Loyalty programmes for small and medium enterprises applied by the world's safest banks

With the increasing service quality standards in financial organisations, customer retention tools gain more significance. The banking sector is not an exception in this context as loyalty programmes have become an important tool to retain small and medium enterprises (hereinafter – SMEs) as customers which generate a considerable portion of the bank’s income. It is assumed that the world’s safest banks also have their loyalty programmes in place to retain the SMEs segment, however the unclear extent and characteristics of these programmes presupposes the need for empirical research. First of all, the article elaborates on the concept of loyalty programmes and its typologies, furthermore, it proves the need and importance of bank loyalty programmes to SMEs and after the survey methodology is formed, the magnitude and specificity of the world’s safest banks’ loyalty programmes designed to SMEs are empirically analysed. The accomplished analysis of the national context, types, characteristics and reward parameters of loyalty programmes shows consistent empirical and statistical patterns, which are significant for the marketing science and practice