RBC Avion Rewards Platform & Payments

Overview

Avion wanted to open rewards to Canadians without an RBC banking relationship. On paper that is a growth story.

In practice it meant building identity, settlement, and servicing for money movement behind an experience that still had to feel as simple as checking a balance.

As Senior Product Manager for Core Experiences, I owned the web and mobile surfaces, self-service cashback withdrawal, and the settlement infrastructure underneath.

Member-to-settlement architecture

Customer experience

View cashback

Choose withdrawal amount

Receive funds

Platform flow

Member identity

Cashback balance

Eligibility and limits

Withdrawal request

Settlement service

External financial institution

Supporting capabilities

Transaction stateLedger recordsReconciliationRisk controlsCustomer servicingAnalytics

The opportunity

Traditional Avion members arrived with RBC identity and account context. New members did not.

That shifted the product problem:

Secure onboarding without existing online banking credentials
Cashback balances and withdrawals without an RBC deposit account
Reliable money movement with fraud, risk, and compliance constraints
Consistent web and mobile experiences on top of legacy dependencies

Success was not enrollment alone. Members had to reach value: earn, see balance, withdraw, receive funds.

From bank-dependent rewards to a broader consumer platform

Before

Existing RBC relationship
Existing authentication
Existing deposit account
Established customer identity
Bank-linked redemption paths

After: new capabilities required

Independent registration
Secure sign-on
Avion member account
Cashback balance
External withdrawal destination
Settlement and transaction tracking
Customer support states

My approach

1.Followed the full value journey

We mapped Discover → Join → Authenticate → Earn → Withdraw → Receive funds so the team did not optimize registration while leaving barriers between signup and realized value.

Enrollment was the beginning, not the outcome

01
Discover
Learn about Avion
Acquisition surfaces
Risk: Low intent
02
Join
Create an Avion account
Registration and identity
Risk: Identity mismatch
03
Authenticate
Access the platform
Secure sign-on
Risk: Auth failure
04
Earn
Accumulate rewards
Rewards and earning rules
Risk: Eligibility gaps
05
View balance
See available cashback
Balance and ledger visibility
Risk: Stale balance
06
Withdraw
Access earned cashback
Validation, limits, settlement
Risk: Invalid destination
07
Receive funds
Complete transfer
Settlement and status tracking
Risk: Processing failure

2.Treated withdrawal as a financial product

The UI was three steps. Behind it: eligibility, thresholds, settlement initiation, pending and failed states, ledger records, reconciliation, and servicing visibility, aligned with engineering, finance operations, risk, and legal.

Designing the self-service cashback experience

View available balance

Current amount · Pending transactions · Balance accuracy

Enter withdrawal amount

Minimum threshold · Maximum threshold · Available-balance validation

Confirm destination and details

Authentication · Destination validation · Duplicate prevention

Track processing status

Settlement initiation · Pending status · Exception handling

Receive confirmation

Transaction confirmation · Updated balance · Customer record

3.Built settlement once, not per feature

A centralized capability handled validation, money movement, state tracking, and exceptions so customer channels stayed simple as volume grew.

4.Instrumented activation, not just traffic

Measurement covered enrollment completion, withdrawal success, failure modes, latency, and release health, not page views alone.

What shipped

Self-service cashback withdrawal

Eligible non-RBC members could withdraw earned cashback to an external financial institution, with balance visibility, eligibility checks, confirmation, and clear status when something failed.

Settlement infrastructure

The platform processed more than five million settlement events annually at approximately 99.9% uptime. That was the invisible layer that made the simple withdrawal flow trustworthy.

Before: fragmented processing

Repeated validation logic
Inconsistent transaction states
Difficult reconciliation
Tight coupling between interface and processing

After: centralized settlement capability

Request validationRule enforcementSettlement initiationTransaction statusReconciliation recordsException handling

Reusable financial infrastructure connecting customer products to downstream processing, not an isolated withdrawal feature.

Avion Select foundations

Secure access, onboarding, and core digital experiences supported 250K+ new member sign-ups during the growth period. I owned the digital and platform pieces, not the full program.

Core web and mobile

Foundational experiences other Avion teams depended on, plus acquisition tools like ShopPlus that extended how members discovered and used the program.

The platform behind self-service cashback

Experience layer

WebiOSAndroidCustomer servicing

Product-service layer

Secure accessCashback balanceWithdrawalTransaction historyCustomer notifications

Financial-platform layer

Eligibility and limitsTransaction validationSettlement initiationTransaction-state managementLedger recordsReconciliationException handling

Enterprise ecosystem

IdentityRewards platformPayment infrastructureRisk and complianceFinance operationsAnalytics and monitoring

Simplified capability model. Financial, security, and technical implementation details have been generalized.

Impact

The through-line was consumer simplicity backed by regulated infrastructure that stayed reliable when customers moved real money.

5M+

Automated settlement events supported annually

~99.9%

Platform uptime

$15M+

Annualized cashback withdrawals through the digital experience

0-to-1

Self-service cashback withdrawal capability

Customer access

Enabled eligible members without a traditional RBC deposit account to access earned cashback.

Platform leverage

Created reusable settlement and digital capabilities rather than an isolated withdrawal feature.

Operational confidence

Supported transaction tracking, reconciliation, exception handling, and production reliability.

Growth enablement

Provided secure access, onboarding, and digital foundations supporting expansion beyond existing RBC customers.

What I learned

What I took from building financial products at consumer scale:

Consumer simplicity requires platform complexity

The most effective financial experiences make difficult processes feel straightforward across identity, settlement, reconciliation, and servicing.

Growth does not end at enrollment

Activation determines whether potential value is realized, from registration through earning, accessing, and withdrawing rewards.

Money movement requires explicit state design

Pending, failed, delayed, duplicate, and exception states need deliberate product design, not afterthoughts.

Platform products serve operational users too

Finance operations, servicing, risk, and compliance depend on the same platform the customer sees.

Reliability is part of the customer proposition

When a product manages customer funds, uptime and transaction accuracy are essential to trust.

Instrumentation should reflect the value chain

The most useful measurement connected acquisition, activation, transaction completion, reliability, and financial outcomes.