Episode
News Pod #27 - Oportun & Column Announce New Lending Partnership (And What This Means For Oportun’s Growth)
- Podcast
- The Free Toaster
- Published
- Jul 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1135
- Processing state
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Summary
Carlos & Nick discuss this week’s story - “Oportun and Column Announce New Lending Partnership to Expand Access to Responsible Credit.” At first glance, not that exciting. Just a new partner bank. Then we dug into the filings and found something strange: for the past nine months, Oportun had a bank partner that wouldn’t hold a single one of its new loans. Pathward originated them, and Oportun bought back 100%. Meanwhile, a growing acquisition machine in consumer lending (referrals in Q1 2025 up 352% year over year) sat idling with nowhere to run. This is why the Column deal is more than a routine bank partner transaction. It might be the moment Oportun’s marketing team finally got the green light. Today’s Pod expands on coverage from this week’s Newsletter:https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/oportuns-bank-partner-held-no-loans ****** Come meet Carlos & Nick in San Francisco! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, and Prism DataSan Francisco - September 23rd & 24th The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room Early bird tickets ($999) end August 1, increasing to $1499 August 2ndLearn more: events.thefreetoaster.com ***** Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ******Please Support Our Sponsors Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&…