U.S. Personal Loan – May Mail Volume -9% Y/Y; Led By SOFI, OMF & LendingClub

Research evidence excerpt

U.S. Personal Loan – May Mail Volume -9% Y/Y; Led By SOFI, OMF & LendingClub

TD Cowen

Global Research June 22, 2026

U.S. Personal Loan – May Mail Volume -9% y/y; Led By

SOFI, OMF & LendingClub

Personal loans remain heavily a direct mail business. Lenders are as diverse as

Upgrade, Prosper, SOFI, OMF and Discover, and direct mail remains a primary

channel.

There were 150 million personal loan offerings mailed to consumers in May, down

33% m/m and down 9% y/y. Personal loan mail continues to lag credit card mail. SOFI

(+11% y/y), OMF (+21% y/y) and LendingClub (+185% y/y) were the largest mailers in

May. Industry volume is still behind that of credit card, with several major mailers still

below pre-pandemic levels and some like Goldman having exited the business. That

said, industry balances have seen healthy growth and now noticeably exceed pre-

pandemic levels, as some incumbent lenders see opportunities to meet the high

demand as consumers want to fix the cost of some of their debt. Favorable capital

market conditions have allowed fintech originators to get back in the market in a

much more significant way, and this has driven an increasingly competitive market,

particularly at the higher end of the credit spectrum.

Mail volume data is an important measure of competitiveness in the personal lending

industry. Mail volume grew sharply in 2017-2018 and was comparable to the much

bigger credit card industry pre-pandemic. Given the sharp pullback from several

competitors, mail volume is likely to grind higher but will take a while to return to pre-

pandemic levels.

Please feel free to let us know if you would like to see the mail data, including

lender-specific data.

Figure 1 Monthly personal lending direct mail volume

millions Mail volumes Y/Y Growth

350 150%

100%

50%

0%