The Deutsche Bank has landed a big fish and will be the Lufthansa Issue Miles & More Credit Card. According to a report by “Financial Times”
Germany’s largest bank won a global tender for this cooperation. Miles & More is thus ending its long-standing collaboration with Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB).
The bank is trying to expand its payment business in this way. Because the credit card with a bonus function for the Lufthansa Group’s frequent flyer program is considered lucrative and one of the best-known in this area. Ole Matthiessen, head of cash management at Deutsche Bank, told the newspaper that the deal, which also includes Mastercard as the technology and network provider, will increase the number of credit cards issued by the bank by a quarter. The annual volume of credit card transactions could more than double, according to expectations.
Frequent flyers are considered wealthy and use their credit cards often
Miles & More customers are generally considered to be wealthy frequent flyers. 20 percent of them are said to be German customers, and they use their credit cards much more often than other customers. They spend “five times more than the average German credit card user,” said Johann-Philipp Bruns, managing director of Miles & More, the newspaper.
“The Miles & More credit card will become an important part of the product range of our private customer business,” Matthiessen said “Handelsblatt”
. With co-branding, banks issue a credit card together with a partner company under their brand. The card bears the name of the partner – in this specific case Miles & More.
Matthiessen did not make any forecasts about possible additional income. According to “FT”, industry experts estimate that Deutsche Bank could achieve additional annual sales of around 100 million euros with the transaction. Miles & More charges an annual fee of up to 138 euros from credit card users. In return, the customer collects one mile for every two euros that he spends with the card – and the card-issuing bank receives a part of every euro. Miles & More users can exchange their miles for Lufthansa flights or for products ranging from wine to designer furniture.
The DKB explained to the “FT” that it had “unfortunately” lost the bidding process for the Miles & More contract, but that the co-branding credit cards would remain an important source of income. The DKB, which also co-branded credit cards for Porsche and Hilton offers, puts the total annual turnover at 13 billion euros. It is not known how much Miles & More contributed to this in the past.
The credit card company Mastercard, second most popular brand after Visa, announced the end of his Maestro function a few months ago. This allows you to withdraw money and make cashless payments with the Girocard abroad. Officially, the company says that banks in Europe have stopped issuing new cards with Maestro since July 1st. Industry experts suspect, however, that the US company has agreed an individual extension for the card change with individual houses. This means: longer conversion periods for individuals. The Maestro card, which is popular in Europe, could still be valid beyond 2027.