South Africa, Jan. 29 -- As profit margins for consumer banks grow increasingly elusive, a new revenue stream is emerging: financial media networks (FMNs).

Cashing in on the retail media gold rush

Working with SAS, one European digital bank serving more than six million customers reported an annualised run rate of about $50m from its FMN earlier this year - with performance tracking toward $100m by early 2026.

"Banks are moving from personalisation to partner-sponsored personalisation," says Alex Kwiatkowski, director of financial services at SAS.

"They're using the same infrastructure and data that powers internal offers to deliver paid campaigns from commercial partners - creating a revenue engine layered on top of their existing ma...