FedFis Bulletin

Uncle Sean's Update - 10/3/25

10/3/2025

Happy Friday!!!

There is a lot going on this week, so let’s jump right in!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 10/3/25 (click here to subscribe):

Kicking off with a HUGE shoutout 🎉 and lots of love 🫶 to my friends at DCI as they renew their sponsorship of Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB)!!!
- “DCI is woven into the history of community banking innovation,” said Matthew Smith, CEO of Bankers Helping Bankers. “Their renewal with BHB is more than sponsorship—it’s a signal that the champions of community banking are all-in on this movement.” 🚀

On the macroeconomic side… Well… The government shutdown is in full effect… So, no Sept Jobs Report from the BLS… 🙄 However, had there been one – the expectations were +43,000 expected, +22,000 previously (prior to revisions); Unemployment rate 4.3% expected, 4.3% previously.

🤔 Coming to America (not unexpected, but certainly newsworthy)… Nubank (NYSE: NU) applies for U.S. National Bank charter with the OCC.
- Founded in 2013 and headquartered in São Paulo, Nubank has rapidly grown to become one of the world’s largest digital financial services platforms, serving nearly 123 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

👀 More big news in embedded finance as Core Processors continue with acquisitions! Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) just announced they have acquired Victor (the embedded finance / BaaS subsidiary of MVB Bank focused on direct-to-core embedded payments solutions).
- “This acquisition advances our technology modernization strategy to help banks and credit unions compete and win through innovative, cloud-native solutions,” says Jack Henry President and CEO Greg Adelson. “Offering a proven, high-volume embedded payments platform that is highly scalable creates diverse revenue streams, enhances our capabilities, and provides more immediate opportunities to deliver emerging services like stablecoin.”
  - The article goes on to state that, “The PaaS market is expected to grow from $19.1 billion in 2025 to $43.9 billion in 2029 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1%, according to Research and Markets.”

But wait, there’s more 😊... Next up is Fiserv (NYSE: FI) announcing a definitive agreement to acquire StoneCastle Cash Management (deposit network platform for enhanced deposit insurance for individual, commercial, and government depositors; and a stable funding solution for FI’s).
- “Acquiring StoneCastle is an important step forward in our strategy to help financial institutions optimize their balance sheets, which will enable them to do more in the communities they serve,” said Andrew Gelb, Head of Financial Solutions at Fiserv. The PR also states “Fiserv plans to leverage StoneCastle’s platform to help financial institutions retain funds associated with FIUSD stablecoin issuance…”
  - This comes on the heels of these additional Fiserv acquisition announcements:
    - 9/25 - Fiserv Expands Advisory Services for Financial Institutions with Acquisition of Smith Consulting Group.
    - 9/4 - Fiserv Expands Clover Offerings for Hospitality with CardFree Acquisition.

Circling back to MVB… MVB Bank (FDIC 34603; total assets $3.2B) partnered with Aeropay (pay-by-bank provider) to enhance Aeropay’s payment infrastructure by integrating MVB Bank's expertise in managing complex ACH and Real-Time Payments (RTP).

👉 Worldpay leans into BaaS infrastructure and announced the launch of their Embedded Finance Engine to help software companies deliver seamless business banking products to their users. The new platform includes embedded lending, banking, and commercial card issuing with plans to expand capabilities over the coming months. Check it out at Embedded finance | Worldpay for Platforms. 💥

Checkout.com becomes the latest to apply for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter through the State of Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. The charter would give Checkout.com direct access to US card networks allowing it to act as its own acquirer.
- If approved, Checkout.com would join the ranks of Fiserv and Stripe with the Georgia limited purpose charter. This Payments Dive article has a good summary.

Linker Finance announced a strategic partnership with Advanced Fraud Solutions (AFS) to integrate consortium-powered fraud intelligence into Linker Finance’s business banking solution. 👏

Fruitful announced their launch of Money Map, the first automated financial product that transforms personal advice into action with a single click. Money Map automatically sets up accounts, funds routing rules, and automated transfers across bills, spending, saving, and investing. Nice!!!

Stripe teams up with Open AI to help launch a new commerce experience called Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. “Starting today, ChatGPT users in the US can buy goods from US-based Etsy businesses—and, coming soon, over a million Shopify merchants, like Glossier, Vuori, Spanx, and SKIMS—directly in the chat” via the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a new, merchant-friendly open standard codeveloped by Stripe and OpenAI.

InvestiFi partners with Horizon Utah Federal Credit Union (charter 24746; total assets $180M) to bring InvestiFi’s full suite of digital investing solutions to HCU’s 12,000 members.

Wealthfront makes their S-1 public for their upcoming IPO which the company intends to list on Nasdaq under the ticker “WLTH.”
- Per the filing, Wealthfront had $88.2B in assets on its platform and served 1.3M customers as of July 31. Additionally, the company posted a very strong $194.4M in net income on $308.9M in revenue during in fiscal 2025 (which ended on Jan. 31).
- This CNBC article is a pretty good summary.

Some personnel moves:
- LawFi named Doug Hathaway as Co-Founder and CTO/CPO.
- ModernFi reappoints Rodney E. Hood to its Board of Directors following Mr. Hood’s service as Acting Comptroller of the Currency.
- DailyPay named existing Chairman Nelson Chai as CEO.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Baselane (banking and financial platform for RE investors) raised $20M in Series B following their previously unannounced $14.4M series A.
- Notable (pay-at-close financing for home sale prep) raised $6M in Series A funding round.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

So here’s some cool news. I am heading down to the greater Austin area to hang out with my brother Davey and his family this weekend!!! On the agenda is college football, campfires, food (maybe even some adult beverages), and plenty of stories…
- Speaking of stories… When we were younger (until I was about 5 or so), Dave and I shared a bedroom while our older brother had his own room. Well, we got some bunk beds and (even though Dave was older) I absolutely HAD to have the top bunk – because of course at 5 years old it was absolutely imperative that I establish my dominance as a man (LOL) to my brother who was 9 years older than me. 😅 Dave eventually conceded and let me have the top bunk… And naturally I was too much of a man at the ripe age of 5 to keep that sissy protection railing on there…. Yep, you guessed it… I fell out of that top bunk. Not just once, but on a nightly basis for a long, long time due to an already abundance of stubbornness and hard-headedness (it’s a family tradition – and the hard-headed part may be the only thing that kept me alive 🤣). In case you are wondering, YES, that is a terrifying way to wake up as you feel yourself going over the side (dreams of falling are nothing compared to the reality of waking up while falling – I am literally crying laughing as I am writing this 😂🤣)!!! After the first handful of times, this became such a nightly occurrence that the shock and trauma eventually wore off; and literally became a nightly ritual. I think I remember that we ended up putting some pillows on the floor to soften the blow. I begged him not to tell Mom because I knew she would freak out and not let me sleep on the top bunk anymore LMAO!!! Of course Dave confided in keeping my secret safe (gee – thanks??? HAHAHA!). And he would simply give me a blanket (while I was lying on the floor) and I would go back to sleep. Ahhh, boys will be boys and brothers will always be brothers. 😊✌️
Thought I would mix it up a bit this week and focus on the perks, drawback, and not-so-subtle signs of aging… So, here are the “aging” themed Dad / Bad jokes:
- In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first… 👍
- People no longer view you as a hypochondriac… 😅
- Kidnappers are not very interested in you… 😊
- There is nothing left to learn the hard way… (I feel targeted by this one) 🤠
- Carpe diem = Seize the day… Imodium = Don’t sneeze today!!! 😬😲😆
- And last but not least… One of the best signs of aging is if you have ever had to ask yourself, “why am I the only naked person at this gender reveal party???” 🤷‍♂️🤣

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 [email protected] | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | [email protected] #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 - 9/26/25

9/26/2025

Happy Friday!!!

Celebrating the first week of Fall and some cooler temps finally!!! 🎃🍂 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/26/25 (click here to subscribe):

Some quick economic data:

3rd (and final) estimate of 2Q25 GDP jumped up to 3.8% (estimate was 3.3%) with a big jump in real final sales to private domestic purchasers (kind of like “core GDP’) to 2.9% - all buoyed by consumer spending.

The BLS August PCE came in as expected across the board at 2.7% YoY (2.6% last month) and 0.3% for the month with Core PCE at 2.9% YoY (same as last month) and 0.2% for the month. This CNBC article states that the report further indicates that President Trump’s tariffs have had only a limited pass-through effect so far on consumer prices.

Government shutdown? Yep – here we are again… Congress has just days left to pass a stopgap bill to keep the government fully funded past Tuesday, 9/30. 🙄

Uncle Sean’s take (not that anyone asked 😊)…
- With all of the above (especially Congress not getting their job done 😠) – keep an eye on 9/30 closing in the bond market as this will be the new measuring stick (post FOMC rate cut) for unrealized losses in securities for 3Q reporting.

Back to the rest of the Update:

FIS (NYSE: FIS) acquires Amount strengthening FIS’ account origination position for banks and CU’s “with a market-leading unified solution with embedded AI functionality for deposits, lending, and card solutions to support consumers and small and midsize businesses (SMBs).”
- Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The PR stated that the “acquisition aligns with FIS’ strategy to add innovative, cloud-native and modular solutions to drive greater value for its clients across the money lifecycle.”
- 👉 Recall last week where we talked about FIS’ Bank Modernization Framework (labeled as “core-agnostic”) and associated core banking modernization whitepaper.

Fiserv (NYSE: FI) acquires Smith Consulting Group (SMG) expanding on its’ advisory services for banks and CU’s that are seeking guidance on their strategic direction and investment related to core processing and surrounding solutions.
- “The addition of SCG reinforces Fiserv’s position as a leading provider of core banking and advisory services, enhancing the firm’s ability to deliver end-to-end transformation for community banks and credit unions. SCG consulting services will span DNA, Signature, Bank Intelligence and other Fiserv banking platforms.” (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean)
  - “SCG supports banking software system conversions and implementations, as well as consulting services focused on core, teller, customer service and call center platforms, online and mobile banking, and various other interfaces. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Finastra announced the launch of its modern ACH payment solution enabling them to now support all US payment clearings – ACH, wires, and real-time payments, within a unified payment hub, Finastra’s Global PAYplus.
- The Finastra ACH Module includes “same-day ACH, early pay, and late return handling, while offering rich APIs for operational control and integration. Its user-friendly interface, enhanced scalability, and the ability to handle large-scale transaction volumes make the solution easily adaptable to meet the unique needs of both large and small financial institutions.”

Virtual high-five 🙌 to R&T Deposit Solutions as they entered into an agreement with Citizens Bank, N.A. (FDIC 57957; total assets $218B), which will serve as their new custodian and settlement bank for the DDM® and CDMX℠ Programs per this LinkedIn post from their CEO, Susan Cosgrove. Nice!!! 😊

And a shout-out to our friends at InvestiFi… Remember back in late July where Illiana Financial Credit Union partnered with InvestiFi for a full suite of investing tools for its members? Well, this LinkedIn post states that Illiana Financial CU is now live with all three of InvestiFi’s digital investing products (securities, guided investing, and crypto) through their CU*Answers platform. Congrats on a quick and successful implementation!!! 👍

Congrats to the Vine Team as Crest Savings Bank (FDIC 28818; total assets $568M) selects Vine Financial and their AI-powered platform to support the banks entire commercial lending platform streamlining the full commercial loan lifecycle. 💥

Axos Bank (NYSE: AX; FDIC 35546; total assets $24B) acquires Verdant Commercial Capital for $43.5M enhancing the banks existing equipment leasing business; and provides additional cross-sell opportunities for commercial deposits and floorplan lending in several diversified industry verticals.

Flex of the week 💪 goes to Klarna as they announce 1 million US signups in just 11 weeks for their debit-first Klarna Card. “Americans are signing up for the card at a rate of 13,000 a day, hitting a peak of 50,000 sign-ups on 23 September.” Wow!!!!

👉 Speaking of flexing and BNPL… equipifi (a direct FI solution as opposed to third-party leakage out of the FI) continues their impressive FI market expansion in the BNPL space with a pair of Texas announcements this week. equipifi’s BNPL solution is available for both online and mobile for qualifying debit purchases to be split into installments for both pre- and post-purchase flexibility. Be sure to check them out at equipifi.com and tell them Uncle Sean sent you! 🚀
- Gulf Coast Educators FCU (charter 5648; total assets $1.2B) selects equipifi for their in-house BNPL solution for their 60,000 members.
- Education First FCU (charter 24470; total assets $600M) selects equipifi in-house BNPL solution for their 32,000 members.
- And congratulations 🎉 to my friend Joe Swint (okay, he’s pretty much everyone’s friend – LOL) as a new Account Executive at equipifi! Let us know if there is anything we can help you with here at FedFis, Joe. And happy belated birthday too!!! 🤠🎂

Fold Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: FLD) announced the upcoming launch of the Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card (Visa) powered by Stripe. This adds to Fold’s fintech offerings including the Fold App, Gift Card, and Visa Prepaid Debit Card issued by Sutton Bank.

Bolt (checkout, identity, and payments platform) announced the official launch of its all-in-one SuperApp bridging the fiat-crypto gap and giving users a unified way to shop, spend, save, earn and invest.
- Banking services provided by Midland States Bank. Crypto infrastructure is powered by Zero Hash.

Couple of odd headlines for my counterparty / third-party risk superfreaks (like me 😊):
- Ridin’ The Storm Out (yes, that’s a nod to REO Speedwagon)… Keep an eye on storms in the Atlantic as Imelda could dump heavy rain early next week over the Southeastern coastline.
- This is not good… Air Force cyber leader warns threats against US operational technology networks are growing – emphasizing US military concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to China-backed actors (particularly Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon) that have had persistent access in critical information, key resources (CIKR) for five years.

Some personnel moves:
- Pipe named Vijay Vachani as Chief Revenue Officer.
- Ncontracts appoints Sonja Tsiridis as Chief Technology Officer.
- Lendio hires Joanna Fankhauser as Chief Operations Officer.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Cardless raised $60M in Series C funding round.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

A new species of bird in San Antonio region? Indeed. While no “official” name has been assigned, it is being informally referred to as a “Grue Jay” – a cross between a male Blue Jay and a female Green Jay. Per this University of Texas research report, the new hybrid species is unique as it “may be among the first examples of a hybrid animal that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate. The two different parent species are separated by 7 million years of evolution, and their ranges didn’t overlap as recently as a few decades ago.”
Say it isn’t so!!! 😭 Long-term local “watering hole” in New Braunfels is set to close…. After27 years, Faust Brewing Co. will permanently close on October 31, 2025. 🍺
Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes 😊:
- Every salad can be a Caesar salad if you stab it enough… 😲😅
- I bought a new boomerang… But how exactly do I throw the old one out? 🪃🤷‍♂️
- It doesn’t matter what temperature the room is… It’s always room temperature. 🙄
- And last but certainly not least…..
  - Redneck (or FinTech Cowboy) word of the day is “Twerk.” As in, “Imma have two more beers, then it’s back twerk.” 🤣🤠❤️

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/19/25

9/19/2025

Happy Friday!!!

It was certainly an exciting week – but first… Don’t forget to tell your friends to sign up here for FREE to join over 18,000 of their peers in having the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to their inbox every week! 🤠 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/19/25:

It’s Fed Week!!! As widely expected, the FOMC voted to reduce rates by 25 basis points to 4.0% - 4.25%. For me, it was kind of a benign meeting since this was so widely expected. However, I did find this CNBC full interview with Fed Governor Stephen Miran (20:22) related to his dissent and outlier on SEP to be very interesting (and very professional and respectful). Fed Governor Miran noted that he will be giving a speech this coming Monday describing a full accounting of his economic outlook.
- For more info, here is:
  - Chairman Powell’s press conference transcript (26 pages)
  - The always entertaining Summary of Economic Projections
  - Full video of the FOMC Press Conference September 17, 2025 (52:14)

👉 Thread Bank (FDIC 9499; total assets $800M) partners with LoanPro to enhance lending operations with LoanPro’s API-first modern lending and credit platform.
- Per the PR, “The LoanPro system of record will standardize both internal community bank lending programs and external embedded finance lending programs, making this partnership the first of its kind for sponsor banking data allowing Thread to innovate faster while ensuring compliance” 💥 (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean). Check out LoanPro’s impressive API-first platform here - Loan Management Software | LoanPro.
- 👀 Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) played a pivotal role in facilitating this partnership, bringing together aligned institutions and helping to identify the right technology fit to support long-term growth.
  - This comes just a few weeks after Thread Bank selects Finxact from Fiserv to power embedded banking strategies; where BHB also played an instrumental role in fostering the expansion of the relationship and formalizing the shared vision between Thread Bank, Fiserv, and Infinant. 🚀

Speaking of Bankers Helping Bankers… Uncle Sean gives a HUGE shout-out to InvestiFi as BHB's newest Premier Sponsor supporting community banks!!! 🙌🎉 Be sure to check out InvestiFi’s InvestTech platform at https://investifi.co/ - allowing for trading to and from deposit accounts, enabling community banks and CU’s to retain more assets and attract new account holders.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) raises U.S. Minimum Hourly Wage to $25, increasing starting salaries to more than $50K – making good on their 2017 pledge to hit $25 by 2025.
- With the increase to $25, starting salary for full-time U.S. employees at the bank will have gone up by more than $20,000 since 2017.

🤔 JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) and Plaid announced an extension to their data access agreement for sharing of consumer permissioned data… Details of the agreement or the fee structure was not disclosed.
- This Banking Dive article (Plaid to pay for JPMorgan data) reiterated that many in the fintech space were (and still are) quite alarmed back in July when JPMC informed them of substantial new fees to access consumer data the bank had previously transmitted without cost.
  - Just speculating here, but I would expect to see similar agreements with the other top banks and fintech firms needing to access customer data…

💪 Flex time… This week it is Zelle® Hits New Highs in the First Half of 2025 with 2 billion transactions (a 19% increase) and a dollar volume of nearly $600B (up by 23%).

Another Texas bank acquisition… National Bank Holdings Corporation (NYSE: NBHC, FR 3973888), bank subsidiary is NBH Bank (FDIC 59052; total assets $10B), to acquire Vista Bancshares, Inc. (PCO FR 1135897), bank subsidiary is Vista Bank (FDIC 1210; total assets $2.4B) for approximately $369.1M in a mixed deal of cash and stock.
- A quick sort in the FedFis M&A database shows 10 announced deals in Texas since June 1, 2025 – with half of those deals coming from out of state suitors.

👀 FIS (NYSE: FIS) leans into banking modernization by announcing their proprietary Bank Modernization Framework empowering “financial institutions to tailor their modernization journeys to their current needs, allowing them to begin with any part of their technology stack, whether it’s digital channels, data and AI, or open banking integrations.”
- The solution, labeled as “core-agnostic,” enables banks to bypass traditional “rip and replace” approach and modernize incrementally as desired – anywhere along the tech stack.
  - More info can be found here in this core banking modernization white paper by FIS.

Mercantile Bank (FDIC 34598; total assets $6.1B) selects Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) core processing platform.

First Fed Bank (FDIC 28405; total assets $2.2B) launches Apiture's Business Banking solution (in the process of being acquired by CSI) for online and mobile banking for its business customers.

Savers Co-operative Bank (FDIC 26455; total assets $788M) partners with Narmi via their Narmi Grow platform to drive new customer acquisition and streamline its digital account opening processes.

Wolf & Company, P.C. (national CPA and advisory firm) announced a strategic partnership with Cable to integrate Cable’s real-time control testing capabilities into Wolf & Company's trusted network of recommended technologies for financial institutions. 👏
- "Partnering with Wolf & Company was an obvious choice, given our shared customer base and the increased value that we can bring to banks and credit unions by working together to automate compliance testing. We are excited to get our industry-leading technology in the hands of their exceptional team," said Natasha Vernier, Cable CEO. 🙌

And more compliance partnering… Hummingbird and Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) have partnered together to deliver an integrated compliance solution that accelerates customer screening with AI-enhanced workflows.
- “By combining TRSS LincsConnect™ AI-powered screening capabilities with Hummingbird’s unified risk and compliance operations platform, teams can reduce manual work, dramatically cut false positives, and focus on the risks that matter most.” NICE!!!! 😊

Clair and Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) announced the availability of Clair On-Demand Pay (EWA originated by Pathward®, N.A.) as part of Intuit Enterprise Suite and QuickBooks Payroll on the Intuit platform.

LawFi® announces Cordell & Cordell® as Key Partner for its limited Florida rollout offering a legal fee financing solution. The partnership will enable Cordell & Cordell to gain early access to the platform and provide valuable feedback to shape the final statewide release.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Stablecore (infrastructure platform enabling banks and CU’s to offer stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and digital asset products) raised $20M in capital.
  - Led by Norwest and with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Curql, BankTech Ventures, Bank of Utah, EJF Ventures, Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) Fund and the backing of more than 200 limited partner financial institutions and others, this news comes at a crucial time following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025.
- SEON (AML compliance and fraud prevention platform) raised $80M in Series C funding.
- Splash Financial (AI-enabled lending marketplace) raised $70M in Series C round.
- Extend (infrastructure platform enabling banks to offer expense management solutions for their business customers) raised $20M in new capital and hires Francois Horikawa as CFO (was previously Head of Finance for PayPal’s consumer business unit).
- PayNearMe (payment acceptance and processing platform) raised $50M in Series E and renamed its platform to PayXM™

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

Remembering Robert Redford who passed away this week at the age of 89… An Oscar-winning actor, director, founder of the Sundance Film Festival and The Redford Center (both of those links have great pics and tributes to Robert Redford) for climate change and the environment – and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2016.
- My all-time favorite is Jerimiah Johnson (“can you skin Griz, pilgrim?”) followed closely by The Natural, A River Runs Through It (directed by Redford), and Spy Game.
You made it!!! Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes 😊:
- ICYMI (for my mathemagician friends ❤️🤓🏆)…. 9/16/25 was Pythagorean Day… 9/16/25 = (3²+ 4²= 5²) or 9+16=25.
- A guy I went to school with 40 years ago contacted me to complain about the time I put superglue on his pen… He just can’t let it go… 🤠
- Dad Law - You’re not really yawn-stretching if you don’t include crazy dinosaur noises… 🦕🦖
- Contortionists are not good scuba divers… You know, because of the bends… 🤿🙃

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/12/25

9/12/2025

Happy Friday!!!

It was a relatively light week in the news (yay, finally!) – so let’s get to it! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/12/25 (click here to subscribe):

A quick personal note… The events of this week as well as the remembering of 9/11 serve as a reminder that life can change in an instant. Making the world a better place begins with each and every one of us in our daily lives. So please work hard but enjoy life, smile & hug those around you, and above all – strive to be kind and helpful in everything we do 🙏❤️.

With all eyes on the FOMC meeting next week, the BLS August CPI Report came in just a smidge over expectations for the month at 0.4% (0.3% expected with last month at 0.2%) brining YoY CPI at 2.9% which was exactly as expected (2.7% last month). Core CPI came in at 0.3% bringing YoY Core CPI to 3.1% (both exactly as expected and both flat compared to last month).
- With softening in the labor market (we talked about this last week), most analysts are predicting a 25 bps dovish rate cut. We’ll know more next Wednesday; and the Summary of Economic Projections should prove to be interesting.

Big merger announcement this week as PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC; FR 1069778), bank subsidiary is PNC Bank, NA (FDIC 6384; total assets $555B), announced a definitive agreement to acquire FirstBank Holding Company (FR 1060627), bank subsidiary is FirstBank (FDIC 18714; total assets $26.8B), in a mixed deal of cash and stock valued at $4.125B. 💰💰💰
- More info can be found in this Investor presentation deck by PNC.

More merger info – this time in the card space… Atlanticus Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: ATLC) announced it has acquired Mercury Financial LLC near-prime credit card platform for $162M in cash. The Mercury Financial acquisition brings 1.3M card accounts and $3.2B in receivables to Atlanticus – growing their total portfolio to over 5M accounts and $6B in receivables.

Green Dot Bank (FDIC 22653; total assets $4.8B) adds Stripe as Green Dot Network Partner. “Powered by Green Dot’s embedded finance platform, Arc, Stripe Treasury will allow users to quickly and conveniently add cash to their accounts at any of Green Dot’s more than 50,000 money processing locations nationwide, with additional enhancements and capabilities planned for the future.”

👀 ICYMI… A bipartisan bill has been introduced by Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) proposing deposit insurance reform – specifically to raise federal insurance coverage for noninterest-bearing business accounts to $20M for IDI’s under $250B in total assets. The bill filed as S.Amdt. 3649 to the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can be viewed here.

CSI partners with HuLoop to bring HuLoop’s AI-based Work Intelligence Platform to banks on CSI’s NuPoint® Core Banking System.

🤔 Fifth Third Bank, N.A. (NASDAQ: FITB; FDIC 6672; total assets $209B) replaces BNY as Direct Express partner with the 5-year term beginning Sep 9th.
- Although BNY was originally selected for the Direct Express prepaid card program last November (replacing Comerica), the Treasury Department’s Fiscal Service Bureau replaced BNY with Fifth Third due to “readiness challenges” of one of BNY’s providers. 😬

👉 As has been anticipated, the Federal Reserve Financial Services will increase the FedNow® Service network transaction limit from $1M to $10 million to meet increased demand, unlocking higher-value use cases effective Nov 2025.
- Keeping in mind that FedNow had just recently raised the transaction limit from $500K to $1M effective Jun 24, 2025.
- This follows The Clearing House RTP Network transaction limit increase from $1M to $10M beginning Feb 9, 2025.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers gaining traction…
- This week, Personetics (AI-driven cognitive banking platform) launches MCP Server enabling banks to develop and deploy Agentic AI applications “including financial behavior analysis, predictive analytics, and contextual engagement frameworks—through a secure, scalable server environment. This empowers financial institutions and fintech innovators alike to craft personalized, proactive Agentic AI experiences that guide customers toward smarter financial decisions.”
  - Recall last month where Grasshopper Bank, N.A. (FDIC 59113; total assets $1.3B) launched a first-of-its-kind Model Context Protocol (MCP) server from Narmi that will allow its business clients to access personalized financial analysis and insights through Claude, Anthropic's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.

Taktile announced the launch of fully customizable AI agents enabling SMB lenders to “process 5x more loans without adding headcount – eliminating bottlenecks and freeing underwriters to focus on high-value, strategic decisions.”

Uber Eats to provide revenue financing capital solution to its restaurant small business customers via Pipe.

Piercing the corporate veil (although not entirely unexpected)… FINRA has charged former Synapse execs with misconduct that allegedly led to end users losing access to over $100M.
- The allegations include failure “to reasonably supervise” Synapse Brokerage’s cash management program including the movement of customer funds without adequate authorization from customers; and failure to preserve books and records required by FINRA (specifically, email communications, instant messages and electronic communications of Synapse Brokerage or Synapse Fi personnel) as well as allegedly providing false information to FINRA about Synapse Brokerage’s access to its books and records. 😲

Some personnel moves:
- FinPro welcomes Jonathan Finley as Executive Vice President of Regulatory Matters per this LinkedIn post. Congrats to Jonathan AND my friends at FinPro!!! 👏
- Marqeta promotes Mike Milotich as permanent CEO. Milotich has served as CFO since 2022 and interim CEO since Feb.
- Varo Bank hires Asmau Ahmed as Chief Artificial Intelligence and Data Officer (CAIDO) reporting directly to CEO Gavin Michael.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Rainforest (embedded payment processing) raised $29M in Series B funding round.
- Aven (credit platform via home equity) raised $110M in Series E round at a $2.2B valuation.
- Highbeam (embedded finance platform for ecommerce / brands) raised $30M in Series A round
- Mazlo (fintech banking platform for non-profits) emerged from stealth with $4.6M in capital stating gross profit growth of nearly 4x over the last 12 months and zero churn to date.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

Texas State University sets an all-time enrollment record with more than 44,700 students for Fall 2025 - WOW!!! Fun fact – about 40% of the FedFis Team are Texas State Alumni (including yours truly)! And my daughter just started her junior year there! Eat ‘Em Up Cats!!!! 🚀
Yes – bring on the Dad / Bad Jokes to close this week out:
- Nothing embarrasses psychics more than throwing them a surprise party! 🤣
- The biggest problem with retirement is you typically have to get old to do it! 🤷‍♂️👴
- Did you hear about the dyslexic zombie??? He only eats Brians… 🧠🙃🧟
- How do you console an English teacher??? There, their, they’re…. 😉
- I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise… But that was 6 hours ago – back when I was younger and full of hope! 🤠😅

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/5/25

9/5/2025

Happy Friday!!!

Happy National Payroll Week with a HUGE thank you 🙏 to all payroll professionals because without payroll, EVERYTHING else is pointless!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/5/25 (click here to subscribe):

A quick peek at some economic data as we look forward to the next FOMC meeting scheduled for Sept 17-18… Keep in mind that a “soft landing” is representative of a long slow protracted process with the proverbial “last mile” taking the softest glide slope (kind of smells like we are there 😊):

Jobs, jobs, jobs data may trump inflation (umm – no pun intended… okay, maybe 😊)… The job market certainly appears to be “cooling” as expected, but many economists still see the numbers as pretty good historically speaking (particularly pre-covid). Markets are signaling this is likely enough to warrant a rate cut.
- The BLS August Jobs Report came in surprisingly light at +22,000 [(+75K expected, +79K for July (revised up by 6K - see revision history with June revised down -13K); Unemployment rate at 4.3% (4.3% expected, 4.2% July); Average hourly earnings were up 0.3% month-on-month (0.3% expected, 0.3% July); Average hourly earnings year-over-year came in at 3.7% (3.8% expected, and a slow-down from July 3.9%).

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Beige Book - August 2025 showed economic activity to be… well… beige 🤠. With little or no change in economic activity, citing flat to declining consumer spending as wages were failing to keep up with rising prices (see jobs report above), and continued tariff uncertainty.

And back to the rest of the update… 😊

👏 Acceleron continues their growth trajectory and distribution strategy by announcing a new partnership integration with Aptys Solutions (digital payment platform serving over 5,500 FI’s – NICE!!!) with a fully automated and simplified end-to-end solution making international wires more efficient and profitable for community banks and credit unions. 🚀
- Banks and credit unions on the Aptys PayLOGICS platform can now access international wires instantly.
- No more manually keying into a separate correspondent system.
- Acceleron’s SmartRoute™ delivers pricing transparency and drives down FX costs.

Late last Friday, the NCUA liquidated Members First of Maryland Federal Credit Union (charter 24855; total assets $21.9M, 3,638 members) citing “…insolvency was imminent, and the credit union had no prospect for restoring viable operations.” Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union of Edgewood, Maryland (charter 2540; total assets $2.5B) immediately purchased some assets and assumed Members First of Maryland FCU’s share accounts.
- Worth noting there hasn’t been a CU failure with total assets greater than $50M since 2018… 🤔

A Pair of U.S. Bank (FDIC 6548; total assets $671B) announcements this week targeting small businesses:
- U.S. Bank launched an all-In-one Cash Flow Management Platform for small businesses called U.S. Bank bill pay for business - a single intuitive accounts payable solution, integrated with business checking and online banking platform with the ability to easily sync with accounting software.
  - U.S. Bank collaborated with two fintech companies to bring this solution to life, integrating Fiserv’s CashFlow Central℠ solution, built in partnership with Melio, within the U.S. Bank online banking platform.
- U.S. Bank also launched a new embedded payroll solution for small businesses powered by Gusto.

More Fiserv headlines (NYSE: FI) as they acquire CardFree to enhance the capabilities of Clover® to “support small businesses as they grow into larger, multi-location merchants with complex technical needs.”

Airwallex (business payments platform) to acquire OpenPay to boost its position against Stripe and create “the first truly global billing platform.”

PeoplesBank (FDIC 90213; total assets $4.3B) completes their migration to cloud-native Nymbus Core.
- Interesting to note that the relationship between Nymbus and PeoplesBank began in 2020 when the bank selected Nymbus to power its direct digital bank, ZYNLO Bank.
  - 👀 Perhaps even more interesting to me is that the previous core processor for PeoplesBank had a ‘core strategic’ relationship - meaning it was the same bank tech vendor for core, online, and mobile. Very difficult to break into from a third-party bank tech vendor perspective. Enter ZYNLO as the Trojan Horse / land and expand strategy for Nymbus. 😉

👉 Is cash flow-based consumer underwriting now table stakes??? I’ll let you decide after seeing Nova Credit posting a series of high profile headlines this week:
- First up is Socure and Nova Credit Partner to Expand Credit Access by bringing Nova Credit’s FCRA-compliant cash flow underwriting solution, Cash Atlas™, into Socure’s RiskOS™ platform, the industry’s most open and extensible risk decisioning solution.
- Then PayPal selects Nova Credit to power U.S. cash flow underwriting across its growing portfolio of consumer credit products.
- And finally, the bombshell announcement… Nova Credit Solutions to be utilized by Chase to power its cash flow underwriting capabilities to enable Chase to serve more customers across the U.S. who have limited credit history or are underserved by traditional credit models. 💥

equipifi joins the Jack Henry™ Fintech Integration Network integrating equipifi’s BNPL platform with SilverLake System through jXchange™ - enabling financial institutions using SilverLake System to quickly launch a state-of-the-art in-house BNPL program.

Synctera teams up with LoanPro to enable FinTech companies, banks, and sponsor banks to launch innovative and flexible credit cards to suit their customer’s unique needs.

MANTL (loan and deposit account opening) partners with Taktile (next-generation AI-driven credit underwriting and programmable decisioning platform) to transform credit decisions for community banks and credit unions. “With the new integration, financial institutions can launch, test, and update credit policies that will be implemented in MANTL workflows in real time, without relying on engineering resources or third-party vendors.” Nice!

And the IPO market gets hot 🔥:
- Figure is looking to raise $526M at a valuation of up to $4.13B.
- Gemini targeting to raise approximately $317M at a $2.2B valuation.
- Klarna is seeking to raise $1.27B in revived IPO.

Some personnel moves:
- Panacea Financial (direct digital bank division of Primis) promotes Brandon Finazzo to Chief Growth Officer. Finazzo has served as Head of Practice Solutions for over four years.
- Temenos CEO Jean-Pierre Brulard steps down with immediate effect. Current Temenos CFO, Takis Spiliopoulos, has been appointed by the board as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent successor.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Flex (HSA and FSA payment service provider) raised $15M in Series A funding round to enable health and wellness brands to accept HAS and FSA payments.
- ModernFi (deposit network program for banks and credit unions) raised $30M in Series B funding to “accelerate adoption across financial institutions, expand its team, and deepen integrations with digital banking and core providers.” Check out their:
  - National Bank InterDeposit Company (NBID), launched in 2025 in collaboration with participating banks, now includes banks representing more than 40 percent of the existing reciprocal deposit market.
  - ModernFi CUSO, the first-of-its-kind network for credit unions, launched in 2024, and has already grown to serve more than 75 leading credit unions in the country.
- Lead Bank (BaaS sponsor bank; FDIC 8283; total assets $1.7B) raised $70M in Series B at a $1.47B valuation!!!
  - 👀 Look past the current $132M Tangible Book Value and focus on these performance metrics - YTD ROE of 13%, Yield on Loans of 15%, and NIM of 8.9% (source FedFis bank analyst platform; 6/30/25 call report) - WOWZA!!!! 🚀
- And just in case you missed it…. Anthropic raised a gigantic $13B Series F round at a mind-numbing $183B valuation… 🤯
  - “Anthropic has seen rapid growth since the launch of Claude in March 2023. At the beginning of 2025, less than two years after launch, Anthropic’s run-rate revenue had grown to approximately $1 billion. By August 2025, just eight months later, our run-rate revenue reached over $5 billion—making Anthropic one of the fastest-growing technology companies in history.”

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

The second peak hummingbird season (fall migration) is in full force here in East Texas!!! Aunt Patty and I have two feeders out (each take about a cup of sugar water) and we are having to fill them both up about every two days right now. It’s vey common to see three at a time at the feeder and sometimes up to five at a time jockeying for position. They are so much fun to watch this time of year. They are like little fighter pilots - love it!!! ❤️
We made it – here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
- People who think “talk is cheap” clearly haven’t spent much time with a lawyer… 🫤🙃
- At my age, I’ve come to accept the fact that I may never be old enough to know better! 😅
- “Criteria”, [krī-tîr′ē-ə], noun: Where sad people go to eat.. 🤠
- And saving the best for last….
  - It takes a lot of balls to play golf the way I do… 🏌️‍♂️⛳😆

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/29/25

8/29/2025

Happy Friday, Happy Labor Day Weekend, & Hello College Football 🏈 – we’ve missed you!!!

Be sure to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update and Fintech Cowboys delivered straight to your inbox every week (with 18,000+ subscribers - it’s cooler than a Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift engagement party 🤠)!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/29/25:

On a personal note…:
I am proud to share that I have just completed my 5th straight year presenting as a Guest Lecturer at Mays Business School - Texas A&M University with their Commercial Banking Program (my presentation was on sponsor banks and embedded finance). While I am always impressed with the energy and engagement of these young professionals, something happened this year that was really cool and made a lasting impression on me! When talking about Direct Digital Banks (a division of a chartered institution), I asked them to look up BADASS BANK (“banking for badasses”) on their laptops as an example of niche / target marketing of a direct digital bank brand. The students came alive and were laughing, nodding their heads in approval, and showing each other pics (the Pink Card was a hit). Within about 2 minutes they were also sharing pics of the Sturgis Rally (where Badass.Bank is a sponsor) and absolutely loved the Badass Sturgis survival guide links. The excitement in the room was electrifying and certainly made that part of my presentation an easy success – and one to remember!

Badass.bank is a division of Stryv Bank (FDIC 21955; total assets $258M) and powered by DCI. Based on the response of these young professionals entering the commercial banking world – Badass Bank has hit a marketing home run! 👍

Okay – back to the rest of the Update 😊:

2QGDP (second estimate) came in at 3.3%, up from the initial estimate of 3.0% for second quarter. The increase in estimate was primarily due to upward revisions to investment and consumer spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to government spending and an upward revision to imports.
- Note that “real final sales to private domestic purchasers” (kind of like core GDP) was revised up from 1.2% to 1.9%.

The BLS July PCE Report came in exactly as expected across the board at 2.6% YoY (estimate was 2.6% and last month was 2.6%). Core PCE came in at 2.9% (estimate was 2.9% and last month was 2.8%). Consumer spending increased 0.5% on the month, in line with forecasts and indicative of strength despite the higher prices. Personal income accelerated 0.4%.

👉 Thread Bank (FDIC 9499; total assets $800M; embedded finance and BaaS sponsor bank) selects Finxact from Fiserv to power embedded banking strategies.
- Bankers Helping Bankers (hey - I know those folks! 🤠) played an instrumental role in fostering the expansion of the relationship and formalizing the shared vision between Thread Bank, Fiserv, and Infinant.
  - Finxact’s API-first approach, combined with Fiserv’s experience in compliance, becomes a powerful and scalable solution by leveraging Infinant and their Interlace Platform as the embedded banking layer for Finxact’s API core. This provides Thread Bank and its customers a modern user interface to access and manage Thread’s embedded and core banking capabilities along with payment processing - serving as a blueprint model for community banks. 🚀

And another CU acquisition of a bank… This week we have Land of Lincoln Credit Union (charter 63716; total assets $478M) to acquire Williamsville State Bank & Trust (FDIC 12388; total assets $97M). Some additional Uncle Sean details:
- Note that Land of Lincoln has been a serial bank acquirer as this is their 3rd announced acquisition of a bank (4/28/23 Nokomis Savings Bank; 12/22/22 Colchester State Bank). All small banks with less than $100M in total assets and an emphasis on Illinois market expansion (branch footprint) for the CU.
  - Williamsville State Bank & Trust is concentrated in 1-4 mortgages, but only has a loan to deposit ratio of 33.56% - resulting in a substantial $43M securities portfolio for their size (total assets $97M). All securities are listed as AFS so AOCI (mark-to-market securities adjustment) is already accounted for in total equity of $9.8M.
  - Williamsville Bank &Trust also has a low-cost deposit base of $86M at 1.15% total Cost of Funds – very attractive to the CU.
- If you are keeping score, this is the 11th announced CU acquisition of a bank thus far for 2025 (whole bank acquisition). This compares to 22 for 2024, 11 in 2023, 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019 (source: FedFis M&A database).

👀 CSI announced Michel Jacobs as its new Chief Strategy Officer. Jacobs brings more than three decades of strategic financial technology, digital banking and payments experience to CSI, where he will be a key driver of the company’s enterprise-level strategy via market expansion, strategic M&A activities, business diversification and value creation initiatives.

Sightline Payments partners with Cross River Bank to create Sightline Debit – “a frictionless, customer-centric experience that streamlines both spending and wagering. This not only lowers payment costs for operators by minimizing the constant churn cycle of withdrawals and deposits, it also gives patrons access to their own funds anytime, anywhere, and in any way, in their own personal FDIC insured bank account.”

The FDIC released their Quarterly Banking Profile Report - Second Quarter 2025. A few key points:
- Net Income decreased by about 1% from last quarter due to a larger provision expense due to the Capital One and Discover merger (absent this large provision expense, net income would have increased).
- Unrealized losses on securities continues to shrink (improve), although still at a massive $395.3B (decreased $17.9B or 4.3%).
- The DIF is fully funded at 1.36% and now exceeds statutory minimum.
- NIM remained flat over 1Q. Asset Quality remains favorable. Loan Growth accelerated; and Domestic Deposits increased for the fourth consecutive quarter.
- The total number of banks on the list decreased by a net of four in the second quarter to 59 banks. The number of problem banks is 1.3 percent of total banks, which is in the middle of the normal range for non-crisis periods of 1 to 2 percent of all banks.
  - For reference, our FedFis Rating© is tracking 66 banks in the lowest 1% scoring 3.90 or higher (on a 1.00 – 5.00 scale with 1.00 being best).

Yep, Uncle Sean loves this! 😊 Marshall Community Credit Union (MCCU; charter 62160; total assets $350M) partners with local High School on Fin Ed and launched MCCU’s “CU in School” program and a student-run credit union branch at Battle Creek Central High School (BCCHS). 👏 The credit union added that the student-run branch will open during the 2026/27 school year and will serve as an internship opportunity for two high school seniors enrolled in the Business, Engineering, and Industrial Technology (BEIT) Academy.
- “CU in School”… That is fantastic!!!!! 💥

Narmi partners with Atomic to bring direct deposit switching and payroll connectivity to banks and credit unions using the Narmi One digital banking platform.

Hanmi Bank (FDIC 24170; total assets $7.8B) selects Lenders Cooperative to support the bank’s commercial and SBA lending operations across the United States.
- As part of Hanmi Bank’s “Simple Loans” initiative in major markets including Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago, the adoption of Lenders Cooperative’s platform will allow the bank to automate loan workflows, enhance internal efficiencies, and accelerate access to capital for businesses nationwide.

👏 Congrats to Battle Bank as the Fed Approves Battle Financial to Form Bank Holding Company, acquisition of Stearns Bank Upsala, N.A. to Launch Battle Bank N.A.
- “From day one, we’ve been building a different kind of bank — one that is built on similar ideas and values and not constrained by location,” added Rick Rule, a lead investor in Battle Financial, Inc. “Now that the regulators have given us the green light, we’re ready to deliver.” To learn more or sign up for the Waitlist, visit: www.battlebank.com

Prove (in the red-hot digital identity space) announced a partnership with FNBO (FDIC 5452; total assets $31.6B) to modernize customer onboarding.
- “By leveraging the Prove - Pre-Fill identity verification solution, FNBO is revolutionizing its customer onboarding process for co-branded cards to a seamless, secure, and digital-first experience.”

MANTL announced the launch of MANTL Bulk Account Opening to help Fi’s open multiple retail or business accounts through a single application.
- “In particular, MANTL Bulk Account Opening is poised to transform in-branch business account onboarding, delivering substantial efficiency gains for frontline teams. Early adopters have already opened as many as 14 business accounts in a single, streamlined application workflow, reducing administrative burden and creating more opportunities to deepen relationships with business customers.”

Oof 😯… Another data breach at TransUnion hits 4.4 million consumers exposing customers’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers per this filing with Texas AG. In 2022, the firm was hit with a $15 million ransomware demand for the return of 54 million customer records.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Payment Labs (API-driven platform for fast, secure payments targeting high-growth industries such as sports, esports, and the creator economy) raised $3.25M in Seed funding.
- Atomic Invest (investing as a service for fintech, banks, and consumer companies) raised $30M in growth capital, following up on their $25M Series A round in Nov 2021.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

YAY – our first “cold” front has hit Texas (and we got some much-needed rain)! 🎉 Here in East Texas we are expecting highs in the upper 80’s next week with lows in the low to mid 60’s!!!! May not seem like much, but I’ll take it after consistently hitting 100 degrees last week with a heat index of 110! 😵‍💫😊
Certainly looking forward to this Labor Day weekend with plenty of football, family bbq (nom, nom, nom), and cooler weather!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Okay – lets close it out with the Dad / Bad Jokes (it’s Friday – time to be a hero and rescue some wine trapped in a bottle 🍷😊):
- I don’t mean to brag too much, but… I am so good at sleeping, I can do it with my eyes closed! 😉😴
- If you spell “absolutely nothing” backwards, you get “gnihton yletulosba” – which, coincidentally, means absolutely nothing… 🙄🫤
- So when exactly did the Bermuda Triangle stop working…??? Not a lot of drama going on there anymore… It’s almost like it “disappeared”… 🤔😅
- One final thought-provoking comment…
  - Space could literally be full of vampires, but we would never know because telescopes use mirrors… 🧛‍♂️🤔🙃

Have a GREAT Labor Day 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 [email protected] | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | [email protected] #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 - 8/22/25

8/22/2025

Happy Friday!!!

It’s been a crazy busy week juggling way too many projects, but it’s almost over 😵‍💫 – so let’s jump right in!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/22/25:

Well, Jackson Hole was no disappointment… (tee up The Rock wrestling voice) - “IF YOU SMEEEELLLLL WHAT J-POW IS COOKING!” Mic drop. 🤠 Oh, c’mon – that was funny!
- 👉 Here is the punchline – Chairman Powell stated, “…with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.” (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean)
  - More detail from Chairman Powell’s speech: Downside risks to employment are rising. GDP growth has slowed (referencing a slowdown in consumer spending). However, risks to inflation are rising as higher tariffs have begun to push up prices in some categories of goods. A reasonable base case for tariffs is that the effects will be relatively short-lived as a one-time shift in the price level; and “one-time” does not mean “all at once” – thus spreading the impact out.
- Of course, being “data dependent” – we still need to see some more economic data prior to the FOMC meeting in Sept, but the door for a rate cut certainly appears to be opening.
- Here is Chairman Powell’s Jackson Hole speech (and link to video feed) on the economic outlook and framework review.

👀 CSI grabs headlines this week with their announced acquisition of Apiture digital banking platform with closing expected in 4Q2025! 🚀
- “Apiture and CSI share a customer-first approach to financial innovation,” said Nancy Langer, president and CEO of CSI. “By integrating Apiture’s industry-leading capabilities, especially in business banking, we are creating an even more robust platform that empowers community financial institutions to compete and grow. This combination allows us to deliver the scale, speed and innovation our customers need while staying true to the relationship-driven service that has always defined community and regional banking.”
  - CSI has been on the acquisition trail for a few years now with the 2023 acquisition of Hawthorn River and the 2024 acquisition of Velocity Solutions. Although the Apiture deal specifics were not disclosed, my latest research shows that Apiture has raised at least $79M in total funds since inception in 2017 (per this funding announcement from Nov 2023).

MeridianLink makes some announcements this week following their buyout from Centerbridge announced last week (noting Centerbridge and Bridgepoint were the firms that acquired CSI back in 2022):
- Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) and MeridianLink expand their strategic reseller relationship, building on a “15-year alliance to jointly serve over 500 banks and credit unions and new joint customers.” Jack Henry will now resell the suite of MeridianLink® One platform solutions, including MeridianLink® Mortgage and MeridianLink® Consumer.
- OttoMoto (digital onboarding technology for auto, RV, powersport, marine and aircraft dealers) announced its integration with MeridianLink® DecisionLender® platform built for finance companies emphasizing both direct and indirect installment loans.

Flex of the week 💪 goes out to Upgrade as they have surpassed $2 Billion in loans originated in their Home Improvement vertical. This comes just a few months after hitting the $1B mark in Dec of last year. Oh – and keep in mind that their first home improvement loan origination of $18K was in Nov 2022. How’s that for some scale!!! 💥
- By the way (here comes the shameless plug 😊)… The sponsor bank partner on the home improvement side is Cross River Bank (FDIC 58410; total assets $7.9B) – but if you’re a customer of our FedFis FinTech Analytics© database, you already knew that. Reach out to our own Bobby Button for more info!!! 🤠

Finzly announced their integration with Q2's Digital Banking Platform enabling financial institutions on the Q2 platform to let their account holders send and track cross-border, domestic, and instant payments without leaving the digital interface.

OMB Bank (FDIC 8252; total assets $2B) partners with Greenlight to help families teach kids and teens smart money habits through the Greenlight for Banks program. 🎉
- Uncle Sean is a HUGE proponent of financial literacy programs – especially for kids and teens. ❤️

Alloy (identity and fraud prevention platform) and Mastercard partner together to launch enhanced identity and fraud prevention solution to streamline onboarding. Nice!!! 👏

More account opening enhancements… Candescent announced major enhancements to its account opening and onboarding platform (Candescent Terafina) allowing for intelligent templates giving Fis control over the account opening experience. Essentially gives Fis the ability to define “more precisely what happens before and after an account is opened, delivering more successful, personalized and compressed onboarding journeys.”

AffiniPay (technology and embedded finance solutions for lawyers and accountants) announced their rebranding to 8am to better reflect its evolution from a payment processor to a broader platform solution “integrating practice management, artificial intelligence, embedded financial services, and other essential business tools.”

Grasshopper Bank, N.A. (FDIC 59113; total assets $1.3B) has launched a first-of-its-kind Model Context Protocol (MCP) server from Narmi that will allow its business clients to access personalized financial analysis and insights through Claude, Anthropic's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.
- “Narmi's MCP server enables Grasshopper's small business and startup clients that work with Claude to securely query their financial information. Users can ask questions like "What's my checking account balance?" or "Can you categorize my top 10 recurring vendors?" and receive instant responses generated directly by the AI assistant. Data transfers to and from the MCP are underpinned by Narmi's robust security framework, including encryption of all data in transit and at rest.”

The branch is dead… Long live the branch!!! 👑 Truist Bank (FDIC 9846; total assets $536B) announced plans to build 100 new branches in a mass-affluent grab.

Gather Federal Credit Union (Charter 9381; total assets $881M) launches GatherFLEX, their branded BNPL solution powered by equipifi. GatherFLEX is the “first BNPL product offered by a credit union in the state of Hawaiʻi.” 👏
- Check it out at GatherFLEX | Gather Federal Credit Union – and check out their AI-Chat Bot / Digital Assistant in the lower right part of the screen named Piko!!! Very cool!!! 🤙🍍

The NCUA adds a website to provide resources on risk management considerations specific to AI, “which may help credit unions make informed decisions when implementing AI or partnering with AI service providers.”

Meanwhile… In a newly released OIG Report, the inspector general states that while the FDIC has “taken steps to establish goals and metrics, they were not measurable or directly linked to [Significant Service Provider Examination Program] success factors…” Adding, “In the absence of clear programmatic goals and metrics, the FDIC has limited assurance that the SSP Examination Program is achieving its intended purpose…”
- This Banking Dive article titled “FDIC oversight of large third parties needs clearer goals, OIG says” is a good summary.

👉 To my banker friends (especially in Texas)… Even if you are on the fence about AI in your bank operations, please take note here as the OpenAI Stargate data center project is creating a new energy and construction boom already in progress $$$:
- Check out Vantage Data Centers Unveils Plans for “Frontier,” a $25B Mega-campus in Texas to Meet Unprecedented AI Demand – a 1.4GW (Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future only needed 1.21GW, but I digress 🤠) data center campus in Shackelford County, TX sitting on 1,200 acres (yes, that’s $25 Billion with a “B”… cha-ching 💰💰💰)!!!
  - The article states the project will “employ more than 5,000 individuals across construction and ongoing operations.” For reference, the population for Shackelford County is estimated at 3,300 (located about 35 miles northeast of Abilene)…. Now that’s some serious local economic impact on everything from restaurants, housing, and clothes to automobile sales, retail, tools and home improvement items, etc….
    - Umm (cough cough) 😬… Even though these massive data center projects are mainly supplemented with renewable energy via wind turbines (and natural gas-powered turbines as backup – hello Permian Basin), can one of my Texas friends please get in touch with ERCOT and make sure they are contingency planning the public grid!!! 😊

Some personnel moves:
- KlariVis names Shon Aguero as EVP of Corporate Development.
- Ncontracts appoints Clay Carter as Chief Information Security Officer.

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Casca (AI-native loan origination platform) raised $29M in Series A funding round.
- Klarna (BNPL) picks up a $26B Forward Flow Deal With Nelnet to expand Pay-in-4 in the U.S.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

🤷‍♂️ WTH is a Labubu??? 😂 If you’re like me and have been blissfully unaware, this article in Today sheds some light into the creepy little monster charms (and the legitimate impact of influencer marketing) as it becomes the latest fashion craze (queue up some Gen X and Boomer flashbacks of the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon of ’83 as well as Beanie Babies and Tickle me Elmo craze in mid to late 90’s). Oh and before you shake your head too much at this (like me) - this Yahoo Finance article states that Labubu sales are on track to easily top $1B this year…!!! 🤦🤯
Tonight is the night!!! We get a fairly rare black moon and it might be our last shot at seeing the end of the Perseid meteor shower!!! Fingers crossed for clear skies!
You made it!!! Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
- Plagiarism: Getting in trouble for something you literally didn’t do… 😆
- Life in the Stone Age was… Hard… 🫤😏
- How rare is it for a cow to be struck by lightning…??? About medium rare… 😲🤠🥩
- Ah, the pizza 🍕 conundrum… Is it the ultimate “pie chart” showing how much pizza you have left; or how much you have already eaten…??? 🤔🤣
- Last but certainly not least… I’m not saying I’m old, but… I’m getting to the age where it’s considered rude to pull out a bottle of ibuprofen if you don’t have enough for everyone!!! 🧓😅

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/15/25

8/15/2025

Happy Friday!!!

Don’t forget to sign up here to have the FinTech Cowboys and Uncle Sean’s Weekly Update delivered straight to your inbox every week! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/15/25:

Of course Uncle Sean can’t help but geek out 🤓 on some macro-economic data right off the bat!!!

“Rate Watch 2025” is back on… This week the BLS July CPI Report came in below expectations at 2.7% YoY (expectation was 2.8%, last month was 2.7%) with Core CPI a tad hot at 3.1% (expectation was 3%, last month was 2.9%). Monthly was 0.2% as expected. Yeah, I saw the PPI report shows biggest surge in three years, but we will need to see this play out a few more months to see how much is absorbed by businesses / supply chains versus how much is passed on to the consumer – we just don’t know yet.
- Warning – here is an Uncle Sean geek moment 🤠… Recall last summer we had some lower monthly CPI readings… These are running off now making it look like inflation may be hotter than it really is on a YoY basis. As a result, it might be more directionally accurate to annualize the last few monthly results. If we annualize the last 6 monthly readings, we end up with a 1.8% projected headline CPI [((0.2-0.1+0.2+0.1+0.3+0.2)/6)*12]. Hey – just trying to focus on some good news!!! 😊
- Another side note – I found this Dallas Fed article “falling rates no assurance of homeowner refinancing binge” to be quite interesting showing the bulk of mortgages being at least 200 bps below current 6.8% trend – so no good news in the refi market… 🫤
- 👀 There will be plenty of attention towards Fed Chair Powell’s speech on economic output at the Kansas City Fed’s annual central banking conference in Jackson Hole, WY next week (Aug 21-23 “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy").
- Next FOMC meeting is Sept 16-17 with more economic data to come between now and then.

Now back to the rest of the update 😊!!!

😬 The CFPB moves to hold Synapse accountable for missing customer funds alleging unfair acts or practices and failure to maintain adequate records of consumer funds (an estimated $60M - $90M of which has still not been recovered after 18 months in bankruptcy). Seen as an option of last resort, the CFPB might be able to use unallocated Civil Penalty Funds to make victims whole without payment from the debtor’s estate.
- H/T to Jason Mikula as the original source covering this story last week (he has been amazingly thorough at leading coverage of the Synapse saga). Be sure to follow his Fintech Business Weekly for weekly deep dives into fintech headlines.

Meanwhile… Evolve Bank & Trust (FDIC 1299, total assets $1.5B) appoints Bob Hartheimer as CEO effective immediately. 👏
- “Appointing Bob Hartheimer as CEO marks a turning point for Evolve,” said Board Chairman Steve Valentine. “Bob was selected for his unmatched corporate experience in strategically navigating challenges at financial institutions and enabling banks to move past their regulatory challenges. He has the full backing of the Board to take decisive action, restore thoughtful innovation, and lead Evolve into a future defined by transparency and sustainable growth. This is a structural change, demonstrating our continued commitment to doing the hard work to earn back the trust of our customers, employees, regulators, and investors.”
  - 👉 This comes at a pivotal time for Evolve Bank & Trust as they are still deeply enthralled in the Synapse middleware meltdown; major fintech client exodus, expensive litigation (including an $11.9M data breach settlement); and an ongoing FRB enforcement action regarding AML, risk management, and consumer compliance programs. Not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly appears that Mr. Hartheimer has the pedigree to tackle this. 👍

Modak (family banking app for kids and teens) partners with Legend Bank, N.A. (FDIC 3108; total assets $1.2B) as new sponsor bank 💥 for their family banking app focused on building responsible financial habits and money management skills.
- “Trust is everything when you’re building financial tools for the next generation,” said Madhu Yalamarthi, CEO and Co-Founder of Modak. “That’s why we chose to work directly with a sponsor bank that shares our standards for transparency, security, and real-time accuracy. With Legend Bank, we’re able to reconcile every user ledger daily — a level of operational clarity that puts our families first.”
  - Personally, I love seeing community banks flex 💪 compliance as a competitive advantage – particularly when it comes to sponsor banks. Congratulations to all involved!!! 🎉

👀 MeridianLink (NYSE: MLNK) to be acquired by Centerbridge Partners for $2B in cash (cha-ching!) and taken private.
- 🤔 Just some random Uncle Sean thoughts...
  - Recall a few years back when Centerbridge acquired CSI for $1.6B in cash (announced Aug 2022, completed Nov 2022); then in Dec 2023, CSI announced the acquisition of Hawthorn River LOS platform.
    - Makes me curious as to why the MeridianLink digital lending platform was acquired by Centerbridge as opposed to direct via CSI (like Hawthorn River was)? 🤷‍♂️ I am quite certain that folks WAY smarter than me are driving this; but I am still very intrigued to see how this eventually plays out!!

Some good news here as DCI partners with FIntegrate Technology to bring a cost-effective, seamless solution for migrating legacy data during the core conversion process via FIntegrate’s FusionLRS image and data conversion system. 👏
- Definitely a hot topic 🔥 as FedFis sees core conversions (both organic and from M&A) set to accelerate after years of pent-up demand in the space; ultimately creating an industry-wide conversion bottleneck. For DCI banks looking to make acquisitions, this is extremely helpful during system integration. For non-DCI banks looking to convert to DCI, this is a game changer. 🚀

And check out my friends at Revio Insight as they continue to make headlines (do these folks sleep at all?)!!! 🚀
- Kasasa announced a strategic partnership with Revio Insight to help Community Financial Institutions to “better identify where deposits are leaving, which competitors are capturing customer relationships, and how to take action to retain and grow wallet share.”
- And per this LinkedIn post, First Financial Bank (FDIC 3066; total assets $14.3B) has also partnered with Revio Insight. Revio CRO Sanjay Bhaskar stated, “First Financial knows that winning a greater share of wallet begins with a data-driven understanding of customers’ needs. With the Revio Insight platform, the bank can see granular and strategic insights related to its customers. This will enable them to prioritize engagement, deliver precise personalization, and create highly relevant offers that resonate.” Great win for the Revio Team with a strong Texas bank!!! 💥
- Oh, and congrats to Enya Hardman as Revio’s new Director of Customer Success! 😊

Candescent makes a couple of executive announcements as John Garvey has been named COO; and Peter Gray has been appointed Vice President of Professional Services and Delivery.

Leading BaaS sponsor bank Coastal Community Bank (Nasdaq: CCB; FDIC 34403; total assets $4.5B) expands Executive Team with Key Leadership appointments.
- Notably, Ryan Hall from SoFi has joined as Chief Product Officer, Michael Costigan has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer, Freddy Rivas has joined as Chief Credit Officer, and Chris Morgan has been named Chief Information Security Officer.

Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) has a series of announcements this week, including:
- The launch of "MyFinancialHealth" on the Banno digital banking platform powered by Array. Allows banks and CUs on the Banno Digital Platform to embed consumer tools to help accountholders “monitor and build their credit, protect their identity and privacy, and manage their online subscriptions and federal student loans, all in one place.”
- JKHY’s continued push into SMB solutions with the launch of Tap2Local in collaboration with Moov. Also offered via the Banno Digital Platform, banks and CUs can offer their merchant clients “the ability to accept debit and credit card payments directly through tap-to-pay on both iOS and Android devices, eliminating the need for additional hardware, as well as continuous account reconciliation to the accounting platform of their choice. Transactions are processed through all major card networks.”

The NY Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Early Warning over Zelle fraud just 5 months after the CFPB dropped their federal suit over the same matter.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

Congrats to Petunia (a 2-year old hairless English-French bulldog mix) as she now has the dubious distinction of winning the World's Ugliest Dog contest. With a gentle soul, her “unique beauty” is described as “a mix between Yoda, a hippo, and a bat.” 🤠 Okay – she’s actually kind of pretty - LOL! 🐶❤️
You know what time it is… It’s time for the Dad / Bad Jokes to get us into the weekend vibe!!!
- I used to be cool… But now I say things like, “I better sit up so I don’t get heartburn.” 😬
- I read somewhere that laughing for 2 minutes is just as healthy as a 20-minute jog, So now I’m sitting in the park laughing at all the joggers! 🏃‍♂️‍➡️😂
- Speaking of running, Chuck Norris once ran a marathon backwards… Just to see what 2nd place looks like! 🥈🤠
- It’s hard to take pictures of Mallards… Because they duck… 🦆😆
- Gardening [ɡärd(ə)niNG], noun: By far the most expensive way to get food for free (but my $1,200 tomato looks great)…🍅🥕🤣

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 [email protected] | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | [email protected] #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 - 8/8/25

8/8/2025

Happy Friday!!!

Sometimes all you can say is, “hey – at least this week is over!” 😅 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/8/25:

Some interesting consumer data released this week shows some pockets of weakening…
- The New York Fed released their 2Q2025 Report on Household Debt and Credit. Couple of key points:
  - Household debt increased $185B in 2Q (an increase of 1% over 1Q); and is up $4.24T since the end of 2019 – a 30% increase with mortgage debt now totaling 70% of all household debt.
  - Student Loan debt at $1.64T is higher than CC debt at $1.21T. Serious Delinquency (90+) has soared to 10.2% for student loans (pg 12) with Transition into Serious Delinquency (90+) accelerating at 13% (pg 14). Oof.. 😳
- This Axios report on the US economy being dependent on the top 20% of earners is interesting and highlights a K-shaped economy (with spending from middle and lower income consumers flatlined and equal with inflation).
- And this K-Shaped Economy report from Equifax echoes similar concerns of an uneven recovery. Noting, “The economic recovery isn’t over; it’s evolving. The K-shaped reality of 2025 reminds us that surface-level growth metrics don’t tell the full story. Businesses and individuals alike must remain aware of the disparities and work toward more inclusive, equitable solutions.”
  - Uncle Sean’s take (not that anyone asked) 🤠 – On the heels of some weaker jobs data recently, it’s starting to smell a little bit like a rate cut coming soon… We shall see (next FOMC meeting is Sept 16-17).

Wix goes full-in on embedded finance and launches financial services suite including Wix Checking (powered by Unit) with a Visa business debit card (issued by Lincoln Savings Bank) and Wix Capital, a Merchant Cash Advance service.

The Home Savings and Loan Company of Kenton, Ohio, DBA HSLC (FDIC 29571; total assets $233M) selects Vine Financial’s AI-powered commercial lending platform; and expects to reduce commercial loan processing time from days to hours by eliminating manual document processing while improving accuracy across its commercial real estate, equipment financing, and agricultural lending portfolio. 👍

👏 Congrats to my friends at Acceleron as they partner with Braid!!! “Braid's banking partners can now access Acceleron's foreign exchange (FX) marketplace and currency conversion system via a single API, enabling financial institutions to maximize banking profitability and streamline international wire processes with minimal technical effort.” 🚀
- Um, did someone say Non-interest Income??? 😊

👀 Socure announced a strategic partnership and integration with Baselayer creating a powerful and turnkey next-gen business identity solution by integrating Baselayer’s business data into Socure’s RiskOS™ platform. 💥

Baker Hill announced a strategic partnership with LoanPro that brings together “a truly unified, modern lending experience, combining Baker Hill's robust loan origination capabilities with LoanPro's configurable servicing infrastructure for a complete end-to-end platform.” Nice!!!! 🎉

Empower Finance rebrands as Tilt and launched a series of Tilt Credit Cards issued by WebBank to support non-prime customers and accelerate reliable access to fair credit.
- A natural progression following Empower’s acquisition of Petal’s CC platform last year. Tilt’s CC program expands on their existing Line of Credit (provided by FinWise Bank) with banking services provided by nbkc bank.

Credit Sesame partners with Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT; FDIC 22653; total assets $4.8B) to power and enhance its Sesame Cash digital banking service via Green Dot’s embedded finance platform, Arc.
- No mention if this is a replacement of existing sponsor Community Federal Savings Bank, or a BaaS supplier diversification strategy (which we continue to see in the fintech space).

Booking.com makes its first foray into financial services by launching their Visa Signature co-branded credit card issued by First Electronic Bank and powered by Imprint modern card platform.

Valiify (digital account opening and loan origination platform) announced a partnership with Payfinia to embed Payfinia’s Instant Payment Xchange platform to bring “real-time money movement directly into the Valiify platform, enabling financial institutions to move funds and disburse loans immediately, without involving manual workflows or external systems.”

As expected… Capital One (FDIC 4297; total assets $649B) is starting the process of switching its debit card network to the Discover® network (was Mastercard) now that the acquisition of Discover is complete.

Figure Technology Solutions, Inc. becomes the latest to file confidential S-1 draft registration statement with the SEC for proposed IPO.

Slash (neobank for businesses) debuts stablecoin powered by Bridge (a Stripe company). Their new payments and treasury platform, powered by their USDSL stablecoin, is aimed at companies seeking U.S. dollar access and cross-border payments without a U.S. bank account.

Finzly announced its preparation to support stablecoin and tokenized deposits adding to its API-first multi-rail payment platform that includes Fedwire, RTP, ACH, SWIFT, and cross-border rails.

Ouch! 😬 Paxos to pay $48.5M over AML and due diligence issues (consisting of $26.5M penalty to New York State Department of Financial Services plus a $22M investment in its compliance program). The regulator said Paxos ignored obvious money laundering red flags and lacked basic compliance controls, particularly in its dealings with Binance.
- 👉 Be sure to follow the amazing Sarah Beth Felix on LinkedIn as she consistently provides excellent summary insights for all things AML, including this Paxos Enforcement Action (in a manner that even I can understand 😊). As a bonus, she is always giving takeaways / lessons learned for banks, credit unions, and fintech companies.

Some personnel moves:
- ZSuite Tech announced the promotion of Jill Feiler to CEO as Nathan Baumeister moves to Board Advisor after an amazing 6 ½ year run as Co-founder and CEO. Congrats to all!!! 👏

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Handwave (palm-based biometric platform for payments and digital identity) raised $4.2M in Seed round funding to refine its technology, pursue regulatory certifications, and expand its merchant partnerships in Europe and the United States.
- Grasshopper Bank raised $46.6M in capital to “accelerate its growth, scale its technology, expand its product offerings, and further enhance its commitment to delivering digital banking solutions that meet the evolving needs of both businesses and consumers.”
- Casap (intelligent automation for FI’s to modernize dispute and fraud operations) raised $25M in Series A funding to help banks, credit unions, and fintech companies revolutionize dispute management with AI and fight first-party fraud. Check them out at www.casaphq.com/.
  - Side note… To be 100% honest, I can’t help but find humor in the fact that I sometimes misspell the word “intelligent” - LOL!!!! 😊

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

Shoutout to Whataburger (a Texas staple) for their 75 year anniversary celebration!!!! This year on National Whataburger Day (today, Aug 8th), you can get a Whataburger for 75-cents – but it is a digital only offering (mobile app or online) and a limit of one per rewards member. 🍔
It was a crazy busy week so let’s close it out (I see adult beverages in my immediate future) with everyone’s favorite part of the Update - the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
- Old MacDonald had a bot… AI, AI, O! 🎵🤠
- Why does “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing? 🤔🤷‍♂️
- My emotional support animal is a chicken… It’s crispy and came with a biscuit and mashed potatoes!!! 🍗😅
- Someone pointed out that cranberry juice tastes like it doesn’t want to be wet; and that might be the truest thing I’ve read all week!!! 😆
- To avoid burnout, use the 30/30 rule. After 30 minutes of work, quit your job and disappear into the mountains for 30 years. 🤣

Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe in this heat! ❤️

Uncle Sean

Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at [email protected] | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | [email protected] #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 - 8/1/25

8/1/2025

Happy Friday!!!

Welcome to August (wait – how did that happen so fast?)!!! Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/1/25:

First up is a slew of economic updates:

It’s Fed Week!!! As expected, the FOMC decided to keep the target rate for the Fed Funds rate at 4.25% - 4.5% and to continue reducing the size of the balance sheet. Yep – tariffs and uncertainty still reign as the predominant topic. Here is Chairman Powell’s press conference video (44:06), and preliminary transcript.
- Worth noting that there were two dissenting votes made by Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman. Here are their respectful and clarifying statements:
  - Statement by Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman
  - Statement by Governor Christopher J. Waller
2nd quarter advanced estimate for GDP came in at 3.0% (some surprise to the upside) reflecting material reversals of tariff related pull-in from 1Q specifically related to imports and business investment.
The BEA June PCE came in at 2.6% (May was revised up to 2.4% from 2.3%) with Core PCE at 2.8% (May was revised up to 2.8% from 2.7%).
And finally this morning, the BLS June Jobs Report came in a bit on the light side at +73,000 (expectation was +100K to +110K). The 2 month revision was also significantly down by –258K 😲 (revision history can be found here). Unemployment ticked up slightly from 4.1% to 4.2% (as expected). Labor force participation also came in a tad light at 62.2%.

Now on to the rest of the update:

Virtual high-five to CPI Card Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PMTS) as the latest innovative company to join The BaaS Association in support of responsible innovation and card solutions for FI’s, fintechs, neobanks, and embedded finance providers!!! 👍

💥 Huge shout out to my friends at RiverBank and DCI as RiverBank and Green Check launch strategic cannabis banking partnership using a direct-to-bank integration with DCI's iCore360 core processing system. Congrats to all for this achievement!!! 🙌🎉
- “Our interest in Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) began in 2022, but we weren’t focused on speed to market; we wanted to build something sustainable,” said Chris Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at RiverBank. “DCI’s direct-to-bank approach gave us the control and compliance we needed to do it right, which made our partnership with Green Check, the leader in the cannabis banking space, possible. Now, we are able to further diversify our revenue streams while supporting our local economy and businesses at the same time.”

Citizens (FDIC 57957; total assets $218B) rolls out new mobile capabilities to streamline direct deposits and payment method switching – both features were developed in partnership with Mastercard.
- Switch Payments: Update your saved payment methods (think Netflix, Amazon, Verizon & more) in just a few taps—no more chasing down billers when your card changes.
- Direct Deposit, Reimagined: Set up or switch your paycheck deposit in seconds—no paperwork, no phone calls, just control.
- What’s even cooler – if you go to the Citizens deposits and payments emulator, you can see the disclosures stating both of these functions are powered by the good folks at Atomic!!! 😊
  - Recall earlier in July where talked about Atomic powering PNC Direct Deposit (a $549B bank) – some amazing wins here for the Team at Atomic!!!! 💥

Linker Finance is now available on Fiserv AppMarket via Communicator Open as a fully certified and pre-integrated solution available to community banks on Fiserv core platforms. 🚀
- Jorge Garcia, Founder and CEO of Linker Finance stated, "Being listed in the Fiserv AppMarket through Communicator Open makes it effortless for banks to enable our Unified Platform with just a few clicks, solidifying our partnership and safeguarding seamless integration with every core update."

Premier Financial Credit Union (charter 54094; total assets $129M) selects Mahalo Banking as its new digital banking partner.

Pioneer FCU (charter 9247; total assets $723M) has launched its in-house BNPL solution (powered by equipifi) to extend “personalized, pre-qualified BNPL offers to members in its digital banking experience” – and includes both a pre-purchase and post-purchase option to convert eligible debit card transactions into installment loans.

FIS (NYSE: FIS) partners with Circle (NYSE: CRCL) to enable U.S. financial institutions to offer their customers the option to make domestic and cross-border stablecoin payments in Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

JPMorgan Chase partnered with Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange allowing for a direct bank-to-wallet connection – which enables JPM customer to link their bank accounts to Coinbase wallets via JPM API.

By now I am guessing you have heard / read that JPM is planning to charge material fees to fintech aggregators for access to consumer financial data… This CNBC article gives an interesting look at the amount of API calls to the bank – with a substantial amount not being initiated by the customer.
- Meanwhile… Open Banking isn’t quite dead yet as the CFPB now plans to “substantially” rework the U.S. open banking rule… 🤔

Navan (business T&E management platform) announced a new integration with American Express that enables American Express U.S. Business and Corporate Card Members to instantly create unique virtual Cards for travel booked on the Navan Travel platform via Navan Connect.

Splitit announced a strategic partnership with Antom to expand access to card-linked installments for merchants globally. The partnership integrates Splitit's technology into Antom's next-generation payment processing platform and merchant network, beginning in the U.S. and expanding globally.

Euronet (Nasdaq: EEFT) to acquire CoreCard (NYSE: CCRD) modern issuer processor platform in an all-stock merger that values CoreCard at approximately $248 million, or $30 per share. “The proposed transaction marks a pivotal step in accelerating Euronet’s strategic goal of a more diversified, future-ready revenue mix, that is anchored in scalable, modern platforms designed for the next generation of digital financial services across the globe.”

Dwolla adds the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service instant payment system into its platform. Now armed with both the FedNow service and the RTP network, Dwolla can use “intelligent routing to orchestrate between them” increasing the reach and efficiency of instant payments for businesses.
- 👉 Uncle Sean also noticed the recent update to Dwolla’s banking partners that now includes KeyBank, National Association in addition to existing and long-term partners Veridian Credit Union and Evolve Bank & Trust.

Car IQ (vehicle-based payment technology) announced a strategic partnership with BlueArrow Telematics (connected fleet solutions) to launch BlueArrow Pay fleet app – a vehicle-embedded payment platform for fuel and toll purchases.
- “Powered by Car IQ’s Know Your Machine™ (KYM) platform, BlueArrow Pay authenticates each transaction using real-time telematics data rather than driver credentials.”
  - Visa Credit Card Services are provided and issued by Lewis & Clark Bank [for now anyway, since Lewis & Clark Bank is in the process of being acquired by Marion and Polk Schools (Maps) Credit Union 🤔 – source: FedFis].

Rumor Mill – JPMorgan Chase is apparently nearing a deal to replace GS as Apple Card issuer…

👀 And just in case you missed this…. Minnesota calls in the National Guard after St. Paul slammed by 'digital attack' in what its mayor described as a "deliberate, coordinated, digital attack" carried out by sophisticated hackers.
- The office of Governor Tim Walz said in a statement that he was deploying the Guard, which has a cyber protection component, because the attack had "exceeded the city's response capacity."

Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Ramp raised $500M in Series E-2 round at a whopping $22.5B valuation just a mere 45 days since their last $200M round at a $16B valuation…!!! 😲💰🚀
- Wingspan (independent contractor payroll platform) raised $24M in Series B funding round.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

Okay – so it’s just preseason 🏈, but it made me feel good! 😊 I got to see a little bit of the Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions kick off the NFL preseason in the Hall of Fame Game yesterday. Here is the rest of the NFL preseason schedule that really begins next week.
Have you seen this? Check out Austin, Texas native Robert Youens (71-year-old cancer survivor), as he just broke the solo record for the 'Great Loop' – a 6,000 mile nautical journey that he completed in 19 days and 14 hours (did I mention solo?!?!)… Oh and he did it in a small 16’ aluminum jon boat with a 60HP tiller steer motor. Holy Cow!!! And here I am dreading having to mow the yard this evening! 😅🤷‍♂️
And of course - here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
- Never ask a starfish for directions… ⭐
- What do you call an army of babies? An infantry… 😊
- Dental x-rays really should be called tooth pics… 🦷😁
- And my favorite this week… You never really know the full extent of your kung fu skills until an insect crawls on your face!!! 🥋😮🤠

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Bulletin

Uncle Sean's Update - 10/3/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/26/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/19/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/12/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 9/5/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/29/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/22/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/15/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/8/25

Uncle Sean's Update - 8/1/25

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

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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