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Six Major Trends in Lending for Financial Marketers this Year

The forecast for most forms of consumer credit is good. Lending volume, growth in balances, and overall performance look upbeat for the year ahead. Banks and credit unions will try new marketing strategies, explore new products, and experiment with new technologies. Over the past six-weeks, we reviewed major trends in consumer lending that financial marketers should watch closely.

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“More consumers than ever before are carrying a credit card, as issuers provide greater financial inclusion,” TransUnion reports. Card credit saw seven quarters of significant growth into 2018. Part of this reflected a balancing by issuers, according to Paul Siegfried, SVP and Leader of the credit card line of business. The lenders were granting cards to more subprime borrowers, but managing the credit limits more tightly. In 2019, TransUnion expects more emphasis on issuing cards to prime consumers, to fine-tune credit quality.

Marketers will have their work cut out here, both in promoting cards as well as other kinds of consumer credit that can compete with cards.

Today’s card product designers can twirl pricing, rewards, and payments dials to vary the offers made for new card accounts. As a result, “consumers have more choices today than they have seen in a couple of decades,” says Siegfried.

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