AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Nov. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Ascenda, the rewards technology company, and Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) announced their partnership behind the newly unveiled BNZ Rewards programme.

BNZ is leveraging Ascenda's global rewards content network to delight customers with a broad range of exciting ways to spend their points.

The new programme, powered by Ascenda's next-generation cloud native platform, enables the bank to offer a broad range of exciting rewards in the market and sets BNZ up to move beyond rewarding just card spend and towards recognising the full breadth of the customer relationship. BNZ is leveraging Ascenda's global rewards content network to delight customers with a broad range of exciting ways to spend their points, from transfers to frequent traveller programmes and Flybuys to cash back and digital gift cards.

BNZ Executive, Customer Products and Services, Karna Luke, said, "We are thrilled to be launching BNZ Rewards in partnership with Ascenda, a whole new approach to rewarding our customers for choosing to be with BNZ. Alongside their spend, we'll be rewarding customers with BNZ Points for their activity, like activating their online rewards dashboard, the products they have with us, and much more."

Madeline O'Connor, VP Strategic Clients at Ascenda, added: "Today's bank customers want to be rewarded for more than just spending, and they also want more ways to use their rewards. We're delighted to take customer engagement to the next level with the new BNZ Rewards programme."

BNZ Rewards is embedded seamlessly within customers' existing online and mobile banking, with customers migrating to the new programme throughout November. BNZ and Ascenda will work together to continue to offer customers new ways to earn and spend points.

Detailed information about BNZ Rewards is being communicated by the bank to its customers over the course of this month.

About Ascenda

Ascenda makes customer engagement simple for leading financial services brands.

Delivering digitally native, intuitive and easy-to-deploy rewards solutions that enable banks and payment card issuers to build deeper customer connections across the entire financial relationship. The company serves financial services clients in more than 40 markets, including leading brands such as HSBC, American Express, Capital One, ICBC, and Standard Chartered as well as disruptors such as Virgin Money and Brex.

For more information about Ascenda, please visit ascendaloyalty.com

About BNZ

Bank of New Zealand was founded in 1861 and has been an integral part of New Zealand life ever since. Today the bank employs over 5,000 people in New Zealand; works with Personal, Business, Agri and Private Wealth clients; and has 135 branches and Partners' Centres across NZ.