Financial institutions are rethinking loyalty at a critical moment. Credit card spending sits at record highs, but economic uncertainty looms. For banks aiming to stay relevant, loyalty can no longer be an afterthought – it needs to be embedded into every customer experience from the start.

At FIS's Emerald 2025 conference in Orlando, Mladen Vladic, general manager of loyalty services at FIS, sat down to discuss how the loyalty industry is evolving beyond traditional card-based rewards. His central argument: Financial institutions need to shift from chasing share of wallet to capturing share of mind first.


How FIS is helping financial institutions evolve loyalty beyond rewards

Trump orders blockade of sanctioned oil tankers in and out of Venezuela, alleged Bondi gunman charged with 15 murders as funerals of victims begin, and plan ahead with the best (and worst) times to drive for the holidays. 

This Morning with Gordon Deal December 17, 2025

In this fast-paced and deliciously witty spy romcom, a single mom finds herself on a mission with the CIA as they attempt to uncover a cult—perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.

Gabby Greene: Secret agent. Mother of two. Figuring it out as she goes along.

After her divorce, Gabby never expected that she’d be this close to having it all. Spying with a hot handler who’s an expert in after-hours under-the-covers work was not on her current bingo card. But balancing romance, espionage, and school lunches is a job for a magician, not a secret agent. Gabby will just have to keep dreamy Markus at arm’s-length . . .

Easier said than done. Her next mission, should she choose to accept it: Pretend to be Markus’s fiancée so they can infiltrate a Power Couples Retreat to see whether the group is selling national security secrets (in addition to questionable beauty products).

To avert a national crisis, Gabby and Markus will need to look like they’re in love, planning their wedding—and enjoying the honeymoon cottage. Faking a relationship with the perfect man without actually falling for him? Piece of calorie-free cake, right?

Gabby Greene Knows Whodunit by Sam Tschida Read by Mia Hutchinson Shaw

When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture.

James “Whitey” Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate Boston’s Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over the city’s drug trade. Whitey’s deal with Connolly’s FBI spiraled out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI history.

Black Mass is a New York Times and Boston Globe bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross, and corruption at the center of which are the black hearts of two old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent midnight.

Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill read by John Pirhalla with An Introduction Read by Dick Lehr

Goodbye, diets, restriction, and food noise. Hello, delicious food, satiety, and a healthy way to eat for life!

We have never been more informed—and yet, more confused—about what we eat as we are today. And between our cultural fear over food additives and the buzz around GLP-1 drugs, the noise has become impossible to tune out. Registered dietitian Abbey Sharp has seen—and debunked—it all. Her revolutionary Hunger Crushing Combo Method helps you banish fear foods, guilt, and cheat days, and finally get off the diet roller coaster for good. It’s a simple framework that teaches you to effortlessly balance your meals by combining two or more of the Hunger Crushing Compounds: protein, fiber, and healthy fats. The result? You crush physical hunger, silence emotional cravings, and eat well without deprivation, denial, or dieting. No counting. No tracking. No restricting. Even better, the HCC is adaptable to your goals and unique needs while restoring joy and pleasure to eating.

 Discover:
• Science-backed insight into why the HCC compounds work
• Tips on how to use the HCC method effortlessly and intuitively
• Chapters devoted to specific conditions including weight loss, insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes and PCOS), fitness, menopause, and raising healthy kids
• Thirty easy and adaptable recipes
• Cheat sheets for building your own HCCs
• and much more!
 
Learn how to turn your “unhealthy” cravings into HCCs to stabilize blood sugars and help support a healthy weight—all without giving up the food you love. The Hunger Crushing Combo Method helps you finally feel full and reduce food cravings without ever dieting again. And, yes, you can have your cake and eat it too!

The Hunger Crushing Combo Method by Abbey Sharp read by Abbey Sharp

The “irresistible” (Susan Orlean) untold story of a trailblazing Paris correspondent for The New Yorker, who sounded the alarm about the rise of fascism in Europe while becoming enmeshed in the sensational case of a German serial killer stalking the streets of the French capital on the eve of WWII.

In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular ‘Letter from Paris’ for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She’d come to Paris to with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a Capital B.” Her employer, self-consciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor’s directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process.

While working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of the Third Reich, Flanner became gripped by the disturbing crimes of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront. Eugen Weidmann, a German con-man and murderer, and the last man to be publicly executed in France—mere weeks before the outbreak of WWII. Flanner covered his crimes, capture, and highly politicized trial, seeing the case as a metaphor for understanding the tumultuous years through which she’d just passed and to prepare herself for the dangers to come.

The Typewriter and The Guillotine offers the personal and professional coming-of-age story of an indomitable journalist set against a glamorous, high-stakes backdrop—a tightly-coiled drama full of romance and intrigue. 

The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude read by Karen Cass

“A superb biography of a singular life.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A Rolling Stone journalist presents the story of the late singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle.

When Justin Townes Earle died of an overdose alone in his Nashville apartment, his death sent waves of grief through the country-Americana music community. The son of alt-country hellraiser Steve Earle had long struggled with mental illness and various addictions. There had been encouraging periods of long-term sobriety and active recovery in his adult life, including the years that led up to his career peak when he released the 2010 masterpiece Harlem River Blues, a career-making album of rambling folk blues set to Southern Gospel.

He sang of cramped Brooklyn apartments and crippling hangovers, about emotional displacement, economic anxiety, and the wandering that characterized his feral, formative years as a rootless kid rambling around Nashville, developing his own unique guitar style and absorbing the musical influences that surrounded him. He was anointed by critics as the next coming of the authentic troubadour. By the time of his death, he’d recorded and released eight albums, creating a striking and original body of work.

Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels in these pages a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin’s greatest songs (“Mama’s Eyes,” “White Gardenias”) and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents.

Justin’s journey to near-stardom is a harrowing story shot through with moments of clarity and promise, including his marriage to his wife Jenn Marie Earle and the birth of their daughter. But what Earle called “the myth”—the idea that one must suffer for one’s art—proved to be too powerful.

This heartbreaking, deeply researched tale is an exemplary music biography.

What Do You Do When You're Lonesome by Jonathan Bernstein read by John Pirhalla

President Trump defends handling of economy, Providence police ask for help identifying person seen near ‘person of interest’ in Brown University case, and how to avoid getting locked out of your digital life.

This Morning with Gordon Deal December 18, 2025

There's no smoke without fire… 

 As someone who has suffered abuse at the hands of men, Maddie protects women by murdering those who attack them – men she calls ‘fleas’. Fleas are men who follow women home. Abusive husbands who refuse to walk away. And then there’s the Manchester Maniac: a serial killer stalking the streets, determined to murder people like her.

But Maddie can’t get away with it forever. Years later, in the interview room of her prison, she comes face-to-face with a very important visitor. Someone she’s going to tell all to, about how she caught one of the UK’s most prolific serial killers, and how she got caught as one herself…

This emotional and chilling thriller in the vein of Promising Young Woman is perfect for fans of Alice Feeney, Helen Fields and Jo Callaghan.

AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW!
‘A nuanced tragedy as well as an exciting crime fiction’ – MARIE TIERNEY, author of Deadly Animals

'Thrilling and moving. A must read!’ – JANE RENSHAW, author of The Stepson

'Utterly enthralling' – FRANCES CRAWFORD, author of A Bad, Bad Place

'Remarkable' – ALISON BELSHAM, author of The Girls on Chalk Hill

'Exceptionally gripping and suspenseful’ – JULIE LANCASTER, author of Remember Where You’ve Buried the Bodies

'A firecracker of a novel. Compelling, twisted and deliciously dark' – HANNAH BRENNAN, author of No Safe Place

'A dark, twisted journey of serial killers that exposes the pink underbelly of today’s gender battles' – N V PEACOCK, author of Little Bones

Six Strikes, By Antonia Grave, Read by Charlie Sanderson

The Odd & Modern Process For Meeting Your Sperm Donor Siblings

AP-Award winning, public affairs program broadcasting from Emerson College in Boston, MA. Listen live every Sunday from 6-7 a.m.

The Odd & Modern Process For Meeting Your Sperm Donor Siblings

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