FedFis Bulletin

Uncle Sean's Update - 1/14/22

1/14/2022

Happy Friday!!!

Just in case you forgot (LOL) – you can sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox each week. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/14/22:

HEY, look who just got access to the Bankers Helping Bankers platform - Congratulations to Community Development Bankers Association (CDBA) for being the first national association to offer access to Bankers Helping Bankers to its CDFI-certified and mission-driven member banks across the United States. Very EXCITING!!!!!

A group of FDIC insured banks has launched the USDF Consortium to enable banks to mint USDF stablecoins and will facilitate payments on the open-sourced Provenance blockchain (originally created by Figure Technologies) on a real-time 24/7/365 basis . Check out their Pitch Deck - DAMN THAT’S COOL!!!!
- The Consortium’s founding banks include New York Community Bank (FDIC #16022; $58B Total Assets), NBH Bank (FDIC #59052; $7.1B Total Assets), FirstBank (FDIC #8663; $11.8B Total Assets), Sterling National Bank (FDIC #30337; $30B Total Assets), and Synovus Bank (FDIC #873; $55B Total Assets)
- Additional founding members include Figure Technologies and the bank-owned venture fund JAM FINTOP

Yep, here it comes - Uncle Sean gives an unsolicited and rather punchy “off the rails” op-ed regarding USDF (which I love):

This is happening – and it is happening now in mainstream banking. To me, this was simply a matter of time; and is a massive step forward that I am happy and excited about…. I honestly feel like this could be one of those moments that we look back on where banking fundamentally changed forever – “blockchain enabled RTP 24/7/365 at the FDIC level” (and NOT just the big 4) whereas the stablecoin being issued is by a regulated bank with the added benefit of the collateral reserve backing of FDIC insurance AND covering AML and KYC (aka “TradFI street cred” for my DeFi fans – LOL)… Welcome to the new breed of correspondent banking….
- Banker friends, if you think Zelle is expensive (built by the big banks), how much do you think JPM is gonna’ charge you to settle payments in real-time on behalf of your customer using their Onyx blockchain rails??? You didn’t really think that JPM was developing this for the good of all banks (especially community banks), did you??? How’s that saying go – fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…. Yep.

And of course Visa and Mastercard continue to work feverishly with banks and Central Banks globally to facilitate crypto and blockchain payments including CBDC testing (because legacy payment rails have the most to lose here if they fail to evolve).
Certainly not inconsequential, the CSBS has dropped their lawsuit against the OCC now that Figure Technologies (yes, the same Figure involved with the USDF above) has amended their charter application to include FDIC insurance (exactly the same reason why Avanti plans to apply for FDIC insurance) – for the stablecoin.
- Recall the President's Working Group - Report on Stablecoins where the recommendation to congress was to pass legislation stating that stablecoins can only be issued by regulated banks.
- SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, gave a speech this week titled "The Future of Crypto-Assets and Regulation" where he again reiterates that stablecoins should be issued by regulated banks.
So to summarize: 1) Blockchain is here and it allows for real-time payments; 2) Stablecoins are digital assets that are designed to maintain a stable value generally relative to a national currency (i.e. USD) in order to facilitate trading, lending, or borrowing of other digital assets on blockchain networks, and; 3) Regulators are pushing for stablecoins to be issued by FDIC insured banks. As such, banks are embracing this – so If you aren’t researching this, you probably should be. WHEW – that was a ton of info – Uncle Sean needs a nap now!!!!! 😊

Not really a surprise – December CPI came in this week at a smoking hot 7% annual basis (monthly CPI was 0.5%) and was the fastest increase since June 1982. Core CPI came in at 5.5% year over year and 0.6% from last month. Here is the BLS Detail if you like to get weird like me (you know it - LOL); and CNBC always has a good summary.

Bank of America is the latest bank to reduce overdraft fees due to regulatory scrutiny. BAC will lower overdraft fees from $35 to $10 and eliminate NSF fees entirely. BAC is also eliminating transfer fees associated for overdraft protection with other linked accounts (their Balance Connect product).

Coincidentally (yeah, right – cough, cough, cough), Wells Fargo also announced later that same afternoon that they are implementing a series of new actions to limit overdraft related fees and offer customers more flexible options for personal financial needs including:
- Elimination of transfer fees for customers enrolled in Overdraft Protection from another linked account
- Elimination of NSF fees when an item is returned unpaid
- Early access to direct deposit
- 24 hour overdraft grace period
- Easy-access, short-term credit (small dollar installment loan up to $500)

During senate confirmation hearings this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again mentioned that the Fed report on CBDC should be delivered “within weeks”, but tempered expectations by stating it is "an exercise in asking questions and seeking input ... rather than taking a lot of positions."
- Sounds similar to the previously released (and somewhat lacking in substance) 2-page Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps that can pretty much be summarized as “greater clarity will be coming throughout 2022…” *sigh*

Current is rolling out a new high-yield product called "interest" enabling account holders to earn a 4.00% APY on up to $2,000 for three different “savings pod” subaccounts. Current’s free membership only allows one savings pod whereas the paid membership ($4.99 per month) allows for multiple savings pods.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Checkout.com (full stack global payments platform) raised a massive $1B in Series D funding round at a $40B valuation – DANG!!!
- JAM FINTOP Blockchain (tech focused VC firm) raised $110M
- Novo (SMB neo bank) $70M in Series B funding round at a $700M valuation
- Acorn Finance (embedded lending marketplace for home improvement financing) raised $8.4M in Series A funding
- Brex announced $300M D-2. Just to clarify - Uncle Sean previously (and incorrectly I might add) reported this as a series E in Oct. Fact is that although the term sheet was signed in Oct, it was not publicly/officially disclosed by Brex until now.
- Fly Now Pay Later (yep, you read that right) raised $75M in debt financing. Recall a few months back where we
- Zero Hash raised $105M in Series D
- Accrue Savings (rewards based savings platform) raised $25M in Series A funding - literally dubbed as the “anti-BNPL” platform that rewards consumers for “saving now to pay later”. Check them out at accruesavings.com.
- Merit (verified identity platform) raised $50M Series B funding round
- Seashell (high-yield investment app) raised $6M Seed round and is launching a high-yield product with up to 10% interest. Doing some digging shows this is another DeFi application that is investing in a stablecoin. I am not sure which one (product still shows as a “waitlist”), but custody and settlement services are provided by Prime Trust (a Nevada Regulated Trust).

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs for beating Alabama 33 - 18 for their first College Football National Championship since 1980! What a game – especially that second half!!!! I have tremendous respect for Coach Saban and Alabama, but it was nice to see Georgia take care of business and avenge the Dec. 4 SEC Championship defeat by Alabama. GO DAWGS!!!!
DANG it’s been a busy whirlwind of a year already!!!! Also – many of you know that Aunt Patty and I are very open people. So, we wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have been inquiring about Aunt Patty (she had knee replacement surgery before Christmas on her right knee – and she gave me permission to post about it). She is doing FANTASTIC and is already complaining about wanting the other one done ASAP! She is a tough one! Not to mention the fact that she really doesn’t like the way that I clean the house – LOL!!!!! Thanks again!!! 😊

Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!

Uncle Sean

Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis

FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.

Uncle Sean's Update - 1/7/22

1/7/2022

Happy Friday!!!

Hey, hey, hey – we are officially underway for 2022! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/7/22:

Special shout out to Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota for becoming the most recent association of community bankers offering access to the Bankers Helping Bankers platform this week for their member banks in South Dakota. THIS is how we improve upon and save community banking – by participating as a community together and helping each other!!!!

FDIC Chairman, Jelena McWilliams announced her resignation effective 2/4/22. Current FDIC Board member, Martin Gruenberg (no stranger to the FDIC) is set to become the interim acting chair. This sets up a number of potential appointments of very high profile bank regulatory leadership positions by the current presidential administration – which could get very interesting (to say the least) from a future policy setting perspective. Vacancies include:
- Vice Chairman for Supervision at the Federal Reserve
- Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) – current Acting Comptroller is Michael Hsu
- And of course, now, FDIC Chairman

Chainalysis posted a blog this week stating that cryptocurrency-linked crime surged 79% over 2020 with illegal addresses receiving a record $14B in digital currencies. However, in that same blog, Chainalysis stated that the increase in illicit activity was far less when considering the overall adoption rate and increase in transaction volume of cryptocurrency usage. When analyzing in that light, illicit activity represented 0.15% of all transaction volume in 2021 versus 0.62% in 2020 showing a significant decline.
- Digging into the data shows that DeFi scams (mainly rug pulls) and theft from hackers accounted for the majority of the $ increase.
- Uncle Sean speculates that the rapid rise of unaccredited and uninformed retail investors seeking quick returns (meme coins anyone?) as well as easy mobile access has played a large part in this. There is absolutely nothing new about people being attracted to the potential for quadruple digit returns with little to no effort – which is a fraudsters dream. However, society has a tendency to learn painful financial lessons pretty dang quick (Nigerian Prince?).

FinTech challenger bank Dave (Nasdaq: DAVE) commenced trading this week after completing their SPAC merger. Shares opened at $8.27 reflecting a market cap of $3.1B, but took an absolute beating on Friday with shares trading down as much as 36% intraday (at the time of this write-up). OUCH!!!!

The NCUA stayed busy over the New Year’s holiday cleaning up some very small CUs….
- NCUA liquidated Portsmouth Schools FCU (charter #483; $2.2M assets; 870 members). Assuming the liquidated CUs assets, member shares, and loans is Newport News Shipbuilding Employees Credit Union (charter #61330; dba BayPort Credit Union). Bayport has 147,109 members and assets of $2.2B.
- Pomona Postal FCU (charter #16196; total assets of $4M; 717 members; formerly placed into conservatorship on Nov. 5, 2021) was merged into Credit Union of Southern California (charter #68456; total assets $2.2B) effective Jan. 1, 2022 per the NCUA.

Unifimoney announced that they have integrated with Q2 digital banking platform to offer digital wealth management solution to FI’s via Q2’s Innovation Studio.

Customers Bank announced a couple of key initiatives this week:
- Launched national Technology and Venture Banking Group employing a “stage-based approach” in assessing opportunities and risks offering “growth capital term loans, MRR credit facilities, ARR credit facilities, unitranche and FOLO credit facilities, revolving lines of credit – formula and non-formula, and traditional term loans.”
- Deepens their crypto bench by adding seven key industry experts to their Digital Asset Banking Team and continues to expand their Customers Bank Instant Token (CBIT) enabling real-time payments for digital asset institutions.

Computer Services, Inc. (CSI) announced a partnership with NYDIG to enable banking customers to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin directly within CSI’s digital banking platform.

Chalk this one up to “hmmmm, this is getting interesting…” Welcome to a new era of correspondent banking for real-time international payments via blockchain… Probably because “SWIFT” just might be the biggest oxymoron ever (oops, did I just say that???) - LOL!!!!
- This week the Central Bank of Bahrain said that they completed a successful test of international real-time payments to the U.S. with J.P. Morgan’s Onyx via the permissioned JPM Coin system that function as both payment rail and deposit account ledger.
- If some of this sounds familiar, it is…. Recall just before the Holidays where we talked about JPM building out a blockchain payments system for Siemens via JPM’s Onyx blockchain unit.
- I suspect that we will hear much more from JPM Onyx this year as the future of real-time international payments via blockchain is here.

FinTech funding kicks off the new year in high gear:
- Andreessen Horowitz (tech focused VC firm) announced a massive $9B raise to further invest in their Venture, Growth, and Bio Funds. WOWZA!!!!!
  - “With these new funds, including a $1.5B Bio fund, $5B Growth fund, and $2.5B Venture fund, coupled with the $2.2B Crypto Fund and $400M Seed Fund we raised in 2021, we will continue to invest across the entire spectrum of stages, writing checks as small as $25,000 and up to hundreds of millions of dollars.”
- Ribbit Capital (fintech focused VC firm) has $1.155B in capital for their seventh fund, Ribbit Capital VII, L.P.
- Monzo (UK digital challenger – Monzo USA is still in “waitlist” mode) raised an additional $100M top-up funding to their latest round previously announced in early December – now totaling $600M
- HUMAN Security (cybersecurity firm focused on sophisticated bot attacks and fraud) raised $100M in growth funding round. Valuation was not disclosed but the firm stated 2021 revenue growth doubled year over year citing that “77% of all cyberattacks are bot-based. Cybercriminals with millions of sophisticated bots at their disposal can send billions of fake requests to create fake accounts, take over accounts and commit credit card fraud, manipulate popularity and consensus, contaminate user data, defraud digital advertising and marketing campaigns, and snipe or hoard online goods and services.”
- Cion Digital (enterprise SaaS blockchain platform) raised $12M in Seed funding “to expand R&D resources and accelerate the rollout of crypto financing and payment solutions tailored for Financial Services companies (Lenders, RIA’s, Banks and Neobanks) and Big Ticket Retailers (Auto, RV/Marine, Jewelry and Luxury Goods) and to expand the capabilities of the firm’s proprietary Blockchain Orchestration Platform for other industries.”
- OpenSea (NFT-marketplace) raised $300M in Series C funding round at a massive $13.3B valuation
- Petal (credit card fintech) raised $140M in Series D round at an $800M valuation. Petal uses an alternative cash flow based underwriting model to help consumers build credit resulting in strong customer growth of 3X and monthly revenue growth of 4X over 2020.
- Xage (zero trust cybersecurity) raised $30M in Series B funding round. Valuation was not disclosed, but the firm cited 5X customer growth and 10X revenue growth year over year.
- Alto (self-directed alternative investment IRA platform) raised $40M in Series B funding. According to the article, Alto hosts nearly 20,000 funded accounts with almost $1B in assets even though the firm is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer – and 40% of the accounts are dedicated to holding cryptocurrency via Alto CryptoIRA. Check them out at altoira.com for more info.
- Tribal Credit (SME payment and corporate card platform for emerging markets) raised a combined $34.3M in Series A and debt rounds. The Tribal Visa card is a business charge card issued by Sutton Bank.
- Goldfinch (DeFi credit platform) raised $25M Series A extension bringing the total series A to $36M. Loan volume has grown from $250K last year to $38M serving 200,000 borrowers in 18 countries. Take a look at their whitepaper for more detail on the Goldfinch crypto lending architecture.

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

Corpus Christi’s Cole Park Pier re-opens! Originally built in the 1930’s, the pier has been closed since 2018 after Hurricane Harvey caused structural damage. Now completely rebuilt with fishing chairs, cleaning stations, shade cover, ample lighting, and security cameras. Pretty sure I’m gonna’ have to make a weekend trip soon!!!!
Of course we can’t kick off the new year without a few Dad Jokes:
- What do you call electricians that are best friends? Ohm-ies! LOL!!!!!!
- Aunt Patty caught me standing on the bathroom scale and sucking in my stomach. She laughed and said, “You know that’s not going to help!” I replied, “Sure it does. It’s the only way I can see the numbers!”
- This one definitely personifies Uncle Sean…. It’s probably my age that tricks people into thinking I’m an adult!!! 😊

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/30/21

12/30/2021

Happy Thursday and Happy New Year!!!

We are publishing early again this week as we will be closed Friday, Dec. 31st in observance of New Year’s Day. So if you are reading this – congratulations, you made it through 2021!!!! 😊 All kidding aside, wishing you and yours a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year. Don’t forget to eat those black eyed peas for good luck! Speaking of luck – that all starts by signing up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox each week!

It was super light this week in the terms of breaking news headlines… Seems about right as it is that week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day where time appears to be in an apocalyptic trance - your on the 9th day of a carb bender, been wearing PJ’s for well over 6 days straight, probably started drinking before 10AM at least twice (okay – maybe that was just me), and you’re not sure what day it is… Yep – that’s where we are right now! Here is the very limited Uncle Sean Update for 12/30/21:

Check out the Community Bankers Association of Ohio as the latest association of community bankers offering access to Bankers Helping Bankers platform for their member banks in Ohio. Welcome to the show!!!! We are making a difference together!

For my 2021 tribute - Uncle Sean goes “off the rails” and expands upon my previous “so you want to be a bank” op-ed and further proclaims “Community Banking Ain’t for Sissies!” Seriously though, just consider a few of the current counterparty concerns that have the ability to significantly impact our industry (not just for the bank itself, but the evolving risk profile of their customers which has a HUGE impact on bank strategy and balance sheet management). Although it looks a little scary, it is really a “tip of the hat” to Chief Credit Officers (my personal favorite) and bank leadership across the country for being the ultimate front-line finance, risk management, and economic forecasting bad-asses! Just take a look at the waters bankers are successfully navigating for themselves as well as assessing counterparty exposure of their customers – not out of fear, but of a desire to help:
- Paycheck arbitrage
  - Do full-time remote workers continue to make the same wages as workers that are required to be in person; or even partial work from home / hybrid model? What about remote workers (work from anywhere) that relocate to lower cost locales (not to mention does this create nexus for other state tax liabilities)?
  - Does all of this contribute to legal problems / labor disputes? How do you treat cost of living increases / promotions (and not create bias) going forward especially for remote workers in different locations with varying local inflationary pressures?
- Continued Covid risks
  - Impact to credit risk related to continued supply chain disruptions, labor shortages (including the great resignation), CRE concerns, and the end of eviction moratoriums
- Cybersecurity
  - Ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure (doesn’t just impact ag lenders)
  - Cyberthreat trends and security concerns for remote workers
  - Ongoing cyber-insurance disputes on coverage
- Rising Interest Rates and Inflation
  - Okay, this should be relatively straightforward. Bankers are VERY good at managing interest rate risk – at the basic level, that’s what they do; and they do it well. It only gets complicated when all of the above scenarios come into play all at once - LOL.
  - With any luck, we will see NIM expand (finally) next year – and fingers crossed, credit risk remains in check as the overall economy continues to do well. And therein lies the importance of community banking as they know their local economies better than anyone (very similar to how flower beds around your house have differing micro-climates).
- And we didn’t even talk about the banks own issues of tech stack, direct / digital bank strategy, compliance risk (and cost of compliance), capital levels, cryptocurrency, covid influenced population migration patterns, and fintech challenger banks. Hats off to community bankers everywhere for digging in and kicking ass in 2021!!!!

Also topping the list this week for me (unless something terrible happens later today) is the fact that there have been no bank failures for 2021 (source: FedFis) and only 3 involuntary liquidations of some very small CU’s. This compares to:
- 2020 – 4 failed banks and 1 liquidated CU
- 2019 – 4 failed banks and 1 liquidated CU
- 2018 – no failed banks and 7 liquidated CUs (plus 1 more merged with NCUA assistance)
- 2017 – 8 failed banks and 5 liquidated CUs (plus 5 more merged with NCUA assistance)

Status Money (PFM app) is launching a Visa Credit Card (issued by Evolve Bank & Trust) with either 2% cash back or crypto rewards on every purchase. The crypto comes into play if the customer selects to invest the cash back rewards (where Gemini Trust Company, LLC is the regulated custodian).

Upgrade (alt lender) is launching Rewards Checking for their Visa Debit Card (sponsor is Cross River Bank) touting up to 2% cash back on common everyday expenses (up to $500 per year, then reverts to 1%) and 1% on all other debit card charges.

Keep an eye on this as it does have the potential to impact the gig economy (i.e. instant payouts) - the National Labor Relations Board launched an invitation to the public this week to assess whether the agency should reconsider the “independent-contractor standard” in determining whether individuals should be treated as employees as opposed to contractors.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Privoro (mobile device security) raised $30M in Series B funding round
- Almond Finance (blockchain based cross-border payments infrastructure) raised $2M Seed funding to enable real-time international transfers
- Ready Player Me (avatar platform for the metaverse) raised $13M in Series A to build out developer friendly API’s and SDK’s to make it easy for people to travel between metaverse worlds with their own individual avatars. Within Ready Player Me, you can create an avatar from a photo of yourself; and you can own your avatar (coming soon) as an NFT. Now that’s pretty cool!

We lost legendary Coach John Madden this week who passed away at the age of 85. While testimonies and articles roll out from the likes of ESPN, Reuters, the NFL, the Raiders, and many, many more it feels appropriate to mention a few of his historical accolades:
- As Head Coach for the Raiders:
  - Holds the #1 highest regular-season win percentage of any coach (minimum of 100 games) at .759 and slightly ahead of the legendary Vince Lombardy
  - Led the Raiders to a championship in Super Bowl XI following the 1976 season
  - Inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2006
- Second Career as a Broadcaster:
  - A 16-time Emmy Award winner as a sports broadcaster alongside Pat Summerall and Al Michaels
  - Inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2010
  - And of course, many of us cannot make it through a Thanksgiving Holiday without thoughts of Madden NFL broadcasts and the infamous turducken as the official “All-Madden Team” food.
- As a video game legend:
  - Madden NFL Football by EA Sports is one of the most successful video games ever with over 130 million copies sold worldwide and still growing since the launch in 1988 (yes, 1988).

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

And here it is – the moment you have all been waiting for! The final 6 of the Top 21 of 2021 Countdown of Dad Jokes and crazy Uncle Sean moments (according to me) that I posted this year:
- #6. On March 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call ever…. And moments later he was notified that his car’s extended warranty had expired.
- #5. Aunt Patty asked me if I could clear the dining room table. I had to get a pretty good running start but I made it!
- #4. I got laser eye surgery about a month ago but I still can’t shoot lasers out of my eyes. Am I doing it wrong or should I ask for a refund?
- #3. How does Moses make his coffee? Hebrews…
- #2. I stopped at a roadside stand that said lobster tails for $2. I happily paid my $2 and the guy looked at me and said, “once upon a time there was this lobster….”
- And the #1 for 2021 goes to:
  - 100% true story - Did you know that ‘Catfish: The TV Show’ has nothing to do with actual catfishing? Uncle Sean wasted half an hour waiting to see what lake they were going to, what bait they were using, how deep were they fishing, etc… One could say I was “catfished.” HEHEHEHE! And if you listen closely right now, you can literally hear my teenage daughter’s embarrassment – LOL!!! 😊

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!

Uncle Sean

Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis

FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/23/21

12/23/2021

Happy Friday (errr - I mean Thursday) and Happy Holidays to all!!!!!

This week’s update comes out a little early as we will be closed Friday, Dec. 24th to spend time with family. It’s a special time of year and I wish everyone all the best!!! We will be publishing early next week too in advance of New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, don’t miss a chance to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox each week – pretty sure even Santa gets it each week!!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 12/23/21:

Equifax announced a process for incorporating BNPL into consumer credit reports beginning in the first quarter of 2022.
- I am very glad to finally see some enhancements coming as it was certainly needed. Although BNPL “debt” is typically not a very big number per consumer transaction, Uncle Sean feels that timing has been a concern as credit usage is typically reported in arrears – and in the case of short-term BNPL, the “loan” may already be paid off by the time it is reported (maybe another nod to the speed of blockchain transactions and reporting – recall back in November where we talked about a company called Spectral and their non-fungible credit scoring platform – Hmmm…..). Also, the current process seems extremely unfair. Consumers can be penalized from a credit standpoint if you miss a payment, but no reward for on-time payments….
- Payments Dive has a good write-up showing that TransUnion and Experian are not far behind.

Manasquan Bank (FDIC #30470; Total Assets $2.6B) selects Bakkt for retail access to crypto-assets as part of an early adopter program which will ultimately “allow the bank’s retail clients to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through the bank’s mobile banking app.”
- Very relevant note – a quick look into the FedFis Fintegration Ecosystem© (nice plug, right?) shows us that Manasquan Bank uses Fiserv for online and mobile. Recall a few months ago where Fiserv announced the integration of Bakkt into the Carat merchant ecosystem with additional plans “to introduce Bakkt technology that supports consumers’ ability to buy, sell, and hold crypto assets to Fiserv financial institution clients.” NICE!!!!!

The CFPB shows some teeth this week and effectively shuts down LendUp as part of an agreed upon stipulated final judgement and order that requires LendUp to: 1) pay a $100,000 penalty, 2) stop issuing new loans, and 3) halt collecting on certain outstanding loans to harmed customers.
- “LendUp was backed by some of the biggest names in venture capital,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We are shuttering the lending operations of this fintech for repeatedly lying and illegally cheating its customers.” OUCH!!!!!

Avadian Credit Union announced a definitive agreement to acquire Citizens State Bank in Vernon, AL (FDIC #22523; Total Assets $85M). For those keeping score, this is the 13th deal for 2021 of a CU announcing the acquisition of a bank (source: FedFis).

Congrats to Unity of Eatonville Federal Credit Union for being granted a federal charter and Share Insurance Fund coverage by the NCUA in Eatonville, FL!!! The low-income designated Unity of Eatonville FCU expects to begin operations in early 2022.

Similar to what we saw with the OCC, the NCUA published cryptocurrency guidelines for federally insured CUs authority to establish relationships with third-party providers that offer digital asset services to their members, including investments such as cryptocurrency.

JPMorgan Chase is building out a blockchain payments system for Siemens' internal accounts via JPM’s Onyx blockchain unit. While Siemens is the first anchor client, there is “a pipeline of clients for the Onyx system,” said Naveen Mallela, Onyx’s global head of coin systems.

The US exodus of foreign banks continues (especially on the West Coast). French owned BNP Paribas has agreed to sell Bank of the West to BMO Harris for $16.3B. Banking Dive has a good article summarizing some of the recent US exits:
- HSBC (Britain) divests a third of their US branch footprint
- BBVA (Spain) sells out to PNC
- MUFG (Japan) sells to US Bank

Rocket (NYSE: RKT) announced an agreement to acquire Truebill for $1.275B in cash.

Alt lender Oportun (Nasdaq: OPRT) has completed the acquisition of Digit and plans to operate Digit as an independent brand and subsidiary under the Oportun corporate umbrella.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Figmnet (blockchain infrastructure and staking platform) raised $100M in Series C funding round at a $1.4B valuation
- Taptap Send (cross-border payments) raised $65M in Series B funding
- Oportun (alt lender) closed a $150M credit facility secured by credit card receivables via the Oportun Visa credit card issued by WebBank.
  - Somewhat ironically, WebBank is the lender behind the new Oportun revolving credit facility. Makes me wonder why WebBank isn’t holding the receivables direct and paying Oportun the standard fintech “origination fee + interchange (and maybe even servicing fees)” as WebBank is already an CC FI issuer with $83M worth of CC Receivables as of 9/30/21 on schedule RC-C. Probably (yes, Uncle Sean is speculating here) just the way the original agreement was written up; and this new two year credit revolver gives WebBank more interest income through indirect exposure (C&I versus Consumer CC). But it is an interesting structure that allows WebBank to hedge against direct consumer CC exposure by controlling the definition of qualified receivables that are eligible for borrowing under the revolver.
  - Sorry – Uncle Sean tends to overly geek out on credit stuff and hedging because it’s FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!!!! LOL
- Ampla Technologies (alt financing for SME’s) raised $40M in Series A funding round
- Ant Money (micro-investing rewards platform) raised $20M in Seed and Series A funding and also announced the acquisition of Blast (savings rewards for gamers)

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

2 days until Christmas Day!!!!!!!! There’s still plenty of time left for men everywhere to begin shopping! Some of the clear benefits include:
- There is significantly less inventory in stock which means choices are limited – thus saving a tremendous amount of time!
- If you wait until next week to start Christmas shopping, there are a lot of good deals and parking is so much easier!
Okay – I ran across this completely inappropriate Holiday Dad Joke, so of course I’m gonna’ share it (I haven’t been fired in several months, so I’m probably due anyway – LOL):
- I was purchasing a Christmas tree when the cashier asked if I was going to put it up myself – I smiled and said, “nope, It’s going in the living room!” HAHAHAHA!!!!
And without further ado, we continue the Top 21 Countdown of Dad Jokes and crazy Uncle Sean moments (according to me) that I posted for 2021. Here are #11 - #7:
- #11. Wikiwikiwikipedia is where I go to learn about DJ’s and Rap music.
- #10. I recently bought a toilet brush… Long story short, I’m going back to toilet paper…!!!!
- #9. Aunt Patty asked me why there was a pile of clothes in the floor right next to the laundry basket…. Apparently, “I struck down a Jedi” was not a good answer.
- #8. It was a sad and disappointing day when I discovered my Universal Remote Control did not, in fact, control the universe…. Not even remotely.
- #7. The scariest thing to read in brail is “danger, do not touch” – LOL!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!!! Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!! 😊

Uncle Sean

Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis

FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/17/21

12/17/2021

Happy Friday!!!

Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox each week – EVERYBODY’S DOIN’ IT!!! 😊 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 12/17/21:

It’s Fed Week!!!! As was widely expected, the FOMC voted to accelerate the pace of the bond taper from $15B per month to $30B per month beginning January 2022. This puts the Fed on track to eliminate the QE program by the end of March 2022 clearing the way for likely interest rate hikes for the remainder of the year to tame inflationary pressures.
- If you want to completely geek out (like me), here is the link to Chairman Powell’s post FOMC press conference video (1 hour); the 30 page written transcript; and the actual Summary of Economic Projections (17 pages) where page 2 shows the expected Federal Funds rate to end up at 0.6% - 0.9% by 2022 year end as well as the infamous Dot Plot (page 4) with the majority of the 18 member FOMC committee forecasting rates just shy of 1% by year end. Whew, that was one hell of a run-on sentence!!!
  - Keep in mind that the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) is “not a plan” (quote by Chairman Powell). it is a median of assumptions based on the assessment of current economic forecasts (which are still highly variable and subject to change due to the uncertainty of forecasting during a pandemic that can rapidly effect supply chain issues, labor shortages, etc.).
    - Think of it kind of like the Treasury yield curve – it moves with time, and is a quantitative measure of current assumptions, but is not necessarily predictive policy. WOW, that was deep… I may need a nap now – LOL!!!!

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) breaks out their magnifying glass to take a closer look at industry practices, risks, and benefits of BNPL (pretty sure everyone knew this was simply a matter of time). The formal CFPB Inquiry into "Buy Now, Pay Later" credit was sent to Affirm, Klarna, PayPal, and Zip. You can see the specific questions here in the actual CFPB Order (16 pages) – the key focus is on consumer credit related to:
- Accumulating debt; Regulatory arbitrage; and Data harvesting

WhatsApp has launched a test pilot for crypto payments within a chat app. If this sounds overly confusing, it’s because it kind of is – at least from a naming convention (especially for more “seasoned” white-haired folks like me). Let’s break it down:
- Essentially, this is all Facebook (err – Meta) ecosystem…
  - Novi (a subsidiary of Facebook – err, Meta) is a digital wallet that was built on the Diem blockchain-based payment system (formerly known as Facebook’s Libra project). Diem is also owned by Facebook (ugh – Meta).
  - WhatsApp (you guessed it - also owned by Facebook – I mean Meta) is a free messaging app that started as an alternative to SMS (texting)
  - In summary, Novi (Facebook / Meta digital wallet) will use WhatsApp to send crypto payments over the Diem blockchain using Pax Dollars (USDP - a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar issued by Paxos). Very similar to just attaching a file when sending a message. In this case, the file is USDP. See – that wasn’t so bad!!!

Wells Fargo and HSBC Bank announced an agreement to use a blockchain solution to settle FX transactions side-stepping CLS for the settlement of “US dollar, Canadian dollar, British pound sterling and Euro transactions with plans to extend the platform to settle additional currencies in the near future.” The platform runs on Baton Systems’ Core-FX distributed ledger technology; and allows Wells Fargo and HSBC to settle FX trades in less than three minutes outside of the CLS framework.

Chime announced free cash deposits at Walgreens. While Chime customers can deposit cash at other retailers (Walmart, CVS, 7-Eleven), Walgreens is the only one without a fee.

Robinhood (Nasdaq: HOOD) announced that Chainalysis will be providing compliance services ahead of Robinhood’s upcoming crypto wallet launch expected to beta in January with a waitlist in excess of 1.6M customers. Also announced this week was Robinhood’s new Crypto Gifts feature allowing customers to send as little as $1 of one of seven cryptocurrencies to friends and family.
- Hmmm – does this become the new digital replacement to lottery tickets as stocking stuffers???? HOOD better hope so as their stock price is down about 65% since their high on August 2 earlier this year – OUCH!

Of course not to be outdone for the Holidays, Square Cash App (oops – I mean “Block” Cash App) now allows users to 'gift' stock and bitcoin using USD balance or debit card, not just their existing bitcoin balance. This means “users don’t have to actually own any bitcoin — or any stock, for that matter — on the Cash App mobile app in order to send it as a gift… users will actually be sending the fiat value of the stock or the bitcoin from either their Cash App balance or a linked debit card… The recipient will then receive the market value of the asset at the time they accept the gift. But if they’d rather not take the stock or bitcoin ‘gift,’ they can instead choose to receive the gift in USD.”

Astra announced the launch of card-to-card instant payment API via Cross River Bank to enable fintech developers “to fund accounts and facilitate deposits via the debit card payment rails” as a real-time A2A solution “without the need for settlement accounts or developing a reconciliation process.”

MoneyLion (NYSE: ML) has agreed to acquire Even Financial, Inc. for $440M. Once completed, the deal is expected to add $90M in recurring revenue and positive EBITDA impact in 2022 (excluding synergies). Check out the nicely done Investor Deck showing complimentary yet diversified offerings resulting in an instantly expanded TAM for MoneyLion within the embedded finance industry.

Widely rumored for a few months now, Bottomline Technologies (Nasdaq: EPAY) has agreed to be acquired by Thoma Bravo in an all-cash transaction that values Bottomline at approximately $2.6 billion – NICE!!!!! Upon completion of the transaction, Bottomline will become a privately held company.

Idaho Central Credit Union announced the launch of bitcoin services through NYDIG and the Alkami Platform allowing the $8B CU to offer their 480,0001+ members the ability to buy and sell bitcoin within it’s mobile app and online banking platform.
- Worth noting in case this sounds familiar, STAR Financial Bank also launched NYDIG bitcoin services via Alkami platform last month

And a few quick counterparty risk updates to ponder:
- Security teams dig in and prepare for the potential reality of a far reaching multi-year threat from the Log4j hack
- Network congestion was to blame for Wednesday’s brief AWS outage and not related to last week’s material US-EAST-1 outage

Notable FinTech funding for the week (follow the money):
- NYDIG (bitcoin custody, trading, and brokerage firm) announced a whopping $1B growth equity funding round (CHA-CHING!!!) at a valuation in excess of $7B
- Anchorage Digital (qualified crypto custodian and national trust chartered institution) raised $350M in Series D funding with a valuation at over $3B
- Papaya (mobile bill payment app) raised $50M in series B funding round making it super easy to pay any bill just by taking a picture (and free to consumers)
- Mesh Payments raised $50M in Series B funding round
- Noname Security (API security platform) raised $135M in Series C funding at a $1B valuation to fund global expansion of go-to-market and R&D teams
- Cequence Security (API security) raised $60M in Series C funding round
- Ermertic (cloud infrastructure security platform) raised $70M in Series B round
- Sysdig (cloud deployment security) raised $350M in Series G funding at a $2.5B valuation

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

8 days until Christmas Day!!!!!!!! Don’t forget to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on Sunday, December 19 at 6:30 CST / 7:30 EST airing on PBS. Some of Uncle Sean’s other favorites include National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ("Oh, the silent majesty of a winter's morn; the clean, cool chill of the holiday air; and an assh*le in his bathrobe, emptying a chemical toilet into my sewer" and “Mom, this box is meowing”), A Christmas Story (“I triple-dog dare ya!”), Frosty the Snowman (“I can count to ten. One, two, three, four, five, nine, six, eight... Well, I can count to five.”), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (“The fog is thick as peanut butter!”), and of course It's a Wonderful Life (“Hee-Haw”)!!!
I’m cutting out early today…. It’s Dave Mayo's Birthday (tomorrow) - several of us are headed over to his place to drink some Holiday Cheer and celebrate the anniversary of his 39th birthday (again)!!!
And without further ado, we continue the Top 21 Countdown of Dad Jokes and crazy Uncle Sean moments (according to me) that I posted for 2021. Here are #16 - #12:
- #16. I brought home one of those greyhound dogs the other day and Aunt Patty asked if I was going to race it - I said nope, I’m pretty sure he’s faster than me!
- #15. If you stir coconut oil into your kale, it makes it easier to scrape from the pan directly into the trash.
- #14. The boss came by today and said “have a great day” – so I went home…!!!
- #13. Staring curiously at a jar of Molasses……. So what do they do with the rest of the mole???
- #12. And an instant family classic – I named my horse Mayo. And sometimes Mayo neighs… LOL!

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/10/21

12/10/2021

Happy Friday!!!

Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 12/10/21:

November CPI came in at an annual 6.8% this week – slightly higher than expectations and the largest 12 month increase since 1982 (not a typo). Core CPI came in at 4.9% (0.8% for November alone). Here is the link to the BLS detailed report if you want to see the breakdown.
- November Job Growth came in at 210,000 (lower than expectations of 573,000), but unemployment fell to 4.2%.

Saule Omarova withdraws her name from Senate consideration as nominee to lead the OCC.

The OCC doubles down on overdraft reform adding on to the CFPB report that we covered last week (Banks' Deep Dependence on Overdraft Fees)… In a speech to Consumer Federation of America, acting Comptroller of the OCC Michael Hsu reiterated the need for overdraft reform citing income and wealth inequality (“it’s expensive to be poor”) and referring to the existing system of overdraft practices as regressive (“reverse Robin Hood”) whereas the fees are being paid by the most financially vulnerable. Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of this topic…

Probably not inconsequential to the above (LOL), JPMorgan Chase becomes the latest large bank to provide more customer flexibility regarding overdrafts beginning in 2022:
- Customers will have until the end of the next business day to resolve overdrafts up to $50 before incurring any fees (JPM already increased the buffer amount from $5 to $50 earlier this year, but was required to correct the account by the end of the current business day), and:
- JPM will begin allowing early access (up to two days) to direct deposit funds.
  - As mentioned before, Uncle Sean sees “early access to direct deposit” as largely symbolic and temporary in nature as Real Time Payments (FedNow, same day ACH, RTP by The Clearing House) will eliminate ACH Risk eventually. As such, payroll providers will not be making early payments to your bank account anymore to allow time for “clearing” – thus rendering “early access” extinct.

American Express continues their push into business banking:
- Kabbage (Direct / Digital Bank under the American Express National Bank charter) launches Kabbage Funding to provide small business lines of credit between $1,000 and $150,000. This complements Kabbage Checking for business that was launched in Summer of 2021 (Green Dot is the sponsor issuer for the Kabbage Debit Mastercard); and the newly announced Kabbage Payments for businesses to accept card payments featuring next-day deposits and a 2.25% transaction fee (sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, N.A.).
- American Express National Bank is also running a rewards promotion for business checking featuring a $300 bonus for account opening (conditions apply of course) plus 1.1% APY on funds up to $500,000 (rate subject to change). Hmmm – looks pretty darn competitive to the alternative of business overnight sweep accounts without the hassle and fee structure.

Visa launches new Global Crypto Advisory Service through their Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) division to help merchants and banks “advance their own crypto journey” and is currently working with UMB Bank in the U.S.

The OCC released their Semiannual Risk Perspective report for Fall 2021 (32 pages). Pretty much common knowledge as we navigate through the pandemic - not to mention common sense, but here are the key takeaways:
- Elevated operational risk regarding ransomware and evolving sophistication of cyber attacks (both internal to the bank as well as third and counterparty risk).
- Overall credit quality is seen as stable, but historically low NIM, loan demand, and dissipation of PPP fee income creates strategic pressures (I know – shocking, right?)
  - CRE and other mortgage exposures remain as an elevated concern due to expiring federal stimulus and moratorium programs.
- And the ever present reminder to engage with your regulator regarding crypto-assets.
  - “The OCC is approaching crypto-related activities in the federal banking system very carefully with a high degree of caution and expects its supervised institutions to the do the same.”

Better.com (mortgage lending platform) needs to do better – especially if they are going to become a publicly traded entity. In case you missed it, here is the Better.com CEO laying off 900 employees on a mass Zoom call just a few days after receiving an advanced $750M cash infusion in an amended agreement from their acquiring SPAC (Aurora Acquisition Corp.). As Human Resource Teams around the globe cringed in horror, Better CEO Vishal Garg ultimately apologized for the blunder and lack of respect for the employees; but the damage had been done and at least three more top communications executives have resigned since. Not surprisingly, the SPAC merger for Better to go public is now being delayed – of course the official word is that the delay is to obtain regulatory approval of the amended merger terms…. Yeah right.

Crypto executives testified before Congress this week. Here is the memo doc from the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services titled Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States (6 pages). Payments Dive has a good summary. Essentially:
- It was noted that the discussions were engaging, encouraging, and civil (which is not always the case in congressional testimony – just ask ole Mark Zuckerberg – LOL)
- Another surprising moment is that all parties seemed to encourage the need for some level of regulation and specifically regulatory clarity.
- However, caution was recommended citing unnecessarily onerous regulations could have the unintended consequence of pushing crypto activity underground or offshore exchanges that have little to no compliance programs.
- There will be more to come……
  - Cryptocurrency will be back on the agenda next week in Congress when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has called for a hearing on stablecoins.
  - In the interim, we are all still patiently waiting on the Federal Reserve report on central bank digital currency due any day now.

Of course, not wanting to miss a moment to poke the SEC in the eye with a nod to Congress saying “I told you so” - Coinbase (seemingly still with a massive grudge) launched a DeFi yield product on Dai, a stablecoin that is designed to be pegged to the US Dollar. It’s available to customers in over 70 countries – just not the U.S……
- This comes immediately following the Congressional testimony where Coinbase reiterated that strict regulation would push crypto activity overseas…..
- If Coinbase DeFi yield products sound familiar, it is… Recall a few months ago where the SEC threatened to sue Coinbase over their Coinbase Lend product forcing Coinbase to abandon it – but not before the Coinbase CEO went on a public rant.

Financial Venture Studio announced the Fall 2021 Cohort of Early-stage FinTech companies that will receive “both an investment of capital from the Studio and will receive direct support through a bespoke networking program.” Here is the lineup:
- Copper – teen banking app
- Telivy – cyber insurance
- Canary – community-funded hardship benefit platform
- Frich – personal finance app
- Lunch Payments – instant payments for receivables
- Ivella – banking products for couples (Split Account)
- Varos – API driven real-time market KPIs
- Ascend – integrated insurance payments platform

FinTech funding is still running red hot:
- Fireblocks (crypto institutional infrastructure onramp) raised $400M in Series E at an $8B valuation. This comes just a little over four months from their $310M Series D at a $2B valuation.
- Nearside (SMB challenger fka Hatch) raised $58M in Series B funding
- Stacked (SEC-registered crypto robo-advisor) raised $35M in Series A funding round
- HomeTap (alt lender) raised $60M in capital. HomeTap allows home owners to access debt-free capital in exchange for a share of their home’s future value.
- Mysten Labs (crypto-asset and blockchain infrastructure start up) raised $36M in Series A funding
- Incode Technologies (identity verification and authentication) raised $220M in Series B funding round at a $1.25B valuation in the red-hot digital identity space
- Hummingbird (integrated AML and SAR compliance and investigation software for banks and fintechs) raised $30M in Series B
- Majority (neo immigrant PFM and mobile app) raised $27M in Series A to further develop their advisor program, KYC initiatives (including bypassing SSN by authenticating Foreign Gov’t ID along with proof of US address), and expansion to different migrant communities
- Claroty (cyber-physical security for critical infrastructure) raised $400M in Series E funding
- Tipalti (B2B mid-market cloud-based AP and accounting automation firm) raised $270M in Series F funding round at a $8.3B valuation. This is up from their $2B valuation at their $150M Series E round in Oct 2020.
- TRM Labs (crypto tracing and investigation platform) $60M in Series B funding. Valuation was not disclosed but the company stated that revenues have grown at 600% YoY since 2019. TRM combines “cross-chain data with threat intelligence, advanced analytics, and intuitive visualizations to help organizations detect crypto fraud and financial crime.”
- Monzo (UK digital challenger – Monzo USA is still in “waitlist” mode) raised $500M in new capital at a $4.5B valuation despite continuing and widening losses
- Rho (neo business bank) raised $75M in Series B funding round to further invest in tech and “cover the entirety of corporate spend and cash management.”
- Mambu (SaaS banking platform) raised $266M in Series E round at a $5.5B valuation as the company cites 120% YoY growth in 3Q2021
- Adlumin (cybersecurity) raised $25M in Series B funding round. Adlumin is an ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program alumni.

Lastly, we celebrate the life and patriotism of Bob Dole who passed away on Sunday at the age of 98. A decorated U.S. Army WWII veteran and American Statesman with a sharp wit and even sharper sense of humor. AP News has a good tribute, but I would encourage all to visit robertdole.org and read his amazing biography and take a look at his life in pictures – particularly his post-political career where he remained busier than ever as a patriot and philanthropist.

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

15 days until Christmas Day!!!!!!!! Surely ole Saint Nick wasn’t watching all year long, right? Asking for a friend… 😊
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee announced the final Top 25 Rankings going into Bowl Season with the Playoff Semifinal schedule as:
- #4 Cincinnati vs. #1 Alabama in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Dec. 31 @ 2:30 PM CST
- #3 Georgia vs. #2 Michigan in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 31 @ 6:30 PM CST
- Check out CBS Sports for a complete schedule of all 42 Bowl Games that start next Friday!
This is the time of year where everyone and their dogs make predictions for 2022….. Forget about it – Uncle Sean doesn’t do predictions (other than to predict that I won’t do predictions)! But what I will do for the rest of this year is look back and highlight the Top 21 Dad Jokes and crazy Uncle Sean moments (according to me) that I posted for 2021. Five each week going forward with six for New Year’s Eve! Here we go:
- #21. If Apple makes a car…… Do you think it will have ‘windows’???
- #20. What did 50 Cent do when he got hungry? 58!
- #19. Aunt Patty yelled from the other room, “Do you ever get a shooting pain across your body like someone’s got a voodoo doll of you and they’re stabbing it?” I said, “No….” She responded: “How about now?”
- #18. Spring-time allergies in the Texas Hill Country are so bad, local drug dealers are busy converting Meth back into Sudafed!!!
- #17. Not a Dad Joke, but a Funny Uncle Sean Moment nonetheless from last March - Looking back at one year of Covid-19 this month, here are a few notable terms / phrases that I was pleasantly ignorant of before the pandemic began: Virtual Happy Hour, Anti-Masker, Social Distancing, Quarantini (I actually like that one), Covidiots, Amazon Spendemic, Coronacut (when your wife shaves your head), and TP Hoarders. Remember when Corona was just a beer? Wearing a mask in the bank lobby is now normal and required… And my personal favorite – Covid-19 gave me 20 (as in pounds gained)!!!!

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/3/21

12/3/2021

Happy Friday!!!

Welcome to December! As always, be sure to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent straight to your inbox each week. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 12/3/21:

Ugh – a new aggressive Covid variant (Omicron) has surfaced. No, no, Uncle Sean is not covering vaccine mandates, mask wearing, or the political divisions that come with all that wonderfulness. But I am zeroed in on the statements this week from Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powel and Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen during Senate Banking Committee testimony. Some key points:
- Omicron variant is a concern to the economy – the Fed will be monitoring data over the next few weeks
- Powell went on to state, “at this point, the economy is very strong and inflationary pressures are higher, and it is therefore appropriate in my view to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases, which we actually announced at the November meeting, perhaps a few months sooner…” Powell expects to discuss accelerating the pace of the taper program at the December FOMC meeting (Dec 14-15).
- Regarding the word “transitory” in relation to inflation, Powell clarified that, “it’s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean.”
- Powell also stated that the widely expected report on central bank digital currencies should be ready in the coming weeks

The Federal Reserve November Beige Book, released this week, also reported strong wage and employment growth in nearly all Districts along with price increases stemming from strong demand, logistical challenges, and tight labor markets.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York launched the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) as part of a strategic partnership with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub with a mission to engage with “public and private sector experts to validate, design, build, and launch new financial technology products and services for the central bank community.” Check it out at NYIC for more info. During the virtual event (57 minute video), Chairman Powell stated, "In particular, the partnership will support our analysis of digital currencies--including central bank digital currencies," adding that the center would focus on making cross-border payments faster and less expensive and provide new tools to help supervise financial firms.

The FDIC released their Quarterly Banking Profile report for 3Q2021. Here are the highlights (all positive in my opinion):
- Net Income increased by 35.9% YoY, but was largely due to the decline in provision expense. ALLL as a % of total loans is still elevated at 1.69% versus 1.18% from 4Q2019 (pre-pandemic) which is good considering there is still room to release, but we are still well provisioned against Omicron uncertainty. Most importantly, noncurrent loan balances continue to decline – down 6.3% from 2Q2021 and down 19.2% YoY.
- Net Interest Margin FINALLY began to increase to 2.56% – WOOHOO!!!!! Albeit only 6 bps over 2Q2021 (which was a record low), but we’ll take it!
- Loan growth showed up!!! Okay – it was only 0.6% increase over 2Q2021, but it’s a win!
- Noninterest Income continues to increase with higher interchange fees as the driver
- Deposits are still growing (I was a little surprised by this for the quarter) and are up 2.3% over 2Q2021 and 12% YoY
- Only 46 banks on the problem bank list which I believe is the LOWEST EVER! In comparison, here at FedFis (here comes my shameless plug) we are tracking 73 banks in the bottom 1% per our FedFis Rating© and 42 banks with a rating of 3.80 or worse (1.00 – 5.00 ratings scale where 1.00 is best). Shout out to the FedFis Analysis Team – you guys are ROCKSTARS!!!!

Capital One becomes the latest (and the largest) U.S. bank to eliminate all consumer overdraft fees stating that the move will cost the bank about $150M in fee income per year.
- Ironically (cough, cough, cough - LOL), the Capital One announcement came out the very same day the CFPB released their research report on Banks' Deep Dependence on Overdraft Fees. “Rather than competing on quality service and attractive interest rates, many banks have become hooked on overdraft fees to feed their profit model,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will be taking action to restore meaningful competition to this market.”

Ole Jack Dorsey exits as Twitter CEO (this is me yawning)…. The good news is that he is now free (i.e. “distanced”) from that social media outlet that has evolved into the equivalent of a ‘pit of snakes, den of thieves, hate speech haven, alleged algorithmic harassment narrative, and political dumpster fire via hidden identities’ platform otherwise known as Twitter (dang – did I go too far there - LOL). The point is that Mr. Dorsey can now completely focus on Square…. Err – I mean Block…. Yeah, Square is now Block….. What is it with these new payment platforms and their linear correlations – Square, Stripe, Block, Plaid……???? Oh – and Square Crypto is now Spiral (now we broke that linear mold). Confused yet?
- Remember when Prince changed his name to that unpronounceable symbol that has yet to be identified??? Yeah, that was weird too – LOL!!! But Uncle Sean still loves some Purple Rain! 😊

The ICBA and The Venture Center announce the selection of 11 companies for the fourth annual ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program kicking off on January 11, 2022. FedFis executives are mentors in this program and are huge supporters of the ThinkTECH Accelerator program each year. Take a look at this years’ lineup:
- Accrue360 – loan origination/business and consumer account opening, integration-as-a-service
- DocFox - business account opening automation
- KlariVis – data and business intelligence
- LemonadeLXP – learning experience/digital adoption
- Quilo – instant personal lending
- Senso – proactive lead generation for retail mortgages
- Sequretek – cybersecurity
- Signal Intent – next generation financial guidance
- Unifimoney – investing and money management
- Vero Technologies – inventory finance platform for small-to-medium businesses
- WealthStack – small-to=medium business focused financial wellness platform

MOCA Financial and DCI enter into a joint marketing and referral agreement providing an “innovative solution featuring MOCA’s Digital-First NextGen Card-Based Payment Platform integrated with DCI’s advanced core processing and iCoreGO® account opening and funding product set.” This is clearly a win-win for community banks that are ready to step up their competitive advantage as not only does this integrated solution work well for traditional ‘brick and mortar’ settings, the combined tech stack can also power up a Direct Bank (i.e. digital branch) under the bank charter. Very cool!!!!

OppFi entered into a Settlement Agreement with the District of Columbia alleging the company charged interest well above the Districts 24% usury cap. As per the settlement, OppFI will pay $250K to the District, plus $1.5M in restitution, and waive $640K in accrued interest owed by those borrowers. OppFi chose to resolve the matter "to avoid the expense of protracted litigation," and denies D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s charge that it engaged in deceptive or unfair practices. Banking Dive has a good summary and additional insights into the recently rescinded “true lender” rule.

Notable FinTech funding for the week (follow the money):
- Fundbox (SMB lending and cash mgmt. platform) raised $100M in Series D funding round at a $1.1B valuation
- Thought Machine (cloud-based core platform) raised $200M in Series C funding with a valuation north of $1B
- CertiK (blockchain security / smart contract auditing firm) raised $80M in Series B2 at a $1B valuation citing 20x YoY revenue growth
- CyCognito (cybersecurity operations platform) raised $100M in Series C round. Valuation was not disclosed but the company has generated “400 percent growth in year-over-year revenue” in addition to growing its “Fortune 500 customer roster by 3x—underscoring worldwide demand for its leading Attack Surface Management platform.”
- Panther Labs (cybersecurity) raised $120M in Series B funding with a $1.4B valuation
- Solutions by Text (text messaging platform for consumer financial services) raised $35M in growth financing. Over “1400 consumer finance organizations, including leading auto finance, banking and lending brands, trust Solutions by Text (SBT) to power compliant texting programs in support of their originations, servicing and collections initiatives.”
  - Pretty relevant when you consider the Updated Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) Regulation F rule that went into effect on 11/30/21.
- Algofi (decentralized lending on the Algorand blockchain) raised $2.8M in Seed funding and intends to launch its lending and stablecoin protocol in December
- Goalsetter (family and K-12 PFM banking app) raised $15M in Series A funding round. With this new funding, Goalsetter is looking to move from B2C to B2B by promoting this as a white-label co-branded solution to FI’s via an onboarding partnership with Fiserv.
- Victor Technologies (MVB Financial BaaS Subsidiary – cool model by the way) raised $6M in Seed funding to enhance their API and risk management solutions – as well as their proprietary virtual account ledgering solution. Check them out at victorfi.com.

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

22 days until Christmas Day!!!!!!!! Check out this video of the 2021 lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.
A special HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to our eldest son Marshall this week!!!!!!! Mom and Dad are proud of you!!!

And a few Holiday Dad Jokes for you:
- The 4 stages of a man’s life: 1. You believe in Santa, 2. You don’t believe in Santa, 3. You are Santa, and 4. You look like Santa (I am here - LOL)
- What do you call Santa’s helpers? Subordinate clauses…..
- What did Adam say the day before Christmas? “It’s Christmas, Eve!”
- Lastly – I asked Aunt Patty what she would like for Christmas. She told me, “nothing would make me happier than a diamond necklace.” So I bought her nothing… LOL!!!!!

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/26/21

11/26/2021

Happy Friday!!!

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday (hope everyone had a great one), we are producing a fairly abbreviated update this week. Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent direct to your inbox each week! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 11/26/21:

Jerome Powell gets the “nomination nod” to lead the Federal Reserve as Chairman for a second term; and Lael Brainard to serve as vice-chair.

FinWise Bancorp announced the pricing of their IPO late last week at $10.50 (Nasdaq: FINW) raising $36.8M. FinWise Bank (FDIC #35323; total assets $330M) is a lending / asset side sponsor bank to several fintech firms (source: FedFis FinTech Analytics©).

The OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC published a joint final rule to establish “computer-security incident notification” requirements. Basically requires FI’s to notify their designated regulator within 36 hours of a defined “notification incident.”

Also released this week was the Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps by the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC. I’m certainly not alone in thinking there was going to be significantly more substance after several months of work than a 2 page document that basically states they will create “greater clarity” on crypto assets throughout 2022…. Wow… While regulatory clarity is certainly welcome, we need it sooner rather than later. In addition to evaluating bank regulatory capital (recall the Basel recommendation of 1250% risk weighting) and liquidity standards for crypto assets, the agencies are specifically looking at:
- Crypto-asset safekeeping and traditional custody services
- Ancillary custody services
- Facilitation of customer purchases and sales of crypto-assets
- Loans collateralized by crypto-assets
- Issuance and distribution of stablecoins
- Activities involving the holding of crypto-assets on balance sheet

Meanwhile, the OCC released their own interpretive letter clarifying (1) Authority of a Bank to Engage in Certain Cryptocurrency Activities and (2) Authority of the OCC to Charter a National Trust Bank. Essentially confirming that national banks and federal savings associations can engage in certain cryptocurrency, distributed ledger and stablecoin activities, so long as they demonstrate that they have adequate controls in place. Further stating that banks must work with their regulator and obtain written approval (i.e. “non-objection”) before engaging in crypto related activities.

The ICBA announced the launch of BankTech Ventures Investment Fund to accelerate tech opportunities and adoption at community banks.

Klarna looks to expand in the US with the Pay Now option and Klarna Card. The Klarna card allows consumers to split a purchase at any merchant into four installments without a merchant integration to Klarna. You can use the card to also “Pay Now” and not just for BNPL installments. Yes, Uncle Sean is rolling his eyes as “paying now” isn’t really a novel fintech feature concept, but it makes for good marketing I guess – LOL!!!

Consumer finance tech company CURO (NYSE: CURO) announced an agreement to acquire Heights Finance for $360M.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Digital Currency Group (crypto conglomerate and owner of Genesis, CoinDesk, and more) is back in the funding markets again with a new $600M Credit Facility. This comes just few weeks after their $700M secondary equity transaction that valued the company at $10B.
- MoonPay (crypto payments infrastructure) raised a huge $555M in Series A funding at a valuation of $3.4B! The company is profitable and intends to use the funding to accelerate its global footprint. “The company’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp powers more than 250 wallets, websites and applications in more than 160 countries and has processed more than $2 billion in transactions to date.” WOW – not too bad for a two year old company with their first round!!!
- EarlyBird (investment app for families) raised $4M in Seed funding to continue to build out their “community-first approach to childhood investing” and create “an onramp to modern wealth creation for the next generation.”
- Resilience (cyber insurance and security) raised $80M in Series C to support middle market expansion and international growth promoting their integrated model of cybersecurity solutions with insurance protections
- Column Tax (mobile income tax software) raised $5.1M Seed Round and announced the launch of their first product “Tax Refund Unlock” with partnerships from Klover and Atomic

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

29 days until Christmas Day!!!!!!!!
Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together it spells "Theirs"….. Mmhmmm….
And for the final November Recipe Sharing (in case you are already sick of turkey), here is Uncle Sean’s Mexican Street Corn and I’ve never met anyone that didn’t like it:
- 6 ears of corn shucked
- ½ cup Mexican Crema
- ½ cup grated Asadero cheese (save for last)
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 2 to 3 peppers finely chopped out of a small can (3.7 oz) of Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce – just depends on how spicy you like it (I like to use 2 or more because of that smokey and tangy flavor)
- Juice of 1 lime (save for last)
- 1 TBL chili lime seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp butter
- Roast / blacken the ears of corn on an uncovered grill until it starts to char a little (doesn’t take long so watch it close while turning often). Finish off the corn in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Cut the corn off the cob. In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the corn and all ingredients except for the lime juice and grated Asadero Cheese. Simmer for just a few minutes to get everything melted together and mixed well. Remove from heat and add lime juice, then top with the grated Asadero Cheese and serve!

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/19/21

11/19/2021

Happy Friday & Happy Thanksgiving wishes for next week!!!

Turkey Day is right around the corner which means the annual two month carb loading binge starts in 3, 2, 1, and GO!!!!! Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent direct to your inbox each week; and tell all your friends too!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 11/19/21:

A special shout out to Locality Bank for obtaining FDIC approval!!! Looking forward to seeing South Florida’s latest de novo bank open up in December (and the grand opening ceremony to follow) – CONGRATS!!!!

BM Technologies (NYSE: BMTX) announced a definitive agreement to acquire First Sound Bank (OTCPK: FSWA; FDIC #57799; Total Assets $154M) for $23M. BM Technologies is the old BankMobile that was spun off and sold from Customers Bank for $140M back in August of 2020 (the deal closed in January 2021).
- So we have now come full circle in what some in our industry are referring to as “a new age de novo” process: Bank creates Direct Bank (i.e. digital branch) → Bank sells Direct Bank → Direct Bank becomes fintech Challenger Bank → Challenger Bank buys a charter. I like it!!!!!

Patriot Bancorp announced an agreement to merge with American Challenger Development Corp. American Challenger is actually the accounting acquirer here (I know – that’s an Uncle Sean geek-out moment) as referenced in this KBRA preliminary ratings report – which is cool as this is another example of a fintech obtaining a bank charter.
- American Challenger had previously applied for a national bank charter and had received preliminary conditional approval from the OCC, but was still waiting on FDIC approval.
- After this merger closes, American Challenger Bank will operate as a digital division of Patriot Bank (we call that a Direct Bank here at FedFis). Patriot Bank is already an existing Sponsor Bank as they are the virtual card provider for Otto automated bill payment services. So Patriot Bank will end up with the fantastic structure of being: 1) a Durbin exempt bank (no cap on interchange) at $952M in total assets, 2) an existing fintech Sponsor Bank, and 3) upon closing of the merger, a Host Bank for a Direct Bank (digital brand of American Challenger Bank).
- That’s what Uncle Sean refers to as “the FI trifecta” - very nice!!!

Alt lender Oportun (Nasdaq: OPRT) also announced a definitive agreement this week to acquire Digit (PFM Savings and Investing App) that effectively creates a true Neobank / Challenger FI for $219.9M in cash and equity. Check out the well done Investor Presentation Deck by Oportun showing 600K paid Digit customers combining for a total of 1.4M members; and a 3-5 year acceleration of the Oportun vision of being a full Neobank (offering savings, investing, digital banking, lending, debit and credit cards).

U.S. Bancorp announced an agreement to acquire TravelBank (corporate T&E management platform). U.S. Bank and TravelBank have already been working with each other about a year as the U.S. Bank Instant Card is integrated within the TravelBank platform. Banking Dive has a good summary of the two firms mutual history here.

nCino (Nasdaq: NCNO) gets in on the action too this week by acquiring SimpleNexus, an end-to-end mortgage platform, for $1.2B in cash and stock. This certainly appears to be a nice compliment to nCino’s cloud based Bank Operating System®.

French based BNP Paribas is working with advisers to assess a sale of Bank of the West, its $100B U.S. arm, as it seeks to retreat from the American retail banking market. We also saw Spain based BBVA exit the U.S. market recently via a sale to PNC.
- Bank of the West is one of the Mastercard Business Credit Card issuers for Brex. Uncle Sean will be watching to see if Brex; 1) remains with the new acquirer, 2) fully moves to Emigrant Bank (their other business CC sponsor issuer), or 3) if Brex will seek out an entirely new sponsor issuer to mitigate vendor concentration risk.

Jiko makes their debut into the BaaS / Sponsor Bank arena by announcing a partnership with Euphoria – more specifically as the sponsor bank behind Euphoria’s Bliss mobile banking app.
- For a refresher – Jiko was a fintech challenger that specialized in investing consumer deposits in Treasury Bills and providing a debit card with real-time processing when those funds were needed. Jiko was using Mid-Central Bank as their sponsor bank. Jiko always knew they wanted to be an actual FDIC insured bank and through a mutual shareholder relationship, they ended up buying their sponsor bank (another instance of a fintech obtaining a charter).
- Uncle Sean loves this model – corporate treasuries have been doing this for decades (overnight sweep of excess liquidity into T-bills). It’s nice to see this become mainstream for everyday consumers.

Voyager (crypto investing app) announced the upcoming launch of their Voyager Debit Mastercard (a quick look into the FedFis Fintech Analytics© platform shows that thus is actually a Stream Prepaid Mastercard GPR issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank) with up to 9% rewards (rates subject to change). Wait – what??? Up to NINE PERCENT DEBIT CARD REWARDS!!!??? Okay – here is the rest of the story:
- You can link a bank account to fund your Voyager account; or you direct deposit into your Voyager account for funding (thus the prepaid component). Once funds are received you can convert to USDC (issued by Circle) which is where the “rewards” come in as there is no need to spend to generate rewards. Once converted to USDC, this becomes another crypto asset scenario (your funds are no longer held at Metropolitan or any FDIC or SIPC insured institution and risk of loss creeps in – thus the higher return). Rewards are generated just for holding USDC (i.e. Circle lending spread) and are paid / credited in USDC. When you actually use your Voyager Debit Card, Voyager converts the USDC to process in real-time. You can read more about it on Voyager’s blog.

BlockFI finds itself in the middle of more regulatory woes as the U.S. SEC joins the list of entities scrutinizing BlockFI's high-yield crypto accounts, earning as much as 9.5%, as “lending programs” and are classifying many of these crypto asset accounts as “investment contracts” that are akin to securities that should be registered with the SEC. It is important to note, however, that the SEC hasn’t accused BlockFi of any wrongdoing and not all agency investigations lead to enforcement actions.

Beginning Christmas Day, the Staples Center in Los Angles will be renamed to Crypto.com Arena in a 20 year deal worth $700M (CHA-CHING); and will include a 3,300 sq ft crypto activation space. The 20,000-seat arena is currently home to the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, the NHL’s Kings, and the WNBA’s Sparks. “Each year, the world-class venue hosts over 240 major high-profile events of national and international distinction and over 4 million guests with events ranging from professional sports, concerts, family and award shows, boxing and special events, including the GRAMMY Awards, NBA All-Star Games and NHL All-Star Games among others.” Now that’s some high-profile advertising!!!

N26 to ‘exit stage left’ as they discontinue U.S. operations to focus on Europe. N26 told their 500,000 existing U.S. customers that their service will no longer be available after January 11, 2022; and will receive “further instructions on how to withdraw their funds to ensure a smooth transition.”

Notable FinTech funding for the week (some of which were HUGE):
- Gemini (crypto platform) raised $400M in growth equity round with a valuation of $7.1B. Not bad for their first-ever outside financing!
- ConsenSys (blockchain infrastructure provider) raised $200M at a valuation of $3.2B
- UNest (RIA investment app for parents to benefit their children) raised $26M in Series B funding round
- Upgrade (Alt lending and mobile banking challenger) raised $280M in Series F at a whopping $6.28B valuation just four months after their Series E at a $3.43B valuation
- Oxygen (Gig PFM App) is in talks to raise $70M in Series B round at a $500M valuation
- Podium (communications and payments platform with text-to-pay and card readers) raised $201M in Series D funding round at a valuation in excess of $3B
- Imprint (partners with businesses to provide branded rewards cards for customers) raised $38M in Series A
- Airwallex (cross-border payments) raised an additional $100M in Series E1 for a total E round of $300M at a new valuation of $5.5B (recall in Sept where Airwallex raised $200M in Series E at a $4B valuation)
- Stytch (API identity authentication) raised $90B in Series B round at a valuation in excess of $1B
- Netography (security platform across atomized networks) raised $45M in Series A funding
- Expel (cybersecurity) raised $140.3M in Series E funding with a valuation north of $1B
- DefenseStorm (cyber safety & soundness platform for banks and CUs) raised $5M in funding from Curql as DefenseStorm logs its 100th FI customer
- SnapAttack (cybersecurity) raised $8M in Series A funding round after announcing that it was spun off from IT consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton
- Lacework (cybersecurity) raised a massive $1.3B in Series D funding at a valuation of $8.3B – WOW!!!!
- And lastly for all my blockchain and gaming fans – Forte (interoperable blockchain gaming platform) raised a huge $725M Series B round. This comes just 6 months after their $185M Series A at an initial $1B valuation. DANG!!!!

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

Wishing EVERYONE a very Happy Thanksgiving next week!!!! Which means there are only 36 days until Christmas Day – NEW SOCKS AND UNDERWEAR FOR ALL!!!!!!!!
Here are a few Dad Jokes to kick off your weekend and get you prepped for Thanksgiving:
- This one is for my friend and FedFis Superstar, Mr. Dan Heilveil - The technical difference between a violin and a fiddle is that a violin has strings and a fiddle has strangs!!!! 😊
- I brought home one of those greyhound dogs the other day and Aunt Patty asked if I was going to race it - I said nope, I’m pretty sure he’s faster than me!
- I told Aunt Patty that our Thanksgiving dinner this year was going to be expensive. She asked if it was because of transitory inflation and I said, nope – it’s because it has 24 carrots!!!
- Aunt Patty said that last joke was lame and I shouldn’t tell anymore Thanksgiving jokes, but Uncle Sean just can’t quit cold turkey! See what I did there - LOL!!!!
This week’s November Recipe Sharing is for a time proven Texas staple - good ole fashioned chili con queso in the slow cooker / crock pot (this is our daughter Claire’s favorite):
- 32 ounces of Velveeta (that’s the whole thing) – cut it up into 1” – 2” cubes to help it melt faster
- One 15 ounce can of Chili (no beans)
- 1 lb cooked / drained 94% lean ground beef
- One 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
- 2 cups (one pint) of Half and Half
- 4 TBL Chili Powder
- 2 TBL Paprika (I use smoked paprika)
- 2 TBL Cumin
- 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
- Juice from 3 limes (very important – don’t skip this)
- Dump everything into the slow cooker / crockpot and set on high for 2 hours stirring about every 30 minutes. Goes great with chips, tortillas, hot dogs, on top of baked potatoes, drizzled over fries – heck you are only limited by your imagination with this Texas culinary jewel! It makes a TON of chili con queso, but we have NEVER had to throw any of it away (and its good as a leftover in the fridge for several days) - enjoy!!!! 😊

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/12/21

11/12/2021

Happy Friday!!!

Sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent direct to your inbox each week! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 11/12/21:

October Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at a red hot 6.2% this week and is the biggest inflation surge in 30 years. Core inflation (excludes food and energy) increased 4.6% - another 30 year high. Check out the 26.4% increase in used cars and trucks in this BLS CPI Detail report – OUCH!!! It will be interesting to see how much CPI “normalizes” next year as Covid impacted supply chains and bottlenecks begin to correct themselves. At the current taper of $15B per month, the FOMC we will be out of the QE bond buying business in late June 2022.

Avanti Financial Group announced their intent to apply for FDIC insurance. This announcement comes shortly after the PWG report on stablecoins last week recommending stablecoins be issued by FDIC insured banks. While Avanti is already a Wyoming SPDI Bank and a “qualified custodian”, they are not currently FDIC insured as they are focused on custody of digital assets (including a tokenized U.S. Dollar called Avit), trading, and settlements on public blockchain.

According to this article in The American Prospect, the Postal Banking Pilot Program that launched in September has not had a single person put their paycheck on the “gift card” at the Bronx test location…. GREAT JOB (sarcasm) – LOL!!!!!

Robinhood made some negative headlines (I know – shocking, right??? LOL!!!) this week by a cybersecurity hack and data breach exposing data for 7 million customers (5 million names and email addresses plus another 2 million of just names – about 310 had names, birthdates, and zip codes compromised). According to this statement by the company, the security attack did not expose Social Security numbers, bank account numbers or debit card numbers, and no customers experienced “financial loss” from the incident (yet). But it certainly opens up the prospect of future phishing attacks on those 7M customers.

Have you seen the new Burger King "side of crypto" rewards promotion (powered by Robinhood Crypto)? It’s part of Burger King's Royal Perks program through their mobile app or website. Basically, the BK promotion giveaway runs through 11/21 and gives eligible participants a chance to win one coin from a pool of 20 Bitcoin, 200 Ethereum, and 2 million Dogecoin. Wow – “the times they are a-changin!”

Recall about a month ago in the 10/15 Uncle Sean Update we talked about SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s speech regarding digital analytics in finance and digital engagement practices (DEP) specifically pointing to robo-advisors??? Well, turns out it his speech definitely was a precursor… This week the SEC Division of Examinations issued a risk alert for RIAs offering electronic investment advice (aka robo-advisors) regarding compliance documentation, fee structure, cyber security, conflicts of interest and investor protections.

Ripple announced 2022 plans for Ripple Liquidity Hub as a turnkey crypto solution to enable financial institutions to offer their clients the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is set to revisit crypto asset proposals that would require banks to set aside capital equivalent to the most riskiest investments after pushback from industry trade groups (Regulatory Capital at 1250% risk weight – which essentially precludes most banks from holding any crypto assets). The Committee is targeting “mid-2022” for further revised guidance.

Flexbase, an automated payment platform for contractors, launched a credit card (issued by Celtic Bank) with interest-free financing for up to 60 day terms targeting SMB construction companies.

Atomic Invest (investing API for fintechs, banks, and CU’s) announced their launch this week in conjunction with a $25M Series A capital raise.

Airbase (corporate card and spend management platform) announced a free tier of their service for SMB’s and huge rewards on their cards of 2.25% cash back on prepaid and 1.75% cash back on charge cards.

Affirm (BNPL) announced an expanded agreement with Amazon (page 2) where “Affirm will serve as Amazon's only third party, non credit card, buy now, pay later ("BNPL") option in the U.S. Until January 2023, Amazon will be subject to certain restrictions on providing other installment products in the U.S. by other BNPL providers. Affirm will also be integrated into Amazon Pay’s digital wallet in the U.S.”

While we are on the Amazon train….. PayPal announced an agreement with Amazon to allow “Venmo’s more than 80 million users in the U.S. to pay with Venmo at checkout using funding methods that include their linked bank account and Venmo balance” starting in 2022.

DoorDash and Payfare launch instant pay for DoorDash drives across the U.S. via the DasherDirect business prepaid Visa debit card and mobile banking app.

Blend (NYSE: BLND) and Ocrulus announce a partnership to accelerate digital mortgage applications and automate end-to-end mortgage process.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Socure (identity verification) raised a whopping $450M in Series E funding at a valuation of $4.5B which is up from $1.3B just 8 months ago in March ($100M Series D) – HOLY COW!!!! The company stated that they have grown their customer base from 350 in March to approximately 1,000 across a wide range of industries; and boasts having 12 of the top 15 banks as customers.
- Zilch (UK based BNPL) raised $110M in Series C funding round to expand into the U.S. with a valuation of $2B. That’s a 4x valuation increase from their last round just 8 months ago!!!
- Drata (security and compliance firm) raised $100M in Series B funding round at a valuation north of $1B after emerging from stealth mode only 10 months ago and covering 4 compliance frameworks including SOC2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI DSS
- H2O.ai (AI cloud based solution platform for retail and business customers) raised $100M in Series E round at a $1.7B valuation
- Meow (compliant investing for corporate treasuries in crypto markets) raised $5M in Seed funding
- SafeBreach (cybersecurity - continuous validation platform) raised $53.5M in Series D round
- Obligo (rental fintech platform with a non-insurance deposit alternative based on credit profile) raised $35M in Series B funding round
- Circle announced the launch of their Circle Ventures Fund to support early stage blockchain projects and companies
- Spectral (non-fungible credit scoring – yes that’s a thing now; and it’s fun to say) raised $6.75M in funding

Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

This is really cool and also kind of terrifying (LOL) – Walmart and Gatik have achieved fully driverless deliveries in a first for autonomous trucking industry worldwide. Since August, the companies have been operating two box trucks without a safety driver on a 7 mile loop daily for 12 hours in Bentonville, AR. The safety driver was pulled over the summer for a true driverless operation on public roads. CNBC has a good article detailing the project as well as tests for other companies including Kroger (with Nuro) and Albertsons (with Tortoise).
- We may not have widely available flying cars yet, but we have driverless commercial distribution trucks – pretty cool!!!
And of course Uncle Sean has a couple of quick Dad Jokes for you:
- Aunt Patty opened the car door for me… It would have been a nice gesture had we not been going 70 mph - LOL!!!
- What is blue and tastes like red paint? Blue paint, of course!
- Why is it that when you open a can of evaporated milk, it is still full???
Keeping up with the November trend of recipe sharing, here is Uncle Sean’s Texas Hill Country Pesto (the cilantro and pecan is what gives it that nice earthy hill country flavor):
- 2 cups chopped Basil leaves
- 2 cloves of garlic (I take the easy path and use the minced garlic in the jar)
- 2 cups chopped cilantro
- 2 diced jalapenos (de-seeded)
- 1 large handful of pecan crumbles (a “handful” is indeed an Uncle Sean scientific measurement standard)
- 1 large handful of slivered almonds
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup Garlic & Herb Sunflower Oil
- Throw everything into a food processor until finely minced, then just add salt & pepper to taste (I use coarse ground black pepper and garlic salt). Goes great with bread or crackers – enjoy!!!! 😊

<<Previous

Bulletin

Uncle Sean's Update - 1/14/22

Uncle Sean's Update - 1/7/22

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/30/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/23/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/17/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/10/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 12/3/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/26/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/19/21

Uncle Sean's Update - 11/12/21

Want some truth? Let's talk. We love this game.

Sales: 512.960.0911
Support: 682.218.1006

#TruthInBanking
#FedFisHasTheData

Bulletin

Want some truth? Let's talk. We love this game.

Sales: 512.960.0911Support: 682.218.1006

#TruthInBanking​#FedFisHasTheData

Sales: 512.960.0911
Support: 682.218.1006

#TruthInBanking
#FedFisHasTheData