Uncle Sean's Update - 1/12/24

Happy Friday!!!
 
And just like that, Winter has arrived (teeth chattering) 🥶❄️- Brrrr!!!  So make sure you layer up and don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update and the FinTech Cowboys delivered straight to your inbox every week.  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/12/24:
 

• December CPI came in a smidge higher than expected rising 0.3% for the month (0.2% estimate) and 3.4% year-over-year (3.2% estimate).  The increase was driven mostly by higher shelter costs (which is described as a significant lagging indicator due to the term of leases in relation to repricing) offset by lower food & energy.
  • Pulling out food and energy, Core CPI was more in line at 0.3% for the month (spot on with the estimate of 0.3%) and 3.9% for the year (vs. 3.8% estimate).  This is the first time Core CPI was below 4.0% since May 2021.  CNBC always has a good summary.

 

• 👀 So this is pretty cool (admittedly because Uncle Sean is a data nerd 🤓)!!!  Fiserv announced the launch of the Fiserv Small Business Index™ , a benchmark for small business growth based on actual sales data to be “published during the first week of every month, delivering deeper insights more rapidly than existing measurements and empowering users to respond to emerging trends.”  No surveys or sentiment data – Fiserv is able to produce this via their extensive access to payments data and direct aggregation of consumer spending activity “from point-of-sale transaction data, including card, cash, and check transactions in-store and online, across approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses.”
  • I’m not gonna lie – I’m really digging this!!! 🚀😊  Check it out at fiserv.com/en/fiserv-small-business-index.

 

• This is a very good read for those interested in CRE exposures…  Moody’s Analytics CRE published their Q4 2023 Preliminary Trend Announcement highlighting stresses such as; 1) shifts in supply and demand dynamics, 2) rising insurance costs, 3) value declines characterized by a few high-profile fire sales, and 4) higher interest rates resulting in elevated refinance risk.
  • The punchline - “…market challenges will pose potential risk to associated commercial loans, especially if the underlying collateral faces greater uncertainly with its performance metrics. That is indeed concerning for mid-size to smaller financial institutes which have significant CRE exposures. But so far, Moody’s Analytics CRE does not believe this will become a source of systematic risk for the overall banking system."
    • YES!!!!  Uncle Sean is happy to hear someone credible highlight the fact that although there are clear stresses, this is not systemic to the overall banking system because mainstream media persists on telling us that the sky is falling….

 

• As widely expected (albeit begrudgingly and only because of court order), the SEC approved the first-ever U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).  Ah the irony when the concept of decentralized finance via digital currency becomes…  well…  umm…  centralized as an ETF – LOL… 🤔😆

 

• Grow Credit has partnered with Beem to enable “Beem consumers to access an effective financial tool that helps tackle inflation, while Grow will leverage Beem's payment processing and risk tools to minimize credit-related risks.”
  • Beem is also working on releasing a credit card product in 2024 and Grow Credit’s “Grow to Go” white-label credit builder looks to be a nice fit.

 

• CSI announced a strategic investment from TA Associates (TA), financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

 

• Pay-by-Bank technology continues to make headlines:
  • Weave (NYSE: WEAV, all-in-one unified healthcare platform) announced the addition of ACH Direct Debit to its payments suite available for Text to Pay and Online Bill Pay workflows.
  • Optty (global payments platform) to offer Pay-by-Bank option to its customers via partnership with Link Money.

 

• X (fka Twitter) announced in a blog post that the company plans to launch P2P payments in 2024.  Not too surprising (yawn 🥱) as it has been widely publicized that X has been picking up money transmitter licenses across many states for quite some time now.
  • [Although not quite as exciting to me personally as when Elon Musk publicly told boycotting advertising consortiums to “go Fu** yourself” 😲 Oof - LOL]…  Per the X blog, “We will launch peer-to-peer payments, unlocking more user utility and new opportunities for commerce, and showcasing the power of living more of your life in one place.”

 

• Clark Street Capital launched their "Accelerated BAN" platform (apologies for the American Banker paywall) designed to allow lenders to “sell loans in as little as two weeks” with a target of “single assets or portfolios under $5MM” to help smaller institutions by providing both speed and competitive bids on loan sales.

 

• Owners Bank (direct digital bank division of Liberty Bank) expands existing partnership with Biz2x to include partner origination portal.

 

• And a couple of CU acquisitions of banks to kick off 2024:
  • Hudson Valley Credit Union (Charter #68705) to acquire Catskill Hudson Bank (FDIC #33859; $593M Total Assets).
  • Global Credit Union (Charter #5913) to acquire First Financial Northwest Bank (FDIC #29058; $1.5B Total Assets).
    • This marks 2 CU acquisitions of a bank thus far in 2024 compared to 11 in 2023, 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019 (source FedFis M&A database – see what I did there 🤠).

 

• 😵‍💫The cyberattacks keep on coming…  This week loanDepot was forced to take certain systems offline following a cybersecurity incident furthering a disturbing recent trend:
  • October – Mr. Cooper cyber incident exposed data of nearly 15 million current and former clients.
  • November – Fidelity National Financial cyberattack.
  • December – First American, another title company, cybersecurity incident.

 

• Interesting Personnel moves this week include:
  • Nymbus welcomes Jeff Fonda as CFO.
  • Panacea Financial (direct digital bank and division of Primis Bank) names Ryan Gorney as CTO.
  • Mr. Cooper appoints Mike Weinbach as President.
  • Investcloud hires Jeff Yabuki as CEO and Chairman.  Yabuki was the former CEO of Fiserv from 2005 to 2020 and was instrumental in leading the firms acquisition strategy including the $22B acquisition of First Data. 
  • Shout out to Clay Hamlet as the new Senior Sales Executive for FIntegrate Technology – congrats!!! 🎉
  • William T. Chittenden, Ph.D., has been selected as the President and CEO of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) Foundation headquartered at the SMU Cox School of Business.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Cleva (Nigerian fintech offering USD account to receive international payments) raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding.
  • KlariVis (data analytics solutions for community banks and credit unions) raised $11M in Series B funding round and recently celebrated the onboarding of its 100th client.
  • Karma Wallet (sustainable finance app) raised $2M+ in capital and announced the launch of their Karma Wallet Card (prepaid GPR).

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Lots of college football 🏈 updates this week!!!  Congrats to the Michigan Wolverines for winning the College Football Playoff National Championship by taking down the Washington Huskies 34-13.
  • Take note – due to the upcoming crazy conference realignments, Michigan and Washington will be Big Ten rivals next year….  Yup…  This could be interesting!!!
• Alabama football coach Nick Saban announces retirement after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa.  Saban is 292-71-1 as a college head coach spanning 28 years in college football -- a career that included seven national titles (six at Alabama and one at LSU), 12 conference championships (11 SEC, 1 MAC) and 19 bowl game wins -- Saban never had a losing season.
  • Check out Nick's Kids Foundation – Established in 1998, during their time at Michigan State University, Nick and Terry Saban established Nick's Kids Foundation in honor of the late Nick Saban, Sr. Since then, the Sabans have maintained and supported their charity throughout their careers at Louisiana State University, the Miami Dolphins and the University of Alabama.
• Okay – let’s finish up with some Dad / Bad jokes to kick off the weekend (and the NFL Playoffs):
  • Did I already tell my amnesia joke??? 😆
  • I paid for a 12 month gym membership and my bank froze my account for suspected fraud…..  🙄
  • I don’t know about the chicken, but Adele crossed the road to say “hello from the other side.” 🎵🎶
  • NURSE (noun, pronounced /nərs/) – The first person you see after saying “hold my beer and watch this.” 😂🤣
  • And last but not least…  Chuck Norris can hear sign language. 💪🏼

 
 
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe (and WARM)!!!
 
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.