News for Fintech Marketers - June 5, 2025

Oportun's letter to shareholders, Pagaya leans into POS, TU reigns-in debt growth narrative

June 05, 2025

Hey, Toaster Readers!

Normally, we'd dive into this week's news, but honestly? So much is happening at the crossroads of marketing, lending, and tech that our heads are spinning! It feels like a year's worth of change is packed into every month.

While that means tons of exciting stuff to cover, it's also getting trickier to cut through the noise.

So, instead of opening with a news summary this week, we wanted to share a bit about what we're building here at The Free Toaster and how we plan to become your absolute go-to source in this niche.

Here’s the game plan:

  1. Reinvesting in Content: Everything we earn (huge thanks to our 4 awesome early sponsors!) is going straight back into making this newsletter better – more killer content, smarter tech, and new partnerships.

  2. Leveraging AI: Right now, it helps us write faster and find stories you need to see. Soon, it'll connect the dots between announcements, earnings calls, and past reports to give you much richer context on everything we publish.

  3. More Expert Voices: We're talking with some amazing folks to bring you specialized columns. Imagine deep dives into direct mail, paid social, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), AI agents, and more. The Free Toaster started with just us (Carlos and Nick), but we're gearing up to be much bigger!

  4. Building Human Connection: In a world full of AI, human connection is priceless. We want The Free Toaster to be a real community. Think small dinners, coffee meetups, maybe even live podcast events.

Look, building a newsletter and a community is tough, especially now. We pour a ton of heart and hours into this because we genuinely love it (even if the financials don't make sense on paper, yet!).

We're in this for the long haul, and we hope you are too.

If The Free Toaster is hitting the mark for you, could you do us a huge favor?

Share it with a colleague, drop it in a Slack channel, or get your boss to sign up. Your support is what keeps us going and growing.

Seriously, thanks for letting us into your inbox. We're working hard to make this the best publication in our niche. We're not there yet, but with you on board, we’ve got a real shot.

Thanks,

Carlos and Nick

We’re excited to welcome our friends at Fintel Connect as our newest Toaster sponsor

Turn partnerships into your top growth channel with Fintel Connect. 

Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.

AI

  • How AI is redefining search advertising Google 

  • Google's 'AI Mode' Could Be Bad for Reddit Business Insider 

  • Rakuten Advertising Unveils AI Tools for Affiliate Transparency & Growth Martech Cube 

  • Why AI Search Advertising Could Reach $25 Billion By 2029 Forbes 

  • Agentic AI Is Already Changing the Workforce HBR 

  • LLMs, AI Overviews may be quietly driving homepage traffic Martech 

  • Brands could start shunning AI for social media marketing and advertising, instead using their feeds to show off 'proof of reality,' consultant says Fortune 

  • WPP Media launches as fully integrated, AI-powered media company WPP 

  • Watch Advertising in the Age of AI with Vaynerchuk Bloomberg 

  • BCG partners with Pencil to help companies make AI ads Consulting.us 

  • Meta’s Reportedly Planning to Enable Fully Automated Ad Campaigns by Next Year Social Media Today 

  • Faster, Smarter, Cheaper: AI Is Reinventing Market Research (Andreessen Horowitz) a16z 

  • New AI Marketing Agency Helps Brands Dominate ChatGPT Results: Meet The SEO of Tomorrow GlobeNewswire 

  • Inside Walmart’s Strategy for Building an Agentic Future Walmart 

  • How Truist and Western Alliance deploy AI to fight fraud American Banker 

  • OpenAI Aims to Develop and Distribute ‘Super-Assistant’ PYMNTS 

  • How Teachers Federal Credit Union Is Rewriting Its Playbook With AI Automation PYMNTS 

  • Google Debuts App to Let Users Run AI Models on Their Phones PYMNTS

  • Onfolio Holdings Launches Pace Generative to Help Brands Dominate AI-Generated Search Results GlobeNewswire

Cards

  • Venmo introduces new debit card benefits and payment options as rival Cash App struggles TechCrunch

  • FIS and Episode Six Launch Issuing Hub to Modernize Global Card Programs PYMNTS 

  • Bilt Rewards Teams up With Wells Fargo To Offer a Card That Earns Points on Rent Upgraded Points 

  • PayPal Credit Moves into the Physical World PaymentsJournal 

  • Zilch Partners With Visa to Launch Physical Payments Card PYMNTS 

  • Klarna, PayPal push in-store spending with new cards American Banker

Credit Union / Earnings / Embedded Lending / EWA

  • Mahalo Banking picks up six new credit union partnerships through AFS Fintech Futures 

  • Starling Bank’s Profits Dip Due to COVID and Crime Control Issues PYMNTS 

  • Pagaya Accelerates Point-of-Sale Market Penetration, with Over $1 Billion in Additional Funding Capacity Through Inaugural POS Securitization Business Wire 

  • Maryland enacts Earned Wage Access legislation Consumer Finance Monitor

Fraud

BNPL

  • Pagaya Issues $300 Million in Bonds to Fund BNPL Loans PYMNTS 

  • ‘Zero of my profits will come from late fees’: Affirm’s Max Levchin on building trust in lending Tearsheet 

  • New Klarna Card Marries BNPL Flexibility to Visa Debit Rails PYMNTS 

Underwriting

  • Credit Score Stocks (FICO, EFX, TRU) Slide as FHFA Head Questions Pricing Bloomberg 

  • Rise of Alternative Data for Credit Scoring Pressures FICO PYMNTS

Industry / Macro

  • TransUnion Analysis Uncovers Surprising Truth: Inflation-Adjusted Debt Growth Much Smaller Over the Last Five Years GlobeNewswire 

  • Staggering number of Canadians are missing credit card payments Daily Hive 

  • Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households (SHED) Federal Reserve 

  • Wells Fargo sheds asset cap, ending seven years of handcuffs American Banker 

  • No Credit History? No Problem. Kellogg School of Management 

  • Net charge-off ratio at 15 largest US banks in Q1 American Banker 

  • Taktile Selected as Global Innovator by World Economic Forum to Help Shape the Future of Financial Decision-Making Business Wire 

  • Chime, last valued at $25B, aims for $11B in upcoming IPO TechCrunch

Lending

  • Oportun Issues Letter to Stockholders, Response to Significant Macroeconomic Disruption GlobeNewswire 

  • Evercore upgrades Block on lower lending risk and steady consumer trends, Cash App lending Investing.com

Payments

  • Mastercard, PayPal Partner on Unified Payment Platform FinTech Magazine 

  • Inside Cantaloupe’s Big Bet on Frictionless Retail for the TikTok Generation PYMNTS 

Regulation

  • Open Banking Rule in Limbo as Legal Jousting Continues PYMNTS 

  • CFPB seeks to end open banking case Payments Dive 

  • The CFPB plans to kill the 1033 rule. Open banking lives on American Banker 

  • CFPB Drops Final Claims Against Lease-to-Own Company Snap Bloomberg Law

Be sure to subscribe to stay informed. It’s free!

Support The Free Toaster

  • Need an affiliate marketing platform/network? Chat with Fintel Connect

  • Need help hiring key roles? Email Connie Buehler and mention TOASTER

  • Need to improve application page conversions? Chat with Spinwheel

  • Need to accelerate your affiliate marketing? Chat with New Market Growth

  • Need to win on other growth channels? Chat with FIAT Growth

  • None of the above? Share our Newsletter in your favorite Slack channel

Jobs
We send a separate jobs edition every 1-2 weeks. You can always view it at thefreetoaster.com or, click here if you want to receive the jobs edition via email

About Us

Welcome to The Free Toaster! The newsletter for marketing pros at fintechs, banks, and lenders. 

Inspired by the free toasters banks used to give to each new customer, we’re here to help you acquire more customers at scale. We deliver fresh news, data, and insights to help you acquire more customers, minus the breadcrumbs.

Want to follow the authors on social media? Find Nick Madrid and Carlos Caro on LinkedIn.