|
MAY 26, 2026 |
|
What percentage of prospective borrowers feel shame or embarrassment before submitting a loan application? |
|
A) 23% B) 33% C) 43% D) 53% |
|
|
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. | | | |
|
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
|
|
|
Klarna launched an app within ChatGPT, bringing product discovery into the chatbot, per a press release. Klarna’s Shopping Search app lets consumers describe what they want to buy and aggregates visual results with real-time prices, availability, and offers from multiple merchants in one place. |
|
To complete a purchase, the app redirects users to the merchant’s storefront off ChatGPT’s platform. |
|
Klarna has aggressively adopted and helped build infrastructure to support genAI-based and agentic commerce. |
-
Klarna adopted Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
-
It developed its own open standard, Agentic Product Protocol, to make ecommerce products discoverable and understandable by AI agents. |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
MARKETING & ADVERTISING |
|
|
|
Larger credit unions increased marketing budgets significantly in 2025 and dedicated a much bigger share of operating expenses to marketing than their smaller competitors, according to recent analysis of nearly 3,000 credit unions using NCUA data by Capital Performance Group and The Financial Brand. |
|
This widening marketing gap will in turn widen the customer acquisition gap. |
-
Institutions with above $5 billion in assets put more than three times as much of their operating expenses toward marketing as credit unions with under $100 million in assets.
-
Marketing budgets accelerated sharply (around 9%) in 2025 for mid-sized and large institutions, while the smallest credit unions reported essentially no growth. |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT |
|
|
|
President Donald Trump’s May 19 executive order attempts to tie immigration enforcement to the US financial system by directing federal agencies to tighten oversight of how banks treat some immigration-related activity. |
|
The order tells the Treasury to issue new guidance warning banks about financial activity associated with undocumented labor, payroll tax evasion, cartel money laundering, human trafficking, and off-the-books wage payments. |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
REPORT |
|
|
|
US mobile payments are expanding across in-store, digital, and peer-to-peer (P2P) use cases, driven by widespread familiarity and deeper integration into everyday transactions. Growth is maturing, but overall transaction value will keep rising as merchant acceptance expands and usage broadens from low-cost, everyday purchases to larger-ticket items. |
|
(EMARKETER subscription required to read the full report) |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
CHART OF THE WEEK |
|
|
|
Key stat: 45% of US teens want to start investing and getting more money as early as possible, according to an October 2025 survey from Charles Schwab. | | | |
|
