News Pod#34 - Inside Rhe LightStream Sale: The Math Behind Carlyle’s $7.2B deal with Gaurav Agarwal, former Chief Credit Officer at Happy Money

Truist is selling LightStream’s personal loan book to Carlyle and has stopped taking new applications. Nick and Carlos bring in Gaurav Agarwal, former Chief Credit Officer at Happy Money, to discuss the transaction. In this episode - LightStream’s history - How Gaurav estimates the deal math: about 93.5 cents on the dollar for a $7.7B book, 3% to 3.5% annual losses, and a 2-year duration - Why that comes out to roughly a 10% unlevered return before servicing, and why that’s a rich deal for Carlyle - Why Truist wanted out: freeing up about $850M in CET1 capital for fee-generating businesses - Who else probably bid, and why speed and relationships mattered - What lenders and publishers in personal loans should take from the deal - Why rising rates matter more than this sale for credit boxes - How much of the $50K to $100K super prime segment LightStream likely held Check out the Newsletter Edition: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/transunion-puts-bankrates-lender \*\*\*\** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it.   \*\*\*\**   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!   Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm\campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm\source=thefreetoaster&utm\medium=referral&utm\content=podcast     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   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&utm\medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=oct     New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com