Uncle Sean's Update - 10/1/21

Happy Friday and happy first day of the 4th quarter (WOW)!!! 
 
Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update sent direct to your inbox each week.  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 10/1/21:
 

• In an abrupt shift in direction, Google is abandoning its ambitious plans to offer bank accounts dubbed Google Plex after two years in dev mode.  Bobby Button and I were just talking about Google Plex a few days ago and how it had seemed to have gone dark.  Google mentioned that they instead will now focus on “delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.”

 

• Payfare announced a partnership with Stride Bank to offer real-time payments to fintech gig platforms / contract workers.  Full disclosure – Uncle Sean is a big fan of Stride Bank and what they are doing on the fintech / sponsor bank side.  Gettin’ it done in Enid, OK – I love it!!!!
  • This tells me a couple of things….
    • First, it looks like Stride Bank is integrated with The Clearing House RTP network – not an easy task to get certified by The Clearing House for direct integration, so congrats to Stride Bank!
      • Reminds me a little bit of the recent partnership between Cross River Bank and Dwolla for Dwolla’s RTP solution….
    • Secondly, a quick look into the FedFis FinTech Analytics© database (you bet that’s a plug) shows that Payfare is the payments infrastructure provider for Lyft and DoorDash regarding Instant / Daily Payouts for their contract workers (can’t really call it EWA since contractors are not “employees”).  Also while looking at our FinTech Analytics© database (yessir, I plugged it again - LOL), it doesn’t take long to connect the dots and see that the Lyft Mastercard Debit card AND the DoorDash (DasherDirect) Visa Prepaid GPR Debit card are both issued by Stride Bank.  So, not a coincidence that Stride Bank and Payfare are already intimately familiar with each other.  Definitely looks like a good partnership!

 

• Coinbase is rolling out a new direct deposit feature over the next few weeks.  It allows you to allocate as much or as little of your paycheck to Coinbase as you want.  The deposits can be used to make recurring crypto trades, spend on your Coinbase debit card (MetaBank Visa), or even convert your paycheck to crypto with no transaction fees.

 

• Mastercard announces Mastercard Installments – a BNPL program that enables “banks, lenders, fintechs and wallets the ability to offer BNPL experiences at merchants with flexibility across the entire acceptance network.”  The press release went on to reveal that Mastercard is working with “Barclays US, Fifth Third, FIS, Galileo, Huntington, Marqeta, SoFi, and Synchrony” to offer the BNPL program in the U.S.
  • PYMNTS.com has a good summary reminding us that “the direct connection (Finicity) will also use consumer permissioned data tied to debit or bank account credentials to provide ‘smarter loans’ – where insight into consumer cash flow determines repayment terms.”  Oh – and let’s not forget Mastercard’s existing customer base of 78 million merchant acceptance customers…..  Dang!
  • Recall the 7/30/21 Uncle Sean Update where we discussed the Visa Installments API driven BNPL solution.  Now, per this CU Today article, “even existing BNPL players could plug into Mastercard’s program, if they chose to, which could broaden their reach.”
    • Sure feels like this space is incredibly crowded now with the world’s two largest payment networks joining the fray.  Is this the beginning of BNPL commodity type pricing wars?

 

• And the more things change, the more they stay the same (or at least seem morph into the same offerings over and over)…..
  • Affirm (expanding from their BNPL beginnings) announced they are working on a feature to allow consumers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their Affirm savings account.
  • Upgrade (expanding upon their consumer lending base) is working on a BNPL offering with a twist.  Instead of focusing on a merchant checkout, Upgrade will apply purchases to their customers Upgrade Card and allow payoff terms of 4 months interest free.

 

• Fiserv announced new Fiserv campus in Berkeley Heights, NJ to serve as “a strategic center of excellence for technology and product innovation.”  The new fintech innovation hub will add approximately 2,000 new jobs and features a 428,000 square foot four story building. 

 

• Marcus surpasses $100B in deposits in just 5 years since launching – now that’s stout!

 

• And another Credit Union acquiring a Bank this week.  Dupaco Community Credit Union (Charter #64049; $2.62B Total Assets) to acquire Home Savings Bank (Cert #30248; $183M Total Assets).  A quick peek into the FedFis M&A database (I’m getting good at this plug game) shows that this is the 11th CU to buy a Bank so far this year following a blistering August where there were 5 CU deals to acquire banks.  This compares to 7 in 2020 and 16 in 2019.

 

• American Bankers Association and more than 1,500 banks across the nation kick off the #BanksNeverAskThat campaign to help consumers spot phishing scams.

 

• The Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra as Director to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the industry readies for an “emboldened CFPB.”

 

• Wells Fargo paid another $72.6M to settle Justice Department lawsuit accusing the bank of “defrauding hundreds of commercial customers” regarding FX transactions from 2010 – 2017.  Roughly $35.3M is being returned to customers as restitution and the remaining $37.3M to be paid to the U.S. as civil penalties.
  • Wait – are WF fines and penalties even newsworthy anymore???

 

• Oops!!!!  Compound (DeFi staking protocol) accidentally sent $90M to users during an upgrade with no option for correction other than “please send it back and you can keep 10%”.  OUCH!!!!!

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Alloy (identity decisioning platform for banks and fintech companies) raised $100M in Series C funding round at a $1.5B valuation.  Alloy states that annual recurring revenue has tripled over the last 12 months and customer count has more than doubled to over 200.  Clients include top logos such as “Ally Bank, HMBradley, Brex, Marqeta, Gemini, Ramp and Evolve Bank & Trust.”
  • Rize Money (fintech infrastructure platform) raised $11.4M in Series A
  • Betterment (wealth mgmt and digital investment advisor) raised $160M in capital that includes a $100M credit facility and a $60M Series F at an estimated valuation of almost $1.3B.
  • Parafin (SMB online cash advance & growth capital firm) raised $34M in capital consisting of $4M in Seed and $30M in Series A funding.
  • Panorays (third party vendor cybersecurity and risk evaluation platform) raised $42M in Series B
  • Coalition (cybersecurity + cyber insurance platform) raised $205M in Series E funding at a $3.5B valuation.  That is 2X the valuation from their Series D just six months prior; and the company “continues to ride a wave of massive growth as it crosses $325M in run rate premium, an 800% increase over the prior year.”
  • Highnote (card issuing / Cards-as-a-Service) emerged from stealth mode with $54M in capital that includes Seed and Series A funding totals.
  • Ripple launched a $250M Creator Fund to back NFT projects on the XRP Ledger. 
  • Built Technologies (construction finance platform) raised $125M in Series D funding at a $1.5B valuation.
  • Zero Hash (digital assets infrastructure) raised $35M in Series C funding round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

• Okay, so I tried my hand at a new dinner recipe this week.  Aunt Patty and I made seared Korean BBQ flavored salmon with brown rice and glazed mini carrots.  The salmon is super easy – just cut the salmon filet into strips about 2” – 3” wide and marinate in Korean BBQ sauce overnight in a sealed baggie.  We cooked it on the stove using a grated griddle pan on med high heat, about 2 minutes on each side – you’re shooting for medium rare, but with some cool looking grill marks.  Don’t forget to spray / coat the pan with oil (we used Avocado oil) so the salmon doesn’t stick, because it will.  When done we drizzled lightly with Sweet Soy Glaze and sprinkled with chopped green onion chives.  For the glazed carrots, we used 16 oz bag of mini carrots, 2 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp honey, and about ½ cup of water.  Mix everything together in a pan and bring it to a boil at medium high for about 6 minutes.  Turn down to low and simmer for about 6 minutes.  Then turn back up to med high heat until all the water is evaporated (about another 8-10 minutes or so) while stirring occasionally.  At that point the carrots should be tender and simply salt / pepper to taste.  We sprinkled pecan crumbles over the glazed carrots and served with the Korean BBQ seared salmon and brown rice.  It was amazing and I highly recommend it!!!!!   
• While we are on the topic of cooking, I’m reminded of what Mr. Robin Fussell recently explained to me - “the problem with cooking raw spinach is by the time it’s done, you can’t find it!”  Yep – LOL!
• And a few quick Dad jokes to kick off the weekend:
  • Don’t forget the infamous chef tip…  If you stir coconut oil into your kale, it makes it easier to scrape from the pan directly into the trash!  LOL!!!!
  • While at the store the cashier asked if I would like my milk in a bag – to which I replied, “no you can just leave it in the jug.”
  • And my personal favorite for the week…  Aunt Patty was shocked when she found out Uncle Sean is not a very good electrician – hehehehehe!!!!  😊

 
 
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.
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