The Free Toaster

Most marketers in lending companies spend their days thinking about the beginning and middle of the loan life-cycle. Few ever see what happens to a loan after it’s booked. In today's episode, Kevin Miao shares what happens on the Capital Markets side of the business. He worked on warehouse and securitization deals at Citi, including Prosper’s first rated securitization, and later ran a $2B private credit fund. Now he’s the founder of Tare, a startup building capital markets infrastructure for consumer lenders. Kev walks Carlos through the plumbing behind the roughly $300B personal loan market, then ties it back to growth and marketing. What we cover How a loan moves from a bank warehouse to a forward flow sale or a term securitization Why banks step back once expected losses pass about 8% Why 10% is roughly the yield big investors want today, and how that shapes the APR a borrower sees How warehouse volume targets and unused fees squeeze marketers working volatile channels Originator economics: about 1.5% on the loan sale plus around 1% a year in servicing What went wrong in 2021 and 2022, and why investors will react faster this cycle How pricing, marketplace rank and application friction feed loss rates What it took to go from zero to live loans in 12 months Why a borrower paying 18% could be paying 14% if lenders, marketplaces and investors shared more information ***** Want to chat with Kev? You can find him on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaokevin/  

Carlos & Nick expand on coverage from this week's Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/5-takeaways-from-happen-banks-q3 On October 28, Happen Bank announced Q3 earnings. Originations came in at $3.34 billion, up 26% YoY. Pre-tax income was a record $76.8 million. This was Happen’s first full quarter under the new name, and the call doubled as a case study for the impact of a rebrand.   ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars: The Customer Acquisition Summit For Lending (Affiliate Edition) April 7th & 8th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=podcast   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Organic search traffic to top affiliate finance sites is down 65% since August 2024. Banks and card issuers are only down 3%. Stephanie Briggs says that second number is the scarier one. Stephanie leads organic growth at Experian. She joins Carlos to unpack the data from her recent talk at the Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders. People haven’t stopped searching. AI now collapses 5 searches into 1 answer, so you get one shot to win the customer. In this episode Why Experian’s AI referral visits took off in late 2025 The 65% vs 3% split, and why flat traffic means banks missed SEO entirely NerdWallet’s SEO drop and the costly shift to paid search What Stephanie would do if she ran NerdWallet’s marketing LLM mentions vs citations, and how to track them How to assess AEO/GEO vendors A 12-month plan to reboot a lender’s content program How to pitch content investments to leadership  Her story about her grandfather’s rural Minnesota bank “If you look for directly attributable traffic, you’re gonna miss the boat, just like a lot of brands did on YouTube.” ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. The Customer Acquisition Summit for Lending (Affiliate Edition) April 7-8th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nov   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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=podcast   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Carlos expands on coverage from this week's Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/5-things-marketers-should-draw-from-5c8   ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com   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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=podcast     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct

Truist is selling LightStream’s personal loan book to Carlyle and has stopped taking new applications. Nick and Carlos bring in Gaurav Agarwal, former Chief Credit Officer at Happy Money, to discuss the transaction. In this episode LightStream’s history How Gaurav estimates the deal math: about 93.5 cents on the dollar for a $7.7B book, 3% to 3.5% annual losses, and a 2-year duration Why that comes out to roughly a 10% unlevered return before servicing, and why that’s a rich deal for Carlyle Why Truist wanted out: freeing up about $850M in CET1 capital for fee-generating businesses Who else probably bid, and why speed and relationships mattered What lenders and publishers in personal loans should take from the deal Why rising rates matter more than this sale for credit boxes How much of the $50K to $100K super prime segment LightStream likely held Check out the Newsletter Edition: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/transunion-puts-bankrates-lender ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=podcast     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct     New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com  

Carlos & Nick discuss Experian's launch of a cash flow bureau. Expanding on coverage from this week's Newsletter (Oct 14 2026). https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/experian-launches-a-cash-flow-bureau ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   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. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct     New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

John Henson of Henson Legal is back for his 2nd time on The Free Toaster Podcast. We start with a recent 7th Circuit TCPA case. 2 Allstate agents hired a live-transfer vendor, Transfer Kings, that wasn't on Allstate's approved list. When the lawsuit landed, Allstate investigated, confirmed the vendor was never approved, and barred every agency from using it. That quick response is what kept Allstate from being held vicariously liable. Then we get into "quantum finance," where you tell an LLM what you need and the loan or card just shows up. John explains why lenders are hesitant to advertise inside ChatGPT and Claude, and why it feels a lot like the YouTube brand safety mess from years ago. We close on growth. John breaks down how his practice wins clients and why he thinks showing up in AI search is mostly old-school SEO. In this episode PART 1 How Allstate avoided ratifying a vendor's bad calls What to ask a downstream partner after a TCPA suit lands Why the death of the keyword makes generative ads risky for lenders Stale offers and brand safety in LLM answers PART 2 John's growing AI voice practice (15 platform clients and counting) Why a sharper LinkedIn headline beat chasing viral posts Clients who found John through ChatGPT and Claude *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Support Our Content By Supporting Our Sponsors:   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   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.   https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!   https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Today we sit with James Brandon, Head Of Product at Prism Data and David Friermor, Director Of Product Management at Engine by Gen.   Together, they share their newly announced product partnership that helps lenders access cash flow underwriting data at the marketing stage.   If you were at The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders and Publishers in SF on September 23rd, 2026, you heard the announcement live.   In today's episode, you'll get an inside look at how it works from the leaders who built it.

You can learn more about the event and request an invitation here: The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders & Publishers September 23rd San Francisco, CA events.thefreetoaster.com

On June 22, LendingClub became Happen Bank. Mark Elliot, Chief Customer Officer, ran point on it. He joined the company 3 years ago and asked Scott Sanborn about the name in his very first conversation. The business had already moved from peer-to-peer lending marketplace to multi-product digital bank. The name hadn't caught up. If you're a performance marketer who's never sat on the front lines of a rebrand, this one's for you.  What we get into 1. How the naming process actually worked. Over 100 candidates, cut down by trademark and domain availability, then narrowed to 6 finalists through research with existing customers and the motivated middle segment. Respondents saw the names in print only. No logos, no colors. 2. Why "bank" stayed in the name. The research came back at 100% on this one, and some of their own customers didn't know LendingClub was a bank. 3. How they de-risked distribution. They tested the new color palette and new brand language under the old LendingClub name before the switch, seeded the market months in advance, and still run "Happen Bank, formerly LendingClub" across their touchpoints today. Mark explains what he'd tell any digital lender about working with affiliates and marketplaces through the transition. 4. The 6-month build. What started January 2 and shipped in June, including the move from NYSE to Nasdaq, a 1-month marketing freeze with an escalation process, and the asset audit that turned into spring cleaning. 5. The line item they underestimated: email. Deposit servicing, debit card servicing, applications in flight. AI capabilities improved fast enough during the project to absorb the overage and keep the budget intact. 6. What Mark's watching now. Daily search volume crossover between the old and new brand, plus a custom quarterly brand health survey built for the motivated middle instead of gen pop. 7. And the advice for any CMO convinced the name is what's broken. Mark's answer starts with GEICO. ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - September 23rd The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room 101 seats are now filled. 48 seats left! Learn more and request an invitation:   events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   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.   https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast   Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!   https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com