Galileo Financial Technologies Enables Brands to Offer Co-Brand Debit Rewards Cards

By: Galileo Financial Technologies via Business Wire

February 20, 2025 at 08:00 AM EST

New Galileo program makes it easier than ever to offer rewards to the overlooked $4.3 trillion debit market, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S. hospitality sector

Galileo Financial Technologies, SoFi Technologies, Inc.’s Technology Platform (NASDAQ: SOFI), has launched a co-brand debit program offering, enabling brands to offer debit users access to rewards typically reserved for credit card holders. Galileo is the first to bring this type of program offering to the U.S. hospitality sector. While co-brand credit rewards programs are common, debit users have largely been left out—until now.

More than 90 percent of U.S. adults have a debit card, and 45 million U.S. adults either lack a credit history or have only minimal credit activity, preventing them from earning rewards on their everyday purchases and big-ticket items like hospitality and travel.

At a time when launching a co-branded card can drag on for more than a year, Galileo’s program cuts that down to just a few months. Brands, like those in hospitality and travel, can tap Galileo’s technology—including card issuing, processing, Cyberbank Digital and program management—without juggling multiple disconnected systems. This gets them to market faster so they can attract debit-focused consumers and offer them meaningful perks without changing how they spend.

"In the U.S. alone, people spend more than $4 trillion on their debit cards each year, but they aren't getting rewarded for most of that spend," said Derek White, Chief Executive Officer of Galileo. "That’s why we built a program that helps brands launch debit rewards quickly to capture this unmet demand.”

The program will initially focus on the hospitality and travel sectors, leveraging Galileo’s proven capabilities in powering financial solutions for global brands. By enabling airlines, hotels and other brands to quickly offer loyalty-driven debit cards, Galileo helps boost customer engagement and drive increased spend.

About Galileo Financial Technologies

Galileo Financial Technologies, LLC and certain of its affiliates collectively comprise a financial technology company owned and operated independently by SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI) that enables fintechs, financial institutions, and emerging and established brands to build differentiated financial solutions that deliver exceptional, customer-centric experiences. Through modern, open APIs, Galileo’s flexible, secure, scalable and fully integrated platform drives innovation across payments and financial services. Trusted by digital banking heavyweights, early-stage innovators and enterprise clients alike, Galileo supports issuing physical and virtual payment cards, mobile push provisioning, tailored and differentiated financial products and more, across industries and geographies.

Galileo Financial Technologies, LLC is a technology company, not a bank. Galileo partners with many issuing banks to provide banking services in North and Latin America.