The news: US Bank offered cardholders exclusive discounts during its “Bonus Days,” per press release.

Rewards include double cash back, double rewards at certain retailers, 10% off gift card purchases, and select discounts on merchandise, all activated and available through US Bank’s shopping portals and app.

Why this matters: US Bank’s Bonus Days drive cardholders to its portals to make purchases and redeem limited-time rewards. Cardholders are more likely to complete a transaction with a US Bank card when taking advantage of card-specific deals, delivering valuable volume to the issuer.

In the long term, US Bank is training consumers to use the app for more than just checking balances or paying bills. As this consumer behavior develops into a pattern, US Bank could launch an advertising solution to take advantage of its increased traffic, like a financial media network (FMN).

We forecast that FMN ad spend will nearly triple between 2025 and 2027, hitting $1.78 billion. And opportunities still abound in this space: Only 12% of commerce media networks have full funnel commerce media across on-site, offsite, and in-store environments, per a Forrester Consulting and Koddi commerce media study. 

Our take: Slowly shifting consumers’ attention into banking and payment apps can open major new revenue streams for issuers. However, as these initiatives are piloted, issuers can’t lose consumers’ trust with their data. 

While they hold valuable first-party data attractive to advertisers, deploying that knowledge responsibly is critical for FMN’s long-term success, for example, by keeping ads centralized on bank-owned surfaces like ATMs and branches or through official email channels.