[jacques_chester]

Originally this was a trusteeship problem: the card-holders were the named beneficiaries of points schemes, but the cards belonged to the company.

So there's a pile of points growing, which must be accounted for in the balance sheet, but which are essentially worthless to the company. And being a trustee is a legal hassle nobody wants to deal with if they can avoid it.

So the companies just hand those points and rewards over to the employee contractually, which dissolves the trust (since the employee now beneficially owns and legally owns the points). Much easier. And you can spin it as benevolent generosity to boot.

(Of course, I am not a lawyer.)