June 2019 Summaries

Fidel is a company with a strong sense of identity, focusing on privacy, security, and customer-centric innovation as it aims to democratize access to financial data globally. In response to rapid growth and the need for clarity in its mission, Fidel established five core values—humility, honesty, adaptability, encouragement, and leadership—during a team offsite in Sitges, which involved collaborative exercises to reach consensus among diverse team members. These values are designed to inform every aspect of the company’s operations, from product development to customer interactions, ensuring they not only guide internal behavior but also enhance the value delivered to customers. By embedding these principles into their daily work, Fidel aspires to create products that align with customer needs and drive meaningful value.

Fidel has launched its services in the United States, expanding its mission to make transactional data accessible while ensuring privacy and security, with initial partnerships with Visa and Mastercard and plans to include American Express in the fall. Despite a high failure rate of 77% for loyalty programs within two years, customer loyalty remains robust, with 73% of millennials viewing such programs as beneficial for earning rewards. Additionally, Fidel has released Web SDK 2.0, which allows payment cards to be linked to loyalty programs, offering new customizable options and promising further enhancements in the future.

Card-linking is a transformative tool for enhancing customer experience by leveraging the widespread use of payment cards to access valuable transaction data. As the number of payment cards in circulation continues to grow, businesses can use card-linking to gain insights into customer behavior, enabling them to deliver personalized and innovative experiences. The approach allows companies to access granular transaction data, such as amounts, merchant names, and locations, in real-time, surpassing the limitations of traditional bank account data. This real-time visibility supports personalizing customer interactions, as seen with Goloyal's loyalty programs and RentRewards' cashback solutions, without adding friction to the customer experience. Additionally, card-linking offers a secure method of data handling by focusing on necessary transaction details and minimizing exposure to sensitive information, thus maintaining customer trust. As regulations like PSD2 promote open banking, card-linking positions businesses to compete effectively by offering enhanced, secure, and personalized experiences to a global customer base.