The platform, which will be unique in the Russian market, is set to reward RSB's 23 million cardholders every time they use their card across a range of acquiring partners. RSB's partners will be able to build their own targeted and cost-effective promotions, offering cardholders discounts or the opportunity to earn points and coupons in real-time at the point of sale. The scheme is designed to help partners retain and attract new customers, and is expected to deliver a speedy return on investment through increased sales.

RSB will be using Welcome Real-time's proven Welcome XLS software to run and manage the campaigns and track rewards for all cardholders across all retailers participating in the scheme. Welcome XLS offers real-time integration with any point of sale device used by participating retailers, regardless of the payment application or infrastructure being used. This will allow RSB cardholders to see their updated points balance at the point of sale, alongside any promotions from the retailer such as discounts or coupons, which they can potentially redeem immediately or save for relevant future transactions.

In the future, RSB also plans to extend the loyalty scheme across other areas of the bank so that customers are rewarded not only for using their bank cards, but also each time they interact with the bank, for example to use different bank products including loans, deposits and other services. In this way Welcome XLS allows organisations to recognise and reward customers based on their entire relationship with the bank and to drive enterprise-loyalty.

"With the launch of RSB+ platform, trade organisations are getting a unique and innovative solution for their loyalty programmes, developed by a leader in the Russian acquiring market, together with a company of global experience. This new platform is prepared for processing cards from eight of the biggest payment card associations allowing our acquiring partners to manage their client base more effectively and delivering them and the bank cardholders more advantages of the new added benefits," said Ivan Glazachev, Director of Acquiring Department, Russian Standard Bank.

Philippe David, CEO, Welcome Real-time said, "Welcome XLS allows organisations to understand their customers and build long term loyalty by identifying in real-time who they are and how they use their products and services and rewarding them accordingly. We are working with RSB to help them deliver a unique loyalty offering in coalition with their retail partners, and also to reward customers for using a wide range of products and services across the bank. This ability to reward customers and manage loyalty programmes in real-time will add real value to RSB in the competitive Russian market."