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Aggregators Shift Strategy!

Jim Stewart Ben Brake

Two Things We’re Hearing

  • Trends in aggregation
  • Capital One continues market leadership in 2025

A four-minute read

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Trends in Aggregation

  • Consumer finance aggregators (also referred to as marketplaces) such as Credit Karma and NerdWallet are major sources of new customer acquisition for banks and fintechs
  • Total traffic to the top aggregators was lower in 2025 compared to 2024; however, an in-depth look at traffic trends suggests some are seeing success in new and different business lines
  • Travel (flights, hotels, etc.) and Credit Card business lines are showing flat-or-lower 2025 traffic at most aggregators
  • Credit Reports and Debit/Check cards are growing segments at some aggregators
  • Some sites are breaking from their flagship strategy, leaning further into products outside their core business (e.g., NerdWallet with significant Auto Insurance traffic)
  • Among the large properties, LendingTree grew traffic year-over-year, while the four largest — Credit Karma, NerdWallet, Bankrate and The Points Guy — showed declines
  • Organic search volumes have eroded steadily for the top four aggregators over the last 24 months, potentially due to the rise of 'zero-click' AI search experiences displacing traditional traffic
  • The Debit / Check card segment experienced the strongest year-over-year growth, while Credit Cards, Loans, Travel, and Investing business lines saw decreases
  • The Points Guy and NerdWallet showed declines in the Travel segment
  • The Loans segment faced headwinds as Bankrate and Credit Karma traffic declined year-over-year by 27% and 20%, respectively
  • Traffic is lower across nearly all Bankrate business lines; this downtrend correlates with the rise of AI-driven search experiences, which may be displacing organic search clicks
  • Credit Karma is driving nearly all the growth in the Debit / Check Card segment
  • Core business lines (Credit Cards, Travel, Investing) underperformed at NerdWallet, coinciding with the rise of AI search tools that answer high-level queries without a click
  • While most Credit Card traffic is flat, NerdWallet and LendingTree showed reductions
  • Despite lower traffic at travel-related pages, Card issuer traffic originating from The Points Guy remains generally resilient
  • Counter to the general slowing of growth in aggregator Credit Card volume, the Amex Platinum card is seeing strong growth in external referral traffic, coinciding with the September new product launch

Capital One Continues Market Leadership in 2025

  • The top two consumer financial services advertisers, Capital One and Chase, remained unchanged in 2025 with Discover moving past Citi into third (and when Capital One and Discover are combined, they double number two Chase)
  • The top 10 bank advertisers increased spending by $69mm across all products, with increases by Capital One and SoFi offsetting most of the reductions by Citi, American Express, and Bank of America
  • In addition to being the largest, Capital One showed the most growth in 2025, pushing large increases in spending for the direct mail, TV, and paid social channels
  • Capital One’s increased direct mail spend was concentrated in credit cards, while TV was driven by heavy additional investment in Venture X card ads, joining other premium card activity with the high-profile Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum refreshes last year
  • SoFi (number 6 overall) increased spending by $70 million, focusing primarily on direct mail for mortgage and loans, as well as higher TV spending reflecting an increased focus on investments
  • For all products, overall increases in 2025 advertising spending were concentrated in the direct mail and paid social channels, with TV spend declining
  • Through Q2 2025, fintechs were by far the largest originators of personal loans, growing their share to 41% of the total with banks accounting for only 12%
  • Capital One will acquire the business banking and corporate finance fintech Brex
  • Capital One will use Brex’s card issuing, expense management, and payments capabilities to expand its commercial payments offerings
  • Capital One stands to inherit Brex’s corporate clients including TikTok, Intel, Anthropic, Toast, DoorDash, and Robinhood
  • With the ability to issue corporate cards in both the US and Europe, Capital One can rapidly scale out its corporate card, business banking, and billing services
  • The January 20th “deadline” for the (ludicrous) proposed imposition of a 10% cap on credit card interest rates came and went without any action from Washington
  • The (misguided) proposal would have led to a massive contraction in credit availability, particularly for subprime borrowers, and might have led to the elimination of rewards programs and the introduction of higher annual fees
  • Bank of America and Citi are said to be considering issuing new cards with 10% APRs, which unlike a (asinine) broad cap, if targeted correctly might actually serve a niche of creditworthy revolvers, (“Low interest credit cards will make a comeback” was predicted in the February 2024 Epic Report)

Thank you for reading.

Jim Stewart and Ben Brake
www.epicresearch.net

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