Deutsche wins credit card deal for Lufthansa frequent-flyer scheme

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Deutsche Bank has captured one of Europe’s largest and most lucrative co-branded credit card contracts, as Germany’s biggest lender tries to make good on its ambition to grow its payments business.

Deutsche will from 2025 run the German credit card business of Lufthansa’s frequent-flyer loyalty programme, known as Miles & More. The deal is expected to more than double the bank’s annual volume of credit card transactions.

In recent years, the German lender has singled out digital payments and cash management as a high “strategic priority”. Stable and low-risk with little regulatory capital required, Deutsche regards the business as one that can balance the more erratic and capital-intensive investment banking and bond trading operations.

Ole Matthiessen, Deutsche’s head of cash management, said the deal, which also involves Mastercard as the provider of the technology and the network, will see the number of credit cards it issues rise by a quarter.

Industry experts estimate that Deutsche will make about €100mn in annual revenue from the deal. The bank declined to comment on the revenues the agreement would bring, but the importance of the deal was underlined by the fact that chief executive Christian Sewing led the pitch for the contract.

Miles & More members are typically affluent and frequent flyers, with 20 per cent of them Deutsche clients. They spend “five times more than the average German credit card user”, said Johann-Philipp Bruns, managing director at Miles & More.

Miles & More charges credit card users an annual fee of up to €138. In return, customers collect one mile for every €2 spent on the card — with the issuing bank receiving a fraction of every euro. Miles & More users can swap their miles for Lufthansa flights or for products ranging from wine to designer furniture

Deutsche replaces the programme’s longstanding partner, DKB, an online retail bank owned by state-backed lender BayernLB.

DKB, which also runs co-branded credit cards on behalf of Porsche and Hilton, stands to lose a significant share of its €13bn in annual credit card transaction volume to Deutsche. Berlin-based DKB has been the loyalty scheme’s banking partner since 1999, with Mastercard joining in recent years.

DKB told the Financial Times it had “sadly” lost the bidding process for the Miles & More contract but that co-branded credit cards would remain a key source of revenue.

Peter Robejsek, head of Mastercard in Germany, said Miles & More accounted for 20 per cent of the company’s credit card revenue in Germany. The US card scheme has long been a Deutsche partner and will replace Visa as the credit card provider for the lender’s Postbank German retail brand.