Banks Put Transaction Data to Work in Commerce Media

A retailer can see what customers buy from that firm’s online and offline channels. A bank with a large card portfolio can see spending across a much wider range of merchants. Payments networks and technology providers have other views of transactions and checkout.

Financial services companies are pushing deeper into commerce media, creating revenue opportunities around the purchase beyond the fees generated by processing the payment.

Citi became the latest entrant Wednesday (Sept. 23), launching Citi Commerce Media. The bank said the business will use insights from more than 70 million U.S. customers and 6.5 billion annual transactions to help advertisers understand audiences and measure campaign results.

Citi joins JPMorgan Chase, whose Chase Media Solutions uses transaction information from roughly 80 million consumers to target and measure merchant offers, and Mastercard Commerce Media, which uses permissioned commerce information and card-linking technology for audience selection and purchase attribution.

FIS operates in an adjacent area. Its Smart Basket is an offers network connecting issuers, merchants and brands. It can match offers to individual items at checkout using real-time, item-level purchase information and provide receipt-backed measurement.

Where Commerce Media Differs From Retail Media

Mastercard describes retail media operating within a single retailer’s ecosystem or as part of a larger network. The category can include sponsored search, retailer app advertising, in-store media and offsite advertising using retailer audiences.

The payments network defines commerce media as the broader category, spanning merchants, industries, channels and consumer touchpoints, and characterizes retail media as a subset of it. Commerce media can involve participants that are not retailers, including financial institutions, payments networks, travel companies and digital platforms.

A card transaction can identify the merchant and transaction amount without necessarily showing every product purchased. Retailers can have that item-level information without having the same view of spending elsewhere.

FIS’ Smart Basket addresses that gap by adding item-level purchase information to payment data. For advertisers, knowing that someone spent $100 at a supermarket after seeing an advertisement is different from knowing that the advertised product was in the basket.

The Opportunity Extends to Checkout

Recent PYMNTS Intelligence research identifies both a challenge and an opportunity here: Consumers do not necessarily see offers that are already available to them.

An April PYMNTS Intelligence study with FIS of 2,754 U.S. consumers found that half of offers available at checkout went unseen. The study tied $42.4 billion, or 34%, of the $125.4 billion in recent grocery, retail and restaurant spending examined to missed or unredeemed offers. Consumers reported that seeing available discounts before checkout could affect what they bought, where they shopped and which payment method they selected.

Merchant and issuer research shows interest in moving more of those promotions into the transaction.

An August PYMNTS Intelligence study found that 58% of 60 surveyed grocery, retail and restaurant merchants had used checkout-integrated promotions during the previous year. Sixty-five percent said limitations on data access constrained their ability to personalize promotions to at least a moderate degree.

On the issuer side, PYMNTS Intelligence found in July that 90% of surveyed issuers were very or extremely interested in embedded checkout promotions, although they also identified data control, liability, risk and costs as considerations.

Adding Revenue Around Card Spending

Commerce media also gives banks another potential source of revenue from their cardholder relationships at a time when interchange economics face pressure.

Interchange remains substantial. As PYMNTS reported, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated that U.S. banks collected about $66 billion in interchange fees in 2025, up from $64 billion in 2024. Debit interchange for large issuers is also regulated, and the amount remains under debate.

Commerce media provides economics that do not depend solely on the fee generated when a card is used. Merchants and brands can pay for advertising, customer acquisition and measurable sales.

For banks, that revenue can supplement card economics and provide some diversification if interchange revenue comes under pressure, though interchange pressure has not been cited by the firms as an impetus for Citi or JPMorgan Chase to launch their commerce media businesses. The connection might be considered economic rather than causal. Banks already have large cardholder audiences, transaction information and digital distribution, and commerce media provides another way to generate revenue from those assets.