Saldo Bank has partnered with finperks to add rewards to its banking app in Finland, including digital gift cards. The companies announced the partnership on September 9, 2026. The rollout connects a bank’s existing customer relationship with an external prepaid catalogue, rather than requiring the bank to build each brand connection itself. [S01] [S03]

The distinction between the partnership announcement and the live customer offer matters. The release describes access to finperks’ network of more than 1,000 brands in Europe. Saldo Bank’s customer benefits page describes a smaller selection available through its app, with more than 30 partner stores and discounts of up to 7% on digital gift cards. [S01] [S02]

What customers can actually use

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What customers can actually use

Measure

What the sources establish

More than 1,000 brands

The European network described in the partnership announcement. This is not a count of cards available in the Finnish app.

More than 30 stores

The selection described on Saldo Bank’s customer benefits page when checked on September 18, 2026.

Up to 7%

The advertised maximum direct discount. The rate depends on the partner and card value.

Eligibility

An active Saldo Bank credit card is required to purchase the gift cards.

The bank describes an immediate price reduction at checkout and instant digital delivery. Customers find purchased cards in the app and redeem them using a barcode in a shop or the card details online. These are the operational details of the current offer, as checked on September 18, rather than a promise that every brand in the broader network is available on identical terms. [S02]

Why the bank is using a prepaid partner

Sebastian Seifert, finperks’ co-founder and co-CEO, framed the relationship around customer activity and retention. Saldo Bank chief product officer Tuomas Nenonen said the integration reduced the need to assemble the underlying brand infrastructure internally. The release also describes expansion into further Scandinavian and European markets as a future step, without giving a country-by-country timetable. [S01]

For the gift-card industry, the distribution point is significant. A customer can discover a retailer reward inside a financial service they already use, buy stored value and then redeem it with a retailer. The bank controls the customer-facing journey; the prepaid provider supplies connections and the catalogue. That division of work is different from directing customers to a separate gift-card marketplace.

It also creates two distinct measures of success. The bank may care about repeat app usage and customer retention, while participating brands may care about sales and redemption. Neither outcome follows automatically from offering a discount. The programme needs evidence about how customers use it and what spending would have happened anyway.

What remains unquantified

The announcement does not disclose adoption, gift-card sales volume, commercial fees or the incremental effect on retention. Nenonen reports an improvement in engagement, but no baseline, time window or numerical result accompanies the claim. It remains a company statement rather than an independently measurable outcome. [S01]

The bank’s credit-card eligibility condition also deserves attention. The benefit is a discount on a gift-card purchase, not a guaranteed net saving after every possible borrowing cost. Saldo says customers who repay within the billing cycle incur no fees or interest from use of that credit. Buyers still need to consider their own card terms and repayment obligations. [S02]

The partnership establishes a new distribution route in Finland. Its broader significance will depend on the usable local catalogue, the clarity of redemption and whether the companies publish evidence that the rewards change customer behaviour beyond the initial purchase.