Amazon and Santander Introduce New Visa Card in Germany

Amazon has partnered with Santander to launch the new Amazon Visa card in Germany.

According to a press release on Monday (August 12), the card allows users to earn rewards when shopping on and off Amazon’s German website. The rewards can be redeemed on Amazon.

“Cardholders can pay for their purchases quickly, intuitively and securely through Zinia, Santander’s consumer finance platform, and they are able to choose between full and revolving payments anytime,” the press release states.

The announcement came weeks after reports that Amazon and Santander were working on a deal for the Spanish bank to offer lending options to Amazon customers across the European Union, starting with Germany.

Santander said the deal with the global technology company, which allows customers to take out loans to fund purchases at checkout, aims to expand its digital consumer lending business.

Santander also announced that Zinia has become Apple’s consumer financial services provider in both its brick-and-mortar stores in Germany and on apple.de.

A PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How Nonfinancial Brands Can Benefit From Offering Embedded Financial Services,” found that embedded financial services benefit consumers and businesses by giving customers more ways to interact with their favorite brands. 88% of businesses that offer embedded financial services said it helps improve consumer engagement.

Additionally, the report found that 32% of consumers said they increased spending with a non-financial brand after receiving a financial product from that brand.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke with Visa Canada’s head of product, Dan Iwachiw, in June after the company launched its installment payment partnership with Amazon.

“There’s no better partner to drive for us the adoption and scalability of Visa’s installment solution than working with someone like Amazon,” Iwachiw said at the time. “We’re thrilled to build on our partnership with them and have Canada to be a first stop of this new journey. It’s a natural extension of our overall relationship and one that we’re looking to further build on and grow.”

Installment plans are gaining momentum in Canada. Visa research found that nearly six in 10 Canadian consumers are interested in using installment payments. The company also predicted that installment payments will account for nearly 25% of e-commerce transactions worldwide by 2026.