In a first for the private banking world, Indosuez, the global asset management division of leading French bank Crédit Agricole, has launched Le Clu3, a private NFT-driven membership club for its high-end clientele.
Le Clu3 was created by SiaXperience, the digital design agency of Sia Partners, alongside French Web3 platform METAV.RS.
Although such a loyalty program model more recently the method for fashion brands such as Adidas, LacosteAnd Louis Vuittonaccording to Simon Foucher, co-founder and CEO of METAV.RS, the goal here is to “create a strong community of next-generation clients” for wealth management.
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As Indosuez Chief Innovation Officer Lydie Percier explained last month at an event hosted by Sia Partners at its Paris headquarters, the target audience is tech-savvy offspring of the super-rich, alongside investors and newly minted crypto entrepreneurs.
The offer includes a history “soul bound” NFT for members, allowing “token-gated access to classified areas of the Indosuez website,” METAV.RS co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Clement Foucher told me Decrypt. A soulbound token cannot be sold or transferred once minted, meaning it is locked to that wallet.
Ownership brings “money-can’t-buy” rewards and “unique and unprecedented experiences,” said the creators of Le Clu3, negotiating with “some luxury partner brands.”
That’s the nature of private banking, the names of these partner brands remain secret, but Foucher confirmed that the benefits are related to the VIP treatment the brands reserve for their top clients.
He emphasized that as far as the brands are concerned, “the guaranteed quality of the audience is key”.
“Imagine the value for a luxury brand to gain access to this kind of high-level clientele,” he continued, adding that it also cuts both ways in terms of acquiring more clients like this for the asset management department.
A screenshot of the Le Clu3 portal. Image: Le Clu3
As a finalist of the LMVH Innovation Award 2023, METAV.RS’ white label solution enables brands to centrally manage their Web3 strategy. Customers include Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH itself, along with Oetker Group, Stellantis, Westfield, Renault and Michelin, which it helps attract new audiences through tokenization, loyalty programs and immersive experiences.
The French outfit was also behind a limited edition luxury token drop for the Le Bristol hotel in Paris earlier this year.
The fact that the tokens are soul-bound and non-transferable is paramount to addressing the high security aspect of private banking.
“It guarantees that the owner is a customer of the bank and no tokens can end up in wallets of non-customers,” said Foucher.
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In particular, the Genesis tokens for Louis Vuitton’s own Web3 VIA program launched last month were also soul-bound. That approach, Foucher said, lends itself well to creating clubs because “it ensures the quality of your audience.”
Le Clu3 tokens are minted PolygonAn Ethereum scalable network, and can be held in both regular and cloud-based wallets. In keeping with Indosuez’s bespoke approach, wallets are automatically set up for users as needed, removing barriers to entry and making the onboarding process seamless.
Additional soul-bound tokens will be created in the future for attendees of events scheduled as part of Le Clu3’s ongoing program. According to Agathe Malinas, Partner at SiaXperience, “This is the beginning of a long-term story.”
