News for Fintech Marketers - May 29 2025

Affirm lands Costco, SoFi resurrects crypto, student loan woes deepen, and Visa accelerates on chain credit cards.

Hey Toaster Readers,

Hope you're having a good one!

We're trying something a little different this week. After our recent deep dives on Chime's upcoming IPO and Upstart's AI Day, we realized we had a bunch of other great news stories piling up.

So, this edition is packed with more news links from the past few weeks – consider it your essential catch-up!

We're curious: do you prefer these news-heavy editions, our deep dives, or a mix?

We'd love your take! Just hit reply or find us on LinkedIn (profiles at the end) to let us know what you think. Your feedback helps us make this newsletter the best it can be, and we really appreciate your support.

Thanks for reading!

Cards

  • CARD.com Taps Visa Direct to Expand Financial Services Globally PYMNTS 

  • Cardlytics Launches Cardlytics Rewards Platform and Expands Publisher Base Beyond Financial Institutions Business Wire 

  • Barclays Revamps GM Cards, Simplifying Offerings Payments Journal 

  • Rain and Visa Partner to Accelerate Onchain Credit Cards PR Newswire 

  • Citi Gets Exclusive on American Airlines Co-Branded Cards PYMNTS 

  • Neo Financial Becomes Official Credit Card of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) CEBL.ca 

  • Perpay Taps Marqeta To Power Consumer Credit Card Marqeta 

  • Synchrony Partners with the Independent Animal Hospital Association (IAHA) to offer CareCredit, Spotlighting Commitment to the Nation's Independent Veterinary Hospitals PR Newswire 

Deals

  • Capital One closes Discover acquisition after 15-month journey American Banker 

  • The Capital One, Discover merger and lessons learned for banks American Banker 

  • Affirm and Kayak Extend Pay Later Partnership to Canada PYMNTS 

  • Acorns acquires family investment app EarlyBird Fintech Futures 

Lending

  • Fintech groups oppose state BNPL rules Payments Dive 

  • Borrower Credit Scores Plunge Following Student Loan Delinquencies PYMNTS 

  • Nu COO Lahrech Steps Down, Adding to Turnover Atop Fintech Bloomberg

  • Upstart secures $1.2 billion loan purchase deal with Fortress Upstart 

  • Upstart Says SEC Has Ended Probe Into AI, Loan Disclosures Law360 

  • Consumer Loan Satisfaction Stagnant as Financial Health of Customers Declines, J.D. Power Finds Business Wire 

  • Borrowers and lenders show less enthusiasm for credit Marketplace.org 

  • Lending App EarnIn Hit With Consumer Class Action In NC Law360 

  • Pagaya targets regional banks for personal loan growth American Banker 

Banking

  • Fifth Third gives customers free access to wills Banking Dive 

  • Evolve Bank Escapes Claims It Stole Funds From Hobbled Fintech Bloomberg Law 

BNPL

  • Costco Makes Deal With Affirm Giving Shoppers Payment Plans Bloomberg 

  • Affirm's Max Levchin teases generative AI plans American Banker 

  • Klarna’s AI replaced 700 workers — Now the fintech CEO wants humans back after $40B fall Livemint 

Business Banking

  • Exclusive: Two Gen Z college dropouts just raised $41 million for their ‘vertical banking’ startup Slash Fortune 

  • Slash uses AI to build custom banking tools for niche industries Fast Company 

  • Karat Financial is bringing business banking to creators TechCrunch 

Earnings

  • Origination Volume Up, But Rocket Sees GAAP Net Loss Of $212M For Q1 2025 National Mortgage Professional 

  • Dave beats Q1 earnings estimates, raises 2025 outlook American Banker

  • Pagaya Reports First Quarter 2025 Results, GAAP Profitable Earlier than Expected Business Wire 

  • OppFi Generates Record Quarterly Revenue, Exceeds Quarterly Guidance by more than 40%, and Raises Full-Year Adjusted Net Income and EPS Guidance Business Wire 

  • Upstart beats expectations, but outlook worries investors American Banker 

  • SoFi reports strong performance in first quarter 2025 earnings American Banker 

  • Swedish fintech firm Klarna reports $99m Q1 loss as IPO delayed Tech in Asia 

Embedded Lending

  • CrediLinq to Expand into US, UK, Australia After US$8.5M Series A Funding Round Fintechnews.sg 

  • Trinity Capital Inc. Provides $15 Million in Growth Capital to Lendflow Trinity Cap 

EWA / Fintech

  • DailyPay expands into Canada The Paypers 

  • Galileo Aims to Bolster Bill Pay With ‘Payment Switch’ PYMNTS 

  • Inside Marqeta's quest to diversify clients beyond Block American Banker 

  • SoFi CEO says fintech bank is bringing back crypto investing CNBC 

  • Chime IPO tests market appetite for fintech investment American Banker 

  • Chime Financial IPO: Digital bank startup reveals revenue as it gears up for stock offering Fast Company 

  • Robinhood bolsters Canadian presence with $179m WonderFi acquisition Fintech Futures 

Industry

  • Mexico’s Fintech Boom Needs Help from the Government Bloomberg 

  • Digital Wallets Want to Replace Your Apps, Not Just Your Cards PYMNTS 

  • More Than 4 in 10 US Consumers Now Use Virtual Cards at Checkout PYMNTS 

Payments

  • Perplexity Adds PayPal as Checkout Option PYMNTS 

  • What Capital One must do to realize its payments ambition American Banker 

  • Citi Introduces Account-to-Account Payment Tool PayTo PYMNTS 

  • Crypto.com taps Green Dot to power Embedded Finance expansion in the US The Paypers 

Regulation

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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.