Ascenda’s APIs to help Virgin Money Australia deliver loyalty programme

By Edil Corneille

Virgin Money Australia (part of the Bank of Queensland Group) selects global loyalty solutions company Ascenda to deliver reward capabilities within its newly announced digital bank. In March, it was announced that the Temenos SaaS was selected by Virgin Money Australia’s for the new digital bank. Ascenda’s technology will support the launch of the new loyalty programme for customers.

Virgin Money Australia will look to reward customers for positive behaviours beyond transactional spend or upfront bonuses that traditional programmes focus on.

Greg Boyle, Virgin Money Australia CEO explicated, “Australians are well aware of the value they deliver to the banks, but they don’t believe this is reflected in the service they receive. Instead they feel unrecognised and undervalued. We’re going to change that. We want our customers to feel recognised and rewarded every day they’re with us. Recognising loyalty should go beyond typical upfront bonuses or transactional rewards. We want to share value with our customers, whether it’s as they grow their relationship with us, to help them celebrate achieving their own financial goals, or to thank them for choosing us.”

“Ascenda’s cloud-based API and white label capability is key to helping us achieve this. It will allow us to offer our customers red-hot and relevant rewards across a broad range of day-to-day banking activities, behaviours and events.”

The programme has been designed by keeping in mind Virgin Money Australia customers at the heart of the experience. Points can be earned through it and personalised offers will be able to be unlocked from anywhere in the world.

Sebastian Grobys, Ascenda’s Chief Commercial Officer enthused, “We’re delighted to partner with Virgin Money Australia to help them bring to market a new and exciting loyalty proposition. With Ascenda’s next-generation platform, Virgin Money Australia will benefit from speed-to-market, the flexibility to continuously innovate going forward, and operational efficiencies.”

The rewards will be based on a wide range of everyday behaviours such as the achievement of customers’ savings goals, staying within the spending target, shopping online or on purchases made in-store. Ascenda has commenced the implementation and has mentioned that it is progressively deploying its technology across the project.