Comperemedia’s Chief Insights Officer, Andrew Davidson is well known for sharing the latest insights on financial services products and marketing strategies/innovations on his LinkedIn, as an event speaker and as a host on Mintel’s Little Conversation podcast. In this bi-weekly recap, he will provide you with the latest news and insights happening in the financial services industry.
Here are the 5 things you need to know:
1. Aspiration relaunches as GreenFi
On Earth Day (April 22), Aspiration officially became GreenFi.
Aspiration customers had previously been notified by email: “We’re now operating as an independent company, with no ties to past ownership or leadership, under Mission Financial Partners.”
In recent weeks, GreenFi has ramped up customer communication, thanking customers, announcing new partnerships with Patagonia and Intrepid Travel, and launching new features.
What’s next? Higher-yield savings, a climate-first credit card, more impact investment options, and green loans.
Source: Comperemedia Omni [04/01/2025 – 05/31/2025] as of 06/16/2025
💡Brand reset
- New brand, new beginnings. The rise and fall of Aspiration is a wild story and clearly a new brand is needed to make a clean break from the past due to a series of legal and ethical controversies. Whoever said it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and 5 mins to lose it applies fully here. Aspiration was started in 2013, backed by high-profile celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. Three years ago, Aspiration launched a credit card and I had a great conversation with co-founder Andrei Cherny who left the company back in 2022. We spoke about Aspiration’s bold ambitions and how it had invested in building trust, a huge challenge for fintechs looking to take on established banks. Can GreenFi and its new leadership push the reset button and build trust with customers? When I interviewed Andrei, Aspiration had 7 million customers and it seemed the sky was the limit.
- Still an opportunity. According to Mintel, about 37% of consumers say sustainability is a top-of-mind consideration in their daily lives, a figure that has held steady since 2023. Andrei referred to the conscious consumer “not a niche.” GreenFi is betting that opportunity still exists. My take: GreenFi gets a reset. The mission still resonates. But rebuilding/establishing trust is slow work, especially when you’re asking consumers to move their money.
2. Walmart’s OnePay and Synchrony announce a new partnership
Walmart’s majority-owned fintech OnePay has announced it will launch a co-branded Mastercard and a private-label credit card with its former partner Synchrony. This marks a stunning reunion after their 2018 legal split, which ended a 19-year relationship.
After the breakup, Walmart rebounded with Capital One, launching a new card in 2019. That too ended badly. In 2023, Walmart sued Capital One for poor servicing and won the right to exit early.
Now Walmart is back in Synchrony’s arms, this time with OnePay providing the user experience.
But here’s the nuance: they never really let go. Even during the Capital One era, Synchrony quietly remained the issuer of Sam’s Club credit cards, a separate relationship that stayed intact. Maybe they always knew they’d find their way back.
💡Synchrony and Walmart can’t quit each other
- Bringing back the establishment. OnePay has never positioned itself as a full-stack credit card issuer. From the start, it has relied on behind-the-scenes partnerships to deliver financial services, choosing to be the consumer-facing interface rather than the underlying engine. Outsourcing credit risk and servicing to Synchrony is a continuation of this approach. The result is a collaboration between a sleek fintech front-end and one of the most seasoned retail card issuers in the business.
- OnePay as the one-stop payments shop at Walmart. OnePay is building out an ecosystem for the millions of consumers that shop at Walmart, covering everything from banking and budgeting to credit, installment loans, and mobile payments at Walmart. With rewards, savings, and financial tools all in one app, the goal is clear: make OnePay the daily financial hub for the Walmart customer.
- Synchrony plays the long game. Synchrony didn’t let a lawsuit (ultimately dropped) sever ties with the largest retailer in the world and signaled that it would be ready to reestablish the relationship. Synchrony also continued to issue the Walmart Sam’s Club credit card, renewing a 30-year partnership earlier this year. That’s long-term thinking and Synchrony for the win!
3. Chase debuts a teaser campaign for Sapphire Reserve
Is Chase signaling an upscale pivot for Sapphire Reserve?
Rumors of a product refresh for Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee) have been swirling, but reached a new level after a teaser ad was reportedly spotted at New York’s Grand Central Station and later posted on the Instagram accounts of both Chase Sapphire and 90s supermodel Claudia Schiffer.
The ad features a redesigned card and hints that something is coming in “Summer 2025.”
💡Staying aspirational
- Chase is signaling a shift to quiet luxury. Claudia Schiffer is the embodiment of refined, high-end, European luxury. She’s not trendy, she’s timeless. When paired with the rumored refresh, it suggests Chase is repositioning Sapphire Reserve as a more upscale luxury lifestyle product. The Instagram ad looks like it was lifted from Vogue magazine, styled with the restraint and polish of a fashion editorial. This isn’t about travel credits anymore. It’s about taste, status, and belonging to a more elevated club.
- A strategic play for the evolving consumer. This might not just be about targeting a more premium Gen X or older Millennial consumer; it could also be about growing with the original Sapphire Reserve audience. When the card launched in 2016, it was a millennial favorite: full of travel perks and value-maxing potential. But nearly a decade later, those same millennials have matured. Their spending habits have shifted. Their expectations have evolved. Chase may be refreshing Sapphire Reserve not just to attract new customers, but to stay aspirational for the ones who made it a hit in the first place.
4. Citizens launches an entire suite of new credit cards
🏔️ New card alert… alert… alert…
Citizens just dropped an entire new suite of credit card products.
Here’s what’s new:
- Citizens Amp – for those just starting out on their financial journey
- Citizens Spring – for customers focused on managing and paying down debt
- Citizens Summit – for customers with active, eventful lives
- Citizens Summit Reserve – for those looking to get more from their financial success
- + a new Private Bank card – no public details yet, but targeted at HNW individuals with more than $1.5M in investable assets or over $500K in annual income
💡My quick take
- A journey to the mountaintop. Changing everything at once is a risky and bold move; however, the rationale is clear – it’s all about the journey with a lineup structured to grow with the customer. Progression is embedded in the naming: from the energy of “Amp” to the altitude of “Summit.” That climbing the mountain metaphor is baked into the product. What card will Citizens lead with when it comes to marketing? Maybe the journey itself.
- Building premium relationships. Summit Reserve offers cash back, access to events/experiences and $500 of “premium travel credits.” The fee structure is notable, with $200 of the $295 annual fee waived for Citizens Quest customers and the entire fee waived for Citizens Private Client customers. This is a unique and smart way to reward deeper relationships. We also await the details of a new HNW card for Private Bank customers. Citizens wants to keep its most affluent customers in-house and not concede them to Amex, Chase, Capital One or anyone else.
- Human touch. From sustainable card materials to featuring a 50-year employee on the sample cards and incorporating Mastercard Touch (tactile notches for the visually impaired), this launch reflects a mega-regional bank seeking to modernize and grow its credit card business while maintaining a human touch.
5. Crypto credit cards emerge as a new category
Gemini out-Bitcoined Coinbase.
This week, Coinbase announced a new credit card (waitlist only) called the Coinbase One Card in partnership American Express and Cardless at The State of Crypto Summit, a gathering of 300 industry leaders in New York. The card promises up to 4% back on Bitcoin for Coinbase One members ($4.99 per month for membership).
Just a few weeks earlier, Gemini rolled into the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas with Cybertrucks, sweepstakes, and a full-throttle crypto-first message to promote the orange refresh of its Bitcoin Credit Card. It was a flamboyant show in front of a captive audience of 35,000 Bitcoin fans and the first use of Tesla Cybertruck to promote a credit card.
💡Welcome to a new marketing arms race… crypto style
- The floodgates have opened. The new Coinbase One Card (Amex) is the 4th launch/relaunch of a crypto credit card this year, following the Gemini Bitcoin Credit Card (Mastercard) refresh, the new Crypto.com Visa Signature card and the new Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card (Visa). With a pro-crypto U.S. administration, bullish Bitcoin sentiment, and major card networks in the game, we now have a full-fledged category and competition will only heat up.
- What this means for marketers. According to Mintel, 31% of U.S. consumers owned cryptocurrency in 2024, rising to 47% among Millennials. That number’s almost certainly higher now. With four major players chasing the same loyalist, almost tribal audience, expect a marketing arms race of stunts, spectacles, and maybe even… the first crypto credit card ad from space courtesy of SpaceX?
