The Zelle network launched a new multi-city financial education training roadshow in partnership with Consumer Action, a national non-profit dedicated to consumer protection and financial empowerment for more than 50 years. The multi-city effort kicked off with an inaugural “train-the-trainer” event in New York City on July 22, aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of how fraud and scams are evolving. The New York event featured: An interactive workshop on how to prevent fraud and scams and financial education; A presentation from the Federal Trade Commission; and Opportunities for participants to ask questions and share experiences. Additional workshops will take place in Los Angeles on September 25 and Phoenix on November 6. Zelle and Consumer Action will work closely with local organizations to tailor each event to the unique needs of its community.
Jack Henry launches “MyFinancialHealth” on its digital banking platform designed using a configurable free-to-premium model, allowing financial institutions to offer key features at no cost to users, with optional paid upgrades
Jack Henry has launched MyFinancialHealth, allowing over 1,000 banks and credit unions to embed a suite of financial health tools powered by Array. The platform offers a broader suite of embeddable tools, including credit monitoring, identity protection, online subscription management, and federal student loans. The platform is designed using a configurable free-to-premium model, allowing financial institutions to offer key features at no cost to users, with optional paid upgrades for enhanced control and protection. The platform is easily activated through a single configuration, eliminating APIs, onboarding burden, and custom development. The launch aligns with Jack Henry’s mission to deepen the connection between accountholders and their primary financial institutions, reducing financial fragmentation and improving digital engagement. Array reports that users visit its components an average of 2.2 times a month, with many opting for premium services.
REGO white-label family financial lifecycle solution delivers COPPA compliant, generational banking solutions—youth accounts, elder care, and fractional investing—with family controls to support financial inclusion in tribal communities
Rego Payment Architectures, the white-label family financial lifecycle solution platform, announced a strategic partnership with Aambé Financial to bring REGO’s generational banking tools to tribal nations across the United States. Aambé Financial, a Native-led organization rooted in economic empowerment, will work with REGO to introduce its youth banking, elder financial care, and fractional investment offerings to tribal governments, enterprises, and families. The partnership will begin with REGO’s youth banking product, which enables children to earn, save, spend, and give with parental oversight in a secure, compliant environment. Designed to support financial literacy and family engagement, the platform is certified to be COPPA-compliant, making it uniquely suited to serve minors safely and responsibly. Future phases of the rollout will introduce REGO’s senior financial management and fractional investing modules, which are designed to support caregivers, elders, and first-time investors with appropriate controls and flexible access. Together, REGO and Aambé Financial offer a community-focused and scalable platform. This partnership empowers tribal communities to safeguard family finances, build wealth across generations, and take control of their financial futures.
Gen Z prefers trustworthy online retailers that are using transparent tech—online queues over crashes, bot defenses, and fair access systems—to earn loyalty, recommendations, and program signups
Unlike their older counterparts, Gen Z consumers are significantly more likely to stay loyal, spend more, recommend and join the loyalty programs among online businesses they trust most, according to “The Age of Online Trust,” a new survey from virtual waiting room provider Queue-it. Trust also trumps cost for a majority of Gen Z shoppers. Specifically, 90% reported they would buy a product from a trustworthy business even if it costs 10% more (88% of their older counterparts agree). A majority of these younger shoppers (68%) not only expect more from retailers than they did last year, they place more value on trust in online businesses. For example, 70% are likely to spend more at trustworthy retailers compared to 60% of millennials and Gen X. Meanwhile, 69% are likely to be more loyal vs. 63% of their older counterparts. More than three-quarters (76%) of these digitally-native shoppers are more likely to recommend trustworthy retailers, and 68% are more likely to join their loyalty program, the report said. To gain Gen Z’s trust, retailers need to emphasize reliability and transparency. For example, 88% of Gen Z shoppers prefer an online queue to an error page or crashed website. This drops to 84% among millennials and Gen X. Almost three-quarters of Gen Z shoppers (73%) are more likely to trust businesses that block bots and 65% are more likely to trust businesses that ensure fair access during limited-inventory sales or registrations. This is important to 54% of older counterparts.
MoneyFor launches clear, impartial financial platform empowering Americans to improve credit, manage debt, and make informed loan decisions
MoneyFor, a newly launched financial information platform, is addressing the growing demand for accessible and impartial financial guidance as American households face increased debt and borrowing costs. Founded in 2023, the platform is designed to help individuals improve credit health, understand loan terms, and manage debt through clear, practical resources. The platform offers a range of content, including articles, explainers, and decision-support tools, to support informed and sustainable financial decision-making. Rather than offering overly technical advice, the platform is structured around clear, actionable information designed for everyday use. The content is organized to assist individuals in various financial situations, from those beginning to understand how credit works, to those actively working to pay off high-interest debt or evaluate loan offers. MoneyFor does not promote specific financial products or services, instead focusing on education that can help individuals make better choices based on their own unique financial circumstances. The core objective of the platform is to reduce confusion and stress around financial decisions. The platform also reflects the changing nature of how financial information is consumed. With increasing digital access, more individuals are turning to online platforms for answers to financial questions. MoneyFor is built with this reality in mind, offering content that is easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and continually updated based on current economic conditions and user feedback. What sets the platform apart is its focus on empowerment through knowledge. By breaking down the fundamentals of personal finance into understandable parts, it becomes easier for users to identify problems, develop a plan, and take the steps needed to build long-term financial health. While the platform does not provide financial advice in the form of personalized consultation, it offers a strong foundation of information that can support informed, confident choices.
Discuss debuts “vibe coding” and hybrid AI‑plus‑human market research, adding Insights, Interview and Project Agents to unify past research, run video shop‑alongs and recruit from 3M+ participants fast
Discuss announced new features that cement the hybrid model of AI-led and human-led research as the industry’s new normal. This release also introduces a concept Discuss is calling vibe coding for market insights. Key Feature Highlights: The Enhanced Insights Agent leverages GenAI to automatically find answers to key questions across research, breaking down silos and making qualitative data instantly searchable; Scale consumer closeness for every use case with AI-led video interviews: Designed for real-time qual at scale, the enhanced Interview Agent now enables teams to test concepts, get UX feedback, run shop-alongs and gain consumer closeness; Find your target audience in hours, not weeks: Enhanced Project Agent is like a virtual assistant that builds screeners. It recruits from 3M+ vetted global participants representing B2B, B2C, and healthcare, with responses in under an hour. Insights Agent: Building Knowledge Across Projects: With new Cross-Project Summaries, Discuss Insights Agent turns silos into a searchable, evolving knowledge base. Teams can now synthesize insights across both AI-moderated and human-led projects, spotting consumer behavior shifts and answering new questions without repeating work. Interview Agent: Video Conversations With Real Human Depth. Teams can present ads, product designs, or concepts directly within the interview, prompting instant feedback that the AI probes with smart follow-up questions. On mobile, participants can even flip their cameras for live, self-directed shop-alongs or in-home tours. By capturing tone, expressions, and body language across dozens of languages, the Interview Agent delivers richer context at scale than surveys alone can provide. Project Agent: Rapid Access to the Right Audiences: With access to more than 3 million vetted participants across 150 countries and 100,000 job titles, brands can reach niche or global audiences in days.
AI-native infrastructure flattens information asymmetry in lending, accelerating adoption of J.Crew style borrower protection from 11% to 36% and pushing pro rata sharing to 85% across new issuances
The golden age of liability management transactions — the decade-long run of aggressive structural engineering and contractual gamesmanship — is drawing to a close as of the second half of 2025. For much of the 2010s and early 2020s, the outcome of a credit negotiation depended less on pricing than on structure. Borrowers with inventive legal advisors and a high tolerance for reputational risk could exploit definitional ambiguity, reclassify assets and subordinate existing lenders, often entirely within the four corners of the contract. Consider J.Crew’s 2016 masterstroke: The retailer transferred its valuable trademark to an unrestricted subsidiary. In other words, they moved the company’s most valuable asset — the ability to call something “J.Crew” — outside the original credit group and beyond the reach of existing lenders. That intellectual property was then used as collateral for new financing that leapfrogged existing creditors in the capital structure. The maneuver allowed J.Crew to raise fresh capital while leaving original lenders holding significantly devalued claims. J.Crew didn’t invent this sort of financial engineering; PetSmart had a similarly tricky 2013 maneuver, involving selling a nominal sliver of equity in Chewy (just enough to classify it as a “non-wholly owned” subsidiary) and subsequently shifting its most valuable assets out of the credit facility’s reach. With a 1% sale, PetSmart effectively stripped 100% of Chewy’s value from creditor protection. It was an elegant exploitation of definitional loopholes. What made such tactics viable in the first place was their asymmetry and novelty. No law firm, lender or sponsor had a complete view of how these structures functioned across the broader market.
Visa taps Ample Earth to embed merchant sustainability labels into banking apps and loyalty so issuers segment customers and reward greener spending at scale so that daily transactions can become climate touchpoints
Visa has launched a partnership with U.K.-based climate FinTech Ample Earth to incorporate sustainability data into digital banking apps and loyalty programs and help banks better segment customers and discover new ways to “engage, empower, and reward sustainability.” “Transactions are a touchpoint people interact with daily. By helping people understand the impact of their spending, we can empower millions of businesses and customers to use their purchasing power as a force for good,” Ample Earth Co-founder and CEO Raja Darbari said. “People don’t have time to fact-check sustainability claims, but they do want clarity and accessible information. We aim to bridge that gap and make sustainability data easy to digest and relatable.” Ample provides merchant-specific sustainability data across “key social and environmental themes,” turning unstructured data into actionable insights with eco-labels and social tags like “Zero-Waste,” “Living Wage Employer” and “B Corp.” The companies say the combination of Visa’s global reach and Ample’s sustainability intelligence can allow sustainability data to be integrated into everyday decision-making, “strengthening the role of financial institutions in shaping customer behavior and incentivizing sustainable business practices.”
BoA card data in August suggests stark and widening differences in income and spending growth across income cohorts; spending growth is weakest amongst GenZ and GenX
Total credit and debit card spending per household increased 1.7% year-over-year (YoY) in August, after a gain of 1.8% YoY in July, according to Bank of America aggregated card data. Seasonally adjusted spending per household rose 0.4% month-over month (MoM), the third increase in a row. We continue to see stark differences in income and spending growth across income cohorts, with the divergence in after-tax wage and salary growth widening again in August. Spending growth is weakest amongst younger generations and Gen X. The weakening labor market appears to be impacting younger people, particularly because changing jobs no longer results in as big of a pay bump. Some relief for the younger generations could come from easing housing costs. Our measure of new rent payments suggests they are dropping back, perhaps as households trade down. If sustained, this may help narrow the gap between the stronger spending growth of homeowners versus renters. Furthermore, the median deposit level of all generations also remains high compared to 2019 levels in Bank of America internal data. So, this would suggest to us that households do not appear to be running down their savings. For now, the recent slowdown in the labor market is not obviously being reflected in households’ overall finances.
Smart Capital Center adds AI‑powered financial analysis for CRE: automated variance detection, likely driver surfacing, and one‑click, audience‑tuned commentary for credit and investor reports
Smart Capital Center, the AI-powered CRE platform driving innovation across commercial real estate investment and finance, announced the launch of its newest enhancement: AI-powered financial analysis. The first application of this capability is automated variance reporting and commentary, designed for CRE lenders, investors, and asset managers. Unlike generic reporting tools, Smart Capital Center’s financial analysis is purpose-built for the complexities of commercial real estate. The variance reporting feature automatically identifies variances, surfaces likely drivers, and generates commentary that can be copied directly into reports—or regenerated in alternate styles depending on the audience, whether a credit committee or an investor memo. Here’s what’s now possible inside the platform: Automated explanations: Variances explained by drawing connections across rent rolls, inspections, appraisals, and market data.Interactive exploration: Follow-up questions like “Why did utilities spike this month?” answered instantly with AI-driven insights. Ready-to-use reporting: Professional commentary instantly available for credit packages, servicing updates, or portfolio reviews. Consistent analysis at scale: Standardized explanations across properties and portfolios, regardless of analyst. Data is analyzed at a scale humans simply can’t match. By synthesizing these diverse signals, the platform detects risks and opportunities far earlier—spotting correlations that manual teams would likely miss.