Cadence Bank Utilizes MXdata to Boost Interchange Income

Using Data to Launch a Campaign

Cadence Bank’s focus has long been on commercial banking. Over the past few years, however, there’s been a shift at the bank, and several of their new leaders—including Retail Banking Executive Officer Steve Welling and Digital Channel Manager Tommy Sanderson—have been tasked with growing their digital capabilities. This included collaborating with MX, which has had a relationship with Cadence since 2015.

“Our goal is to reach our customers where they are,” Sanderson said. “Being able to see their accounts and how they use their money gives us the insights that guide our interactions with them—whether it’s through more personalized messaging or asking the right questions so we know which products can really change their financial lives.”

In late 2020, MX’s Catalyst professional services team—a group of strategy, marketing and data experts—presented a custom data dashboard to Cadence that focused on their two main objectives of creating primary banking relationships with their clients and expanding product adoption. Based on the recommendations made by the Catalyst team, Cadence joined with MX and the bank’s debit card issuer to create a “Set it to Debit” campaign with the goal of boosting interchange income by encouraging their customers to switch their recurring payment method from ACH to their Cadence debit cards.

MX helped identify this opportunity and the ideal target population, and then their debit card issuer helped create momentum and excitement for Cadence customers to make the switch by providing incentives—including cash prizes—for the campaign.

Cadence launched the campaign to more than 50,000 users who had been identified through the data analysis as ideal participants given their transactional history with ACH recurring payments. All active participants in the campaign were entered into a drawing for a cash prize of up to $5,000 once they moved at least one of their recurring payments from ACH to debit card.

Delivering Demonstrable Results

The campaign ran for one month (from June 1 through June 30, 2021) and delivered strong results, including an 11% response rate—well above the typical response rate of around 1%, according to market data from Statista—5,800 customers who added debit cards as the payment method for their recurring transactions, 25,000+ new recurring payments added, and nearly $157,000 in estimated annual recurring interchange revenue.

“Being able to specifically target this population and then track results afterward in a meaningful way is not something we’ve had the capability to do before,” Sanderson said. “The data and insights MX provided confirmed many of our assumptions—and it also showed several areas where we could improve.”

Using data in this way—to drive organizational strategy—is an enhanced way of doing business for many of MX’s clients, including Cadence Bank.

“Getting access to the right data insights is often very challenging,” Hall said. “So it’s a big deal for Cadence to be able to show proof that they can use data to make a big impact in a short amount of time.”

“This campaign was very successful, and the results demonstrate how being able to really understand the data allows us to change the bottom line,” Sanderson said. “But this isn’t just about debit cards and interchange income—it’s about being able to put action with our data as we look to transform our organization. With MX’s help, we’ve significantly increased our understanding of our customers’ behavior and who they are, and that will continue to make a huge impact—for us and our customers.”