Uncle Sean's Update - 10/2/26

Happy Friday!!!
 
Welcome to the 4th Quarter!!!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 10/2/26 (subscribe here for free):
 

• The BEA showed August PCE at 3.4% with Core PCE at 3.0% - both below Dow Jones estimates (3.7% and 3.3% respectively) and flat over last month taking into account prior month revisions.  CNBC has a good summary.

 

• BEA 3rd estimate of 2Q GDP was revised up to 2.2% (from 1.5% for the second estimate) primarily reflecting upward revisions to investment, consumer spending, and government spending.
  • Real final sales to private domestic purchasers increased to a strong 4.6% (revised up 0.4% from the second estimate).

 

• BLS Sept Jobs Report was a bit light at +29K jobs added (versus +84K estimate).  Job gains were concentrated in healthcare, construction, and manufacturing.  Revisions down for prior months was also material at a total of -60K (Aug revised down 29K and Jul revised down 31K) – you can see the detailed revision history here.
  • Unemployment came in at 4.2% (estimate was 4.1% and last month was 4.1%).
  • Labor Force Participation rate improved to 61.8%.
  • U-6 (underemployment rate – Table A-15) dropped slightly to 7.6% from 7.7% in Aug.

 

• 💥 Valley National Bancorp (bank subsidiary is Valley National Bank - FDIC 9396; total assets $66B) announced an agreement to acquire Bluevine (SMB fintech) in a mixed-deal consisting of approximately 75% cash and 25% Valley common stock with a total consideration of approximately $340M.  The deal brings about 175,000 active small business customers and whopping $2.1B in low-cost deposits to Valley National Bank.  This investor deck has additional insights - Accelerating Valley’s National Digital Banking Franchise (September 28, 2026).
  • 👉 Some additional Uncle Sean insights:
    • This is a great complimentary deal for Valley, but one thing stands out to me that I am not seeing anyone else focus on…  Bluevine’s incumbent sponsor bank is Coastal Community Bank (FDIC 34403; total assets $5.5B).  Coastal has approximately $4.9B in total deposits as of the Jun call report.  If Valley is expecting $2.1B in deposits from this deal, then it looks like Coastal could lose approximately 43% of their deposits… 😲  Of course, they have several months to prepare as the deal is not expected to close until early 2027, but that is some serious liquidity draw for Coastal.  Ole concentration risk rears its ugly head again.

 

• Unfortunately, we had our sixth bank failure of the year last Friday.  Nano Banc (FDIC 58590; total assets $736M) was closed on Sep 25. The bank had a FedFis Rating© of 4.37 as of June 2026 placing them in the lowest possible percentile of all US banks.  For more info, check out the FedFis Bank Failure Alert here - https://www.fedfis.com/bulletin/bank-failure-alert-nano-banc.

 

• 👀 And another CU acquisition of a bank (makes 7 so far for 2026)…  Gulf Winds Credit Union (charter 68694; total assets $1.4B) to acquire Peoples Exchange Bank (FDIC 70; total assets $99M) from Peoples Exchange Bancshares, Inc. (PCO FR 1138870).
  • This marks the 7th announced CU acquisition of a bank so far for 2026 and the second announced bank deal for Gulf Winds CU in a month (prior on Aug 25, 2026 -  Gulf Winds CU to acquire Madison County Community Bank).

 

• As expected following one of the largest fraud / embezzlement cases in CU history, the NCUA finally liquidated Jackson Area Federal Credit Union (charter 8445; total assets $61M as of June 2026 call report) with Five Star Credit Union (charter 68302;  total assets $1.3B) assuming all share accounts and some of the assets.  The liquidation comes just two days after former JAFCU President/CEO Leigh Bridges pleaded guilty to three federal charges in a criminal case involving what prosecutors described in court as a more than $69M embezzlement scheme that left the credit union insolvent.

 

• MVB Bank, Inc (FDIC 34603; total assets $3.5B; and a leading BaaS sponsor bank) selects Kobalt Labs AI Platform to Strengthen Fintech Partner Risk Oversight and Marketing Compliance.
  • “Kobalt’s platform supports vendor and fintech partner reviews, analyzes policies and procedures against evolving regulatory expectations, and assists with security and marketing compliance assessments. The system is designed to help banks produce consistent, defensible risk assessments more quickly and with greater clarity.” 💪

 

• Alaska Air Group (Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines) joins the growing list of commercial airlines expanding rewards platforms to debit card by announcing the Atmos™ Rewards debit card (planned for early 2027). 
  • The Visa debit card is issued by Cross River Bank and managed by Mezu (NA) Inc. dba Alviere.

 

• Stripe acquires Parafin, an embedded financing company that caters to small businesses, to expand small business credit offerings to the more than 18,000 platforms that build on Stripe. 

 

• De Novo watch…:
  • 👍 Mission Lane gets green light for OCC charter to establish Mission Lane Bank, National Association - a nationally chartered credit card bank (CEBA charter).  Here is the actual OCC preliminary conditional approval letter.
    • The bank must maintain a tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 11% and initial paid-in capital requirement of no less than $35M.
    • CEBA charter holders are not permitted to accept demand deposits, or to accept savings or time deposits of less than $100,000 unless they are used as collateral for secured credit card loans. Nor are they permitted to make commercial loans, other than credit card loans to small businesses.

 

• The Citizens Bank of Edmond (FDIC 4084; total assets $432M) partners with Parlay Finance to bring Parlay’s Loan Intelligence System (LIS) to ROGER (direct digital bank division of Citizens Bank of Edmond serving the military community).
  • Following the ROGER launch, the partners plan to extend the LIS to Citizens Bank of Edmond’s other small business lending products.

 

• Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union (PSECU; charter 64131; total assets $9.7B) selects Candescent to power its digital member experience.
  • “Following a competitive evaluation, PSECU selected Candescent for its Intelligent Banking strategy and Votiv’s capabilities and roadmap. As the experience layer of Candescent’s Intelligent Banking Platform, Votiv brings that strategy to life. By connecting unified experiences with real-time intelligence, Votiv will help PSECU move beyond reactive, transaction-based banking toward experiences that better understand members, provide more relevant guidance and help them take action.”

 

• Valley Isle Community Federal Credit Union (charter 3574; total assets $174M) has selected Narmi One, including Narmi's consumer and business digital banking, account opening, and lending solutions, to modernize its member experience.

 

• Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union (charter 67352; total assets $2.2B) partners with InvestiFi to embed investing solutions into the credit union’s existing online and mobile banking platform.

 

• For my Ag Bank friends (and risk managers monitoring agriculture in general), the FDIC issued An Update on Farm Bank Performance showing strength in Ag sector as a whole, but stress showing in the row crop segment.  Overall, conditions should remain manageable for most farm banks.

 

• I also found this to be really cool – the St. Louis Fed has introduced FRED MCP Connector to simplify connecting FRED data with AI agents. 🤘

 

• Some personnel moves:
  • FINBOA names Kevin Feagan as Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Self Financial appoints Jeff Giacomi as Chief Credit Officer.

 

• Notable FinTech Funding for the week:
  • RiskScout (integrated BSA/AML and fraud prevention platform for banks and credit unions) closes new funding round following year of explosive growth where the company “…more than tripled our revenue and grew the number of banks and credit unions we serve by over 250%...” 🚀
  • InvestiFi (embedded digital investing platform within the FI’s existing online and mobile platforms) picks up a $2.66M investment from Volunteer Corporate Credit Union (VolCorp).  “InvestiFi has grown substantially since launching its platform. From five signed credit unions at the end of 2024, the company had expanded to more than 60 financial institution clients representing more than five million online banking users by mid-2026.” 👏

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Finally getting some MUCH-welcomed rainfall here in East Texas!!!  Sure hoping this is a break in this HEAT pattern we have been stuck in for months – I don’t want to see my pumpkins on the front porch turn into pumpkin pie!
• 🏈 Both the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners have a bye week this week as they prepare for the 2026 Red River Rivalry on Oct 10.  Texas is on a roll at 4-0 and ranked #1 while OU has struggled offensively so far and is not ranked with a 2-2 record.  But if history has shown us anything, it is that anything can happen in this game.
• You made it!  Here are the Dad / Bad jokes:
  • Claustrophobic people are much more productive when they are thinking outside of the box… 🤓😉
  • We all have the power to change one thing each day…  Please make it your underwear!!! 😬😅
  • Is it weird that only one company makes the game Monopoly? 🤔🤷‍♂️
  • I don’t mean to brag, but I am one step away from being rich.  All I need now is money! 🤠
  • An oldie but a goodie…  The World Health Organization has declared that dogs cannot transmit Coronavirus so there is no reason to quarantine dogs anymore…  W.H.O. let the dogs out!!!! 😂🤣

 
 
“The world needs good people - be one of them.”
 
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 and its affiliates – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.