At the Sparkassen-internal event “Scope22”, Stefan Roesler, member of the management board of Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag (DSV), announced that the Sparkasse is planning a cooperation with the Payback bonus program.

The planned cooperation would unite two companies with market power: Around 50 million savings bank giro cards are in circulation in Germany. There would also be around 31 million active Payback customers. The intersection of both customer groups is likely to be in the low double-digit million range, reports the financial scene. The cooperation was officially confirmed neither by Payback, which is a subsidiary of American Express, nor by the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.

In just 5 minutes to sustainable banking

The planned cooperation would offer benefits to Sparkasse girocard customers who use the Payback system. In the future, they could collect their Payback points automatically with their Girocard or their wallet system, an additional Payback card would no longer be necessary. However, it is still unclear how Payback points can then be collected for cash payments.

However, Payback’s thirst for data is problematic. Because the evaluation of consumer behavior at almost 700 partners in retail is the core of the business model. This doesn’t quite fit together with the traditionally rather important issue of data protection at banks.

On January 1st, a central promise made by the SPD during the last federal election campaign is fulfilled: Citizens’ allowance replaces Hartz IV. It is also worth taking a look abroad because there is such a heated argument about it in Germany. This is how other countries with the minimum income hold it.

Never since records began have producer prices shot up as much as they did in August. If that stays the case, it will no longer be worthwhile for any manufacturer to produce in Germany. The country is threatened with de-industrialization.

Media Markt and Saturn have been in crisis for a long time. A trade expert does not rule out that the corporations will have to close branches across the board in the future.