment Metrics: Consumer Attitudes towards and Usage of Traditional and Emerging Means of Payment in the UK GBP 1,995
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