March 4, 2023
- Card issuers compete on promotional offers
- Consumers are savvy about balance transfers!
- Personal loan acquisition moves up the credit spectrum
MONTHLY INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
What we're seeing and hearing in the consumer lending marketplace.
BY JIM STEWART
February 4, 2023
- What’s important in travel rewards cards?
- Credit cards not interest rate sensitive???
- 2022 marketing year in review
January 7, 2023
- Reward category tiers rule!
- Epic predictions!
- Chase dominates DDA mailing
December 3, 2022
- Small business credit card preferences
- Consumer delinquencies moving up
- Growth in cards and loans
November 5, 2022
- Digital wallet opportunity!
- Student lending rebound?
- Checking and HELOC lead the pack
October 1, 2022
- Growth for near-prime cards
- Consumer checking account preferences
- Uneven growth in various loan categories
September 10, 2022
- Education refinance loan marketing set to rebound?
- Consumers react to student loan forgiveness
- Cash back and near prime products dominate credit card mail
August 6, 2022
- Fintechs dominate personal loans
- Consumers respond to higher interest rates
- Direct mail volume higher than pre-pandemic levels
July 9, 2022
- Consumers prefer to have most banking products with one bank
- Mega mailers leave growth opportunity for regional banks
- Consumer financial marketing maintains upward trend
June 4, 2022
- Online savings accounts awaken
- Card originations reach decade high
- Credit card portfolios are healthy
- Marketing spending at pre-pandemic levels
May 7, 2022
- BNPL asset quality watch
- Home equity and personal loan marketing soars
- Consumer interest for cards and HELOCs grows
April 2, 2022
- Comparison sites drive fintech growths
- Consumers love Visa and Mastercard
- Digital marketing soars
March 5, 2022
- Personal loan market fully recovered
- Credit card sector in good health
- Direct mail still dominates
February 5, 2022
- Neobank growth surge
- Ease of use drives neobank popularity
- Highest credit card mail volume in years
January 8, 2022
- Will the credit environment ever return to “normal”???
- Epic predictions!
- Solicitation volumes remain sluggish
December 4, 2021
- Tidal wave of new credit card products
- Cash back and specialized spending bonuses popular with consumers
- Non-card products lagging
November 6, 2021
- BNPL-ooza
- BNPL growth continues
- Bank-branded cards dominate the mail
October 2, 2021
- 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
September 11, 2021
- Activity in the HELOC market
- Card mail volume continues to climb
- Ed refi poised for growth
August 7, 2021
- Personal loan applicants like branches
- Credit card competition surges
- Ad spending for some products still recovering
- Is there a hotter new product than BNPL?
July 10, 2021
- Consumers still value travel rewards cards
- Competition in the credit card sector is back
- Personal loan issuers remain hesitant
June 5, 2021
- 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
May 1, 2021
- Consumers like digital banking
- Lenders re-entering the market
- Overall financial services ad spending still recovering
April 3, 2021
- One year later…
- What’s going on with credit card growth?
- Online savings rates showing no love
March 20, 2021
- Financial services ad spending rebounds
- Visa and Mastercard issuers shrink in 2020
- Millennials bank just like us
- Cash-back credit cards are in vogue
March 6, 2021
- Younger consumers more likely to switch primary banks
- Personal loan mail volume plateaus
- Large issuer card mail volume approaching pre-COVID levels
February 20, 2021
- Surprising credit card preferences for younger consumers
- Younger consumers prefer choice in personal loans
- Consumer spending binge in late 2021?
February 6, 2021
- HELOC poised for growth?
- Personal loan growth sluggish
- Cash back cards dominate the mail
January 23, 2021
- Stimulus payments continue to boost consumers’ finances
- Financial services ad spending still lags
- Three predictions for 2021
January 9, 2021
- Why delinquencies remain low and payments high
- Co-branded credit card mail volume rebounds
- Personal loan mail volume – more of the same
December 19, 2020
- Big credit card opportunity for retail banks!
- Financial services digital advertising grows
- Credit card metrics returning to “normal”
December 5, 2020
- Credit card mail volume continues to normalize
- Personal loan mail volume recovery stalls
- Financial services marketing coming back to varying degrees
November 21, 2020
- Consumers like aggregators!
- Future credit card delinquency trends
- Direct mail delivery slows down
November 7, 2020
- Travel rewards cards are not dead!
- Checking and savings acquisition spending picks up
- Student lending originations slightly down?
October 24, 2020
- American Express sets the pace
- Personal loan mail volume lags
- What’s on the horizon for asset quality?
October 10, 2020
- Point of Sale (POS) lending is growing
- Education lending bucks the downward trend
- No movement yet on card or loan delinquencies
September 26, 2020
- Credit card mail volume recovering
- Personal loan mail volume steady
- Acquisition spending up across products and channels
September 12, 2020
- 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
August 29, 2020
- Personal loan online acquisition perked up in July
- Credit Card mail volume edges up
- Student loan acquisition unfazed by the pandemic
August 22, 2020
- But what about the mail?
- Credit card balances continue to shrink
- Consumer spending is back, but different
August 8, 2020
- Areas of opportunity for local banks
- Advertising spend down across channels
- Auto insurance spending won’t slow down…
August 1, 2020
- 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
July 25, 2020
- 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
July 18, 2020
- Consumer lending executives are cautiously optimistic
- Student lending activity still lags
- Further signs of life in credit cards…
July 11, 2020
- Marketing spend is down across all channels and categories
- Travel reward card issuers respond to a challenged value proposition
- Delinquency finally starts ticking up…
June 27, 2020
- Credit card mail volume at lowest level in decades?
- Personal loan volume plunged as well
- $2 trillion growth in deposits since coronavirus hit
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June 20, 2020
- Possible good news coming?
- Asset quality trends are misleading
- Credit card growth has stalled
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June 13, 2020
- Personal loan rates are in flux
- Student lending is approaching peak season with a big question
- Consumer delinquencies continue at lower than expected rates
June 6, 2020
- Banks are backing off from new deposits while consumers are still interested
- Mirroring the broad decline in new loan acquisitions, HELOC mail volume was down substantially in April…
May 30, 2020
- Credit card acquisition marketing (unsurprisingly) plummeted in April
- As did marketing for Personal Loans…
May 23, 2020
- Credit card spending is rebounding from a late March dive.
- Acquisition marketing for consumer financial products…
May 16, 2020
- 64% of consumers are using digital banking services more than pre-pandemic
- Two thirds of colleges are currently planning to welcome students to campus in the Fall, but there remains uncertainty…
May 9, 2020
- Consumers have shifted credit card rewards preferences away from travel rewards and towards cash back on non-travel categories such as groceries
- Lending executives are generally finding the “work from home” model to be more effective than previously thought…
May 2, 2020
- Lending Executives are cautious, but optimistic
- Demand for lending products has rebounded slightly, but is still below prior trends
- Alternative lenders continue their retreat from new loan acquisitions…
April 25, 2020
- Loan asset quality is deteriorating rapidly,
- Consumers are contacting lenders for help with payments,
- Capital markets based fintechs continue to suffer…
April 14, 2020
- Over half the lenders on the LendingTree personal loan table have been removed since last week
- Despite evidence of a significant drop in responses to direct mail offers, 80% still check their mail at least every other day, and 70% believe it is “safe”k
April 4, 2020
- Early anecdotal feedback has some direct mail response rates off 10% – 50% beginning in mid-March.
- Digital search volume has returned to prior levels for some products, stabilized at higher rates for others.
- Student lending is approaching “peak season” with questions about campuses opening in the fall semester.
March 27, 2020
As we noted last week, we are monitoring trends in the consumer and small business lending segment in light of the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following is data we are watching along with anecdotal information we have gathered in discussions with industry contacts.
March 21, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented environment for consumer lenders. In our daily discussions with our clients and industry contacts, everyone
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