VantageScore successfully completed two independent pilot programs using VantageScore 4plus™, the newest VantageScore credit scoring model leveraging the power of industry-leading VantageScore 4plus™ alternative open banking data. Pilots conducted with Patelco Credit Union and Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) each demonstrated significant quantitative improvements in credit risk prediction, as well as a significant expansion in access to credit for underserved consumers. “These results show that open banking data, when used responsibly and in combination with credit file data, can dramatically improve both risk management and financial inclusion,” said Dr. Andrada Pacheco, Executive Vice President and Chief Data Scientist at VantageScore. The solution builds on the industry-leading performance of the VantageScore models by adding bank transaction data to deliver a real-time, FCRA-compliant credit score. It offers enhanced risk separation among populations with limited credit histories, according to analyses performed by VantageScore. Because it is compatible with all three major credit bureaus and aggregator APIs, lenders can easily adopt it without overhauling credit policies. Michigan State University Federal Credit Union saw strong results in VantageScore 4plus™ testing, including: 33% of subprime moved to higher credit tiers; 41% of near prime members moved to higher credit tiers. In testing its portfolio, Patelco Credit Union found that VantageScore 4plus™ delivered: 12% of subprime and 15% of near prime members moved to higher credit tiers; 4.8% improvement in predictive power over VantageScore 3.0 in originations.
Albertsons is creating daily rhythms that involve reading customer sentiments and ratings, and understanding call center complaints at the start and end of each day inform the product roadmap to improve the omnichannel fulfillment
Now that Albertsons has become an omnichannel retailer, expectations are rapidly evolving, and the customers have control of the goalposts, said Albertsons Cos.’ SVP of digital shopping experiences, Jill Pavlovich. Albertsons sees its employees and company purpose as advantages. Bringing people together on the joys of food and inspiring well-being sets a different tone, she said, and it’s easier to snowball that tone into customer obsession. For example, the digital team has created daily rhythms and habits that start and end each day by reading customer sentiments and ratings, and understanding call center complaints. The information, used as a trend line, informs Albertsons’ product and technology roadmap to ensure the retailer is solving the most urgent customer pain points first. She described the digital roadmap as living and breathing and quite aggressive, noting it can change from sprint to sprint. At the top of the CX list is improving the digital fulfillment experience for customers, particularly the points between checkout and delivery, or checkout and pickup. The retailer is giving customers more control over their orders, including choosing substitutions that can be saved for future orders or directly communicating with store associates via chat while the orders are being picked. Within retail media — another key priority — the digital experience team views it as an intuitive discovery opportunity for new brands, which can be hard to replicate online and something it has struggled with, she said. Retail media can do this in a more intuitive and personalized manner. Its retail media arm unveiled an in-store display network — it’s inviting brands to participate even earlier. Pavlovich also sees future opportunities with in-store digital surfaces, including mobile apps and digital screens connecting to cart technologies.
Disney is adding virtual ‘storefronts’ to its popular streaming outlets to allow viewers to order snacks or pick out products they’ve seen in their favorite shows by clicking through specific interactive ads
Disney hopes to meld streaming and selecting by adding new virtual “storefronts” to its popular broadband venues that will allow viewers to order snacks or pick out products they’ve seen in their favorite shows, all while continuing to keep their binge on. Subscribers will be able to access them by clicking through when prompted by specific interactive ads The company is the latest to experiment with ways to harness the interactive nature of streaming, which allows viewers to control their experience with a few clicks of their remote. Disney will partner with ad-tech startup Shopsense to create new virtual storefronts that will be linked to some of the commercials it shows on its streaming outlets. Viewers can move to purchase fashions, products and offers tied to the series, movies or sports they are watching. The company is teaming up with Gopuff, a digital delivery service, to offer a virtual “concession stand” that will allow subscribers to order snacks, drinks and candy while streaming programs.
Over a Alexa+ which offers more natural and personalized interactions, smart home integration, and expanded capabilities powered by generative AI reaches over a million usersmillion people now have access to the gen-AI powered Alexa+
As of May 2025, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that Alexa+ had so far reached over 100,000 users, representing only a tiny fraction of the 600 million Alexa devices that had been sold. That number has grown significantly in the weeks since. Alexa+ represents a serious attempt by Amazon to create a generative AI experience for consumers that it can eventually monetize. Alexa+ aims to bring the digital assistant new capabilities. The service allows users to chat with the digital assistant using more natural language, where you can phrase requests your own way. You’ll also more easily be able to create routines, search across your Ring camera footage, interrupt or pivot the conversation with the assistant, and more. The experience is more personalized, too, as it saves your preferences and remembers what you like. With its generative AI component, Alexa can do things like summarize long emails you share with the service, create unique bedtime stories, generate quizzes from study guides, make travel itineraries, provide summaries of your smart home activity, and answer other questions, similar to how an AI chatbot might respond. Plus, the assistant will be able to help you take certain actions — like buying concert tickets, booking a dinner reservation, and notifying you when something you’ve been watching goes on sale, among other things.
Cordial’s AI marketing platform analyzes customer’s historical behavior such as opens, clicks, browses and purchases to predict their purchase intent at different price points, enabling brands to focus efforts on high-opportunity segments
AI marketing platform Cordial is releasing the newest addition to its AI suite: Price Sensitivity. With U.S. profit margins declining 1.6% in 2025 and consumer sentiment at a two-and-a-half-year low, this advancement comes at a critical moment as brands grapple with mounting pressure to preserve margins amid rising costs and global tariff uncertainties. Cordial’s new Price Sensitivity is designed to solve this problem. It analyzes each customer’s historical behavior — such as opens, clicks, browses and purchases — to predict their intent to buy at different price points. This dynamic attribute enables marketers to personalize offers and adjust messaging, deploying discounts only where they drive meaningful impact while preserving margins to each individual shopper. By identifying which customers are truly influenced by price, brands can eliminate unnecessary promotional noise and tune in and focus efforts on high-opportunity segments. For example, marketers might target a high-sensitivity shopper with a personalized coupon or flash sale, while showing a low-sensitivity buyer premium or exclusive items at full price. This level of intent-based personalization not only protects margin but also improves customer experience and retention by listening to behavioral signals and anticipating their needs. The Price Sensitivity feature complements a suite of new Cordial Edge AI dynamic attributes launched this spring, designed to help marketers better understand their customers and increase customer value. These include: Lifetime Value (LTV): Predicts a customer’s future revenue contribution; Average Order Value (AOV): Predicts average spend per transaction; RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary): Classifies buyer loyalty and spending behavior; Engagement Momentum: Measures the trajectory of engagement to prioritize timing; and Frequency Optimization: Applies per-contact email message caps to maximize engagement and reduce fatigue.
Walmart and Target to counter the first ever four day Amazon Prime Day with coinciding Walmart Deals and Target Circle Week
Amazon has announced that its Prime Day 2025 promotion will take place from Tuesday, July 8 – Friday, July 11. This marks the first time Prime Day, which has been a two-day event since 2017, will last four days. Walmart’s Sam’s Club warehouse club subsidiary was the first major retailer to reveal a summer promotion that countered Prime Day. Now Walmart is offering its Walmart Deals event, launched as a digital-only sale in July 2024, for six days spanning Tuesday, July 8 – Sunday, July 13. New in 2025, Walmart Deals will be available both in stores and online. Members of the Walmart+ subscription loyalty program will have exclusive early access to Walmart Deals offers beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, July 7. Target Corp. is also bringing back a summer sales blockbuster it launched in 2024 – Target Circle Week. Running Sunday, July 6 – Saturday, July 12 in stores and online, the event is exclusively available for members of the free Target Circle and enhanced paid Target Circle 360 loyalty programs. Target Circle 360 members will receive early access to Circle Week deals starting Saturday, July 5. The promotion also features a number of special perks for students and teachers, including a one-time 20% off storewide discount for verified college students with Target Circle starting Sunday, June 29; a one-time 20% off storewide discount with Target Circle for teachers from Sunday, July 20 – Saturday, Aug. 30, as well as access to curated classroom sets and wish list tools; and a 50% discount on Target Circle 360 membership through Saturday, Sep. 13. The retailer is also offering students and teachers a number of other special discounts this summer.
Algebrik AI’s integration with TruStage platform to enable FIs to present lending protection products directly within the digital loan application flow
Algebrik AI announced a partnership with TruStage™, to integrate the education of a broad suite of lending protection offerings from TruStage—including GAP coverage, debt protection, credit insurance, and mechanical repair coverage—directly into Algebrik’s end-to-end digital lending workflows. With this integration, Algebrik enables credit unions and community lenders to present TruStage protection products directly within the digital loan application flow—empowering borrowers to choose coverage that fits their needs without disrupting the journey. Whether for auto loans, personal loans, or other credit products, protection options are embedded natively into Algebrik’s borrower experience and remain easily configurable by loan officers. Key Benefits of the Integration: Comprehensive Coverage Options – Offer GAP coverage, credit insurance, debt protection, and mechanical repair coverage products—all surfaced directly within Algebrik’s LOS. Embedded at the Point of Decision – Borrowers encounter relevant protection choices within the same digital flow, with no need to redirect or re-engage later. Configurable by Loan Type & Member Segment – Institutions can tailor which TruStage products are presented based on loan type, member profile, or risk category. Simplified Operations, Centralized Reporting – Built-in tracking, configuration, and compliance support helps lenders manage enrollment, documentation, and servicing with minimal manual effort.
Spinwheel provides real-time, verified consumer credit data for processing payments via APIs using credentialless technology that requires only phone number and date of birth
Spinwheel is rewiring how consumer credit data is accessed, activated, and embedded into financial workflows, with the closure of its $30 million Series A funding round. Spinwheel’s real-time consumer credit data and payments platform currently supports more than 15 million users and 165 million connected credit and liability accounts, facilitating over $1.5 trillion in consumer debt across its network. The new funding will accelerate development of its agentic AI platform, expand its data sets and product offerings, and scale its go-to-market team as it builds the foundational infrastructure to transform the consumer credit data and payments ecosystem. Spinwheel partners with lenders, marketplaces, personal financial management platforms, and other financial companies to provide real-time, verified consumer credit data to process payments as part of their clients’ existing workflow and operations via APIs. The company’s proprietary, credentialless technology requires only two data fields – phone number and date of birth – streamlining and simplifying user actions and delivering a more complete consumer credit profile, empowering financial clients to provide better financial products and a seamless experience for the consumer. Spinwheel’s clients see significant improvements in conversion rates, increased revenue, lower operational and acquisition costs, as well as mitigated risk.
Federal housing regulator to consider the inclusion of crypto assets in the income checks by mortgage lenders as against the current legislation that limits their use only for closing and reserves
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Putle said his department will review how crypto assets might be included in the income checks by entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte owns up to $1 million in cryptocurrency and holds stakes in crypto firm MARA Holdings and Elon Musk’s X. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require that virtual currency only be used for “closing and reserves if it has been exchanged into U.S. dollars and is held in a U.S.- or state-regulated financial institution. There must be sufficient documentation to verify that the funds originated from the borrower’s cryptocurrency account.” Meanwhile, there is a “rise of bitcoin as a form of collateral in loans issued by big banks — used as inputs to determine applicants’ net worth and liquidity, and by extension, loan terms.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ordered by FHFA to consider crypto as asset for mortgages
U.S. Federal Housing FHFA Director William J. Pulte has ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider cryptocurrency as an asset for single-family mortgage loan risk assessments. Pulte said he ordered the change because cryptocurrency may offer an opportunity to build wealth outside of the stock and bond markets, cryptocurrency has not typically been considered in the mortgage risk assessment process, and the consideration of additional borrower assets in that process “may enable the Enterprises to assess the full spectrum of asset information available for reserves and to facilitate sustainable homeownership to creditworthy borrowers.” The order directs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to each prepare a proposal for making this change to their single-family mortgage loan risk assessments, consider only cryptocurrency assets that are stored on a U.S.-regulated centralized exchange, and consider additional risk mitigators. “Prior to implementing any changes, each Enterprise must submit and receive approval from its Board of Directors prior to submitting to U.S. Federal Housing FHFA for review,” the order said. Pulte said that his department would review whether crypto holdings should affect Americans’ mortgage applications.