Uncle Sean's Update - 11/3/23

​Happy Friday!!!
 
WOWZA what a week!!!!  I am writing this literally as we are wrapping up our conference – The Roundup presented by FedFis 🤠.  I promise a bit of a summary of The Roundup happenings next week (spoiler alert – it was AMAZING with an overall consistent theme of “compliance, community, and commerce”), but for now - Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 11/3/23:
 

• It’s Fed Week!!!  As widely expected, the FOMC unanimously voted to hold rates steady at the current range of 5.25% - 5.50% where it has been since July.  However, quantitative tightening continues (QT – a/k/a “shrinking the Fed Balance Sheet”) related to reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities at the current rate of $60B in Treasuries and $35B in MBS per month per the policy implementation note.  CNBC has a good summary as always.  Keep in mind that the next meeting is scheduled for Dec 12-13 and will include the ever-entertaining Summary of Economic Projections (“dot plot” for us older folks).
  • If you really want to dig deeper, here is:
    • Chairman Powell transcript (26 pages)
    • Press conference video (51:28)
  • Meanwhile, the BLS issued their October Jobs Report showing job growth of 150,000 (estimate was 188K; and down sharply from September’s jaw dropping 300K – which includes a downward revision of 39K).  Unemployment ticked up to 3.9% (expectation was 3.8% which was last month actual).

 

• Happy to share a good plug here – the CFPB Selects FedFis Data!!! NICE!!! 

 

• And more good news as the Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) Fund welcomes four new community bank investors - Fannin Bank, Dream First Bank, Ozona Bank, and Generations Bank are the latest to join the BHB Fund as limited partners.
  • Side note…  I finally got the chance to hang out and talk with Richard Leggett and Neeraj Vohra from the BHB Fund (Latitude38 Venture Partners) – a great time with some REALLY great people!!! 😊

 

• The White House issues AI EO (I’m certain there’s an Old MacDonald joke there, but I digress 🤣😂)….  CNBC has a good summary.

 

• 👀 Per an SBA announcement earlier this week, Funding Circle joins Arkansas Capital Corp. and Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO as the first non-depository institutions to be granted new Small Business Lending Company licenses in 40 years.

 

• BankProv has selected Cable to enhance the banks financial crime compliance program with Cable’s all-in-one financial crime effectiveness testing platform.

 

• Intuit is shutting down Mint by January 1, 2024 while encouraging a shift for those users to the Credit Karma platform it acquired in 2020.

 

• Neu (financial wellness for students) announced the launch of the Neu Card (a Visa charge card CC) to help college students build credit without falling into the debt trap.

 

• And not too much of a surprise here, but the jury quickly found SBF guilty on all charges and is now facing up to 115 years in prison.

 

• Some interesting personnel moves:
  • The Clearing House (TCH) announced that payments industry expert, Margaret Weichert has been hired as Chief Product Officer.
  • PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) announced Jamie Miller has been named as Chief Financial Officer.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Charlie (neobank targeting older Americans) raised $23M in Capital consisting of $16M in Series A plus another $7M debt facility.  Charlie intends to use the funding to accelerate growth and “launch industry-first financial fraud protections specifically designed for the unique needs of older Americans.” 
  • Payroll Integrations (“financial wellness as a benefit” tools platform) raised $20M in Series A funding round.
  • EarlyBird (app that allows friends and family to gift investments to children via UGMA custodial account) raised $4.5M in extended Seed round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Special shout out to our baby girl, Claire – who turns 19 today (how is that even possible???)!!!  Happy Birthday, Claire – Mom and Dad love you and we are super proud of you! 💕 🎂🎉
• ⏰ Don’t forget to set your clocks back this Saturday night as daylight savings time comes to an end (technically at 2 AM local time Sunday Morning)….
• Congratulations to the Texas Rangers for winning the MLB 2023 World Series in a spectacular game 5 victory (and becomes the first MLB team to win 11 straight playoff games away from home – that’s amazing)!!!!
• As we wrap up our Roundup conference, this weeks classic Dad Jokes are brought to you by Jeremy Neuharth with Sycorr:
  • A banker friend told me to put something away for a rainy day…..  I’ve gone for an umbrella.  😊
  • This banker I know has absolutely no friends… I think he is “loanly”…   
  • What’s the hardest part bout being addicted to banking?  The withdrawals!!!  😝

 
 
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!
 
Uncle Sean
 
 
Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis
 
FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.