First Trade Union Bank has released a mobile payment and loyalty app based on the LevelUp platform.

First Trade claims that it is now one of the first banks in the country to offer a complete mobile banking experience, with paperless account opening, smartphone and iPad apps, and its new payment vehicle.

The app, called FTPay, is available today for iOS and Android smartphones.

LevelUp began white-labelling its popular mobile payments app in September 2012, and funded a $1 million program to boost its white-labelled sales in April 2013. LevelUp offers deals and discounts at participating merchants. Users locate offers and participating merchants using their app, and generate QR codes on their phones. Once at the store, the QR codes are are scanned at the point of sale using LevelUp’s proprietary terminals. Users gain discounts, and frequent users unlock LevelUp credits.

According to First Trade, the bank will “match the savings from merchant discounts and deposit up to $25 as a new account bonus directly into new customers’ FT checking accounts, while existing bank clients can increase their savings by sweeping merchant credits into their savings accounts.”

The new mobile payment app integrates with First Trade’s existing debit card, as well as other banks’ debit and credit cards. First Trade will also generate unique offers in its “vault” to reward loyal customers.

The loyalty and rewards play — as well as the mobile wallet and payments play — could be a strong one for banks. Tying banks to customers’ payments and deepening the relationship with bank-specific offers is a good move at disintermediation by First Trade.

It’s also a strong bank partnership for LevelUp, and more of this can no doubt be expected. The company has some 5,000 merchants signed up and is now looking at larger merchant partners as well.

First Trade Union Bank is based in Boston, and holds approximately $600 million in assets.