• So, Gen Z Likes Branches — Who Knew???
• Side Gigs – Why Issuers Keep Buying Companies That Aren’t Banks!!!
• Covid — FI Marketing Six Years Later

• Deposits: Demand Up, Marketing Down
• Home Equity Social Creative Trends
• Digital Channels Dominate

• The Epic Report Hall of Fame!!!
• They Bank with You. They Swipe Elsewhere.
• Quick Takes: 100th Edition Version

• You’re Almost Out of New Customers
• Gen Z Loves NeoBanks — and Banks Somewhere Else?!
• 2026’s Two Hottest Lending Markets

• The Bundle Wars! Two Playbooks, One Battlefield
• Small Business Credit Cards — A Trillion-Dollar Market!
• Personal Loan Originations Lead 2025 Growth

• Nobody Brags about their Interest Rate
• AI is Eating Search — and Your Digital Acquisition Strategy
• Your Application Flow Is Leaving Money on the Table

• The Dog Didn’t Bark: Delinquencies Stay Chill
• Groceries on Layaway: The New Normal?
• 2025: The Year Home Equity Woke Up

• Trends in aggregation
• Capital One continues market leadership in 2025

• Direct mail’s advantage over digital marketing
• Huge opportunity in education refi!
• Personal lending originations soar!

• What’s in Your Customers’ Mailboxes???
• Chasing High-Net-Worth Elephants!
• Home Equity and Education Lending Lead 2025 Growth

• BTs gain as rates remain high
• Education lenders mine for gold!!!
• Barclays makes crafty move into personal loans!!!

• Premium cards move to lifestyle marketing
• Boost your credit lines — your CFO will thank you!!!
• Personal loan and card demand spike!

• Cap One and Disco shake things up!!
• Your competition is benchmarking… and you should too!
• SoFi leads the way on personal loans

• BNPL 2.0 – What’s next???
• Is ChatGPT displacing the aggregators???
• Capital One / Discover dominates card mail!!!

• The Home Equity paradox!
• Cash Back card surge
• Direct mail still dominant

• Retail banks losing out in personal loan marketing!
• Meet super lender Best Egg
• HELOC originations and marketing continue climb

• Time to (not) Panic about Card Delinquency???
• Performance-Based Marketing: Growth Without Upfront Cost
• Is Home Equity Marketing Finally Back???

• Your top credit card issuers – right here!!!
• Mailers push digital response!
• Higher rates = lower response?

• Premium travel card marketing soars!
• Credit One dominates near prime marketing
• The Epic Report turns five!

• BNPL-oozza redux!
• Amex chases the cool kids!!!
• HELOC bump? Nah.

• Personal loan “randos”
• We review our 2024 predictions!
• Education lending sluggish

• How do you prefer I pay you???
• Home equity marketing vaults!
• Citizens Financial – consumer banking powerhouse!!!

• Education lending marketing slowdown
• Big advertising bucks pay off!!!
• Is now the time to refi card balances???

• Who is passing along the rate cut???
• Carved in Stone – Epic Credit Card Mt. Rushmore!!!
• Subprime card volume rises

• How higher rates affected marketing spend
• Epic Credit Card Mt. Rushmore – who’s next???
• Checking account marketing outpaces other products

• We review regional bank marketing!!!
• Epic Credit card Mt. Rushmore – who’s next???
• Spending on TV and online channels perks up

• Marketing boom for savings here to stay???
• Epic Credit Card Mt. Rushmore!!!
• Consumer credit digital and TV marketing rise

• Near-Prime cools
• Meet Barclays and Denny Nealon
• HELOC mail peps up!

• Delinquency watch continues!
• High-yield savings opportunity
• Personal loan mail volume awakening?

• Personal loan marketing down, consumer benefit up!
• Digital response options grow
• Debt settlement marketing awakening?

• Cap One Shocks the World!!!
• Credit card incentives climb
• Card marketing’s shift to digital

• BNPL’s death rattle!
• 2024 Predictions – two BNPL issuers will blow up
• Advertising in 2023 – loans down, deposits up!

• Money markets expand as saving balances shrink
• Consumers still have low yield savings
• Card balance transfer volume grows

• HELOC opportunity???
• It’s top card issuer season!!!
• Marketing trends

• Student loan payment consumer spending impact
• What in the BNP-L???
• Education refinance marketing set for rebound?

• What is the impact of resuming student loan payments???
• What happened at Goldman Sachs? – Part II
• Personal loan ad spending remains sluggish

Three Things We’re Hearing

• Apple Card holders love the card!!!
• What happened at Goldman Sachs???
• Online savings rates plateau

• Credit Unions vs. “Regular” Banks
• Credit card APRs skyrocket!
• Travel rewards card marketing lags

• Aggregators aggravate banks!
• Bankcard losses approach “normal” levels
• Citizens dominates regional bank marketing!

• Consumers have trust in the US banking system
• Chase checking acquisition sizzles!
• Performance-based marketing fuels growth

• Online savings rates climb
• Little change among top credit card issuers
• February mail volume dips for cards, loans, and ed refi

• Card issuers compete on promotional offers
• Consumers are savvy about balance transfers!
• Personal loan acquisition moves up the credit spectrum

• What’s important in travel rewards cards?
• Credit cards not interest rate sensitive???
• 2022 marketing year in review

• Reward category tiers rule!
• Epic predictions!
• Chase dominates DDA mailing

• Small business credit card preferences
• Consumer delinquencies moving up
• Growth in cards and loans

• Digital wallet opportunity!
• Student lending rebound?
• Checking and HELOC lead the pack

• Growth for near-prime cards
• Consumer checking account preferences
• Uneven growth in various loan categories

• Education refinance loan marketing set to rebound?
• Consumers react to student loan forgiveness
• Cash back and near prime products dominate credit card mail

• Fintechs dominate personal loans
• Consumers respond to higher interest rates
• Direct mail volume higher than pre-pandemic levels

• Consumers prefer to have most banking products with one bank
• Mega mailers leave growth opportunity for regional banks
• Consumer financial marketing maintains upward trend

• Online savings accounts awaken
• Card originations reach decade high
• Credit card portfolios are healthy
• Marketing spending at pre-pandemic levels

• BNPL asset quality watch
• Home equity and personal loan marketing soars
• Consumer interest for cards and HELOCs grows

• Comparison sites drive fintech growths
• Consumers love Visa and Mastercard
• Digital marketing soars

• Personal loan market fully recovered
• Credit card sector in good health
• Direct mail still dominates

• Neobank growth surge
• Ease of use drives neobank popularity
• Highest credit card mail volume in years

• Will the credit environment ever return to “normal”???
• Epic predictions!
• Solicitation volumes remain sluggish

• Tidal wave of new credit card products
• Cash back and specialized spending bonuses popular with consumers
• Non-card products lagging

• BNPL-ooza
• BNPL growth continues
• Bank-branded cards dominate the mail

• Card balance growth finally turning the corner
• College students are savvy loan shoppers
• New bank overdraft products gaining traction
• Consumer lending mail volume still sluggish

• Activity in the HELOC market
• Card mail volume continues to climb
• Ed refi poised for growth

• Personal loan applicants like branches
• Credit card competition surges
• Ad spending for some products still recovering
• Is there a hotter new product than BNPL?

• Consumers still value travel rewards cards
• Competition in the credit card sector is back
• Personal loan issuers remain hesitant

• Younger consumers like “pre-qual”
• HELOC lenders still scarred from 2009
• Credit card mail volume soars, other products lag
• Overall financial services ad spending still recovering
• Consumer loan credit criteria loosens

• Consumers like digital banking
• Lenders re-entering the market
• Overall financial services ad spending still recovering

• One year later…
• What’s going on with credit card growth?
• Online savings rates showing no love

• Financial services ad spending rebounds
• Visa and Mastercard issuers shrink in 2020
• Millennials bank just like us
• Cash-back credit cards are in vogue

• Younger consumers more likely to switch primary banks
• Personal loan mail volume plateaus
• Large issuer card mail volume approaching pre-COVID levels

• Surprising credit card preferences for younger consumers
• Younger consumers prefer choice in personal loans
• Consumer spending binge in late 2021?

• HELOC poised for growth?
• Personal loan growth sluggish
• Cash back cards dominate the mail

• Stimulus payments continue to boost consumers’ finances
• Financial services ad spending still lags
• Three predictions for 2021

• Why delinquencies remain low and payments high
• Co-branded credit card mail volume rebounds
• Personal loan mail volume – more of the same

• Big credit card opportunity for retail banks!
• Financial services digital advertising grows
• Credit card metrics returning to “normal”

• Credit card mail volume continues to normalize
• Personal loan mail volume recovery stalls
• Financial services marketing coming back to varying degrees

• Consumers like aggregators!
• Future credit card delinquency trends
• Direct mail delivery slows down

• Travel rewards cards are not dead!
• Checking and savings acquisition spending picks up
• Student lending originations slightly down?

• American Express sets the pace
• Personal loan mail volume lags
• What’s on the horizon for asset quality?

• Point of Sale (POS) lending is growing
• Education lending bucks the downward trend
• No movement yet on card or loan delinquencies

• Credit card mail volume recovering
• Personal loan mail volume steady
• Acquisition spending up across products and channels

• Consumers increasingly use personal loans for home improvements
• Local banks are a surprisingly popular choice for personal loans
• Credit card delinquency continues to defy gravity

• Personal loan online acquisition perked up in July
• Credit Card mail volume edges up
• Student loan acquisition unfazed by the pandemic

• But what about the mail?
• Credit card balances continue to shrink
• Consumer spending is back, but different

• Areas of opportunity for local banks
• Advertising spend down across channels
• Auto insurance spending won’t slow down…

• Consumers rarely switch checking accounts – branches matter
• Is small business lending headed for a repeat of ’08/’09?
• Early post-forbearance delinquency holding up, balances drop

• Credit card mail volume continues to drop
• Personal loan mail volume is also low
• Student and education refi volumes are a bright spot
• Lower marketing expense will impact future growth

• Consumer lending executives are cautiously optimistic
• Student lending activity still lags
• Further signs of life in credit cards…

• Marketing spend is down across all channels and categories
• Travel reward card issuers respond to a challenged value proposition
• Delinquency finally starts ticking up…