Cardlytics ($CDLX): Potential New Major Bank Partner (Research Note #184)

There is one specific major bank that stands out as being more likely than others, especially in light of new information.

Market Cap as of 7.23.2023: ~$8.75/ Share x 33.9M Shares ~ $297M Market Cap.

(#184) 7.23.2023: Potential New Major Bank Partner

It has been a while since we first heard Karim mention he was in talks with multiple top 20 U.S. banks. In Q3 2022 he said:

On a related note, we are taking steps to increase our MAU banks by signing new partners. We are in discussions with multiple top 20 U.S. banks and several high upside fintechs. While these conversations are early, our pipeline to increase MAUs over the next 2 years is strong.

Expanding these relationships will further diversify our partner situation while providing advertisers with further scale to accomplish their marketing goals. We will continue to update you as we make progress on these potential partnerships.

And again in Q1 2023:

We are focused on increasing our MAU base by signing new partners. Our progress in our pipeline over Q4 is solid.

We're in discussions with multiple top 20 U.S. banks and several high upside fintechs, and we believe we will sign at least one of these major partners by the end of 2023.

We will continue to update you as we make progress on these potential partnerships.

Therefore, maybe some of those early discussions have since progressed, and maybe one of the major partners that could be signed this year is a bank (rather than a fintech).

There is one specific major bank that stands out as being more likely than others, based on new information.

I discuss this specific bank more in depth below, both in terms of reasoning (I provide 10 reasons for this specific bank), as well as the significant impact to CDLX for signing this bank.