MasterCard will be the exclusive payment network for a new line of KeyBank credit cards to be released later this year. The suite of credit products will include cards for consumers, small businesses and big corporations.
KeyBank has partnered with MasterCard for its debit cards for more than fifteen years. The expanded MasterCard partnership will strengthen KeyBank’s Relationship Rewards program, which lets cardmembers earn points redeemable for travel, gift cards, merchandise, charity donations and other rewards.
Points are earned for everyday transactions like purchases and transfers. The program is currently offered for debit cardholders, but as KeyBank debuts their credit card offerings over the next months it will be available to credit customers as well.
Expanding rewards program
KeyBank plans to expand offerings to be more competitive. If successful, their Relationship Rewards program will offer competition to programs like Citi’s ThankYou network and the Discover Cash Back Bonus program.
Credit card reward programs typically reward customers for purchases only, while debit card rewards such as the ones KeyBank has offered through Relationship Rewards gave points for things like opening savings accounts, writing checks, making deposits and transferring money between accounts.
Chris McWilton, president of U.S. Markets at MasterCard, says that the company plans to partner strategically with KeyBank to support them “through every stage of this process from diversifying new offerings to rewarding customers.”
KeyCorp is the parent company of KeyBank and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Their assets are currently valued at about $87 billion. The bank renewed its credit card focus earlier this year with the purchase of a $725 million credit card portfolio.
