Uncle Sean's Update - 1/19/24

Happy Friday!!!
 
I think we can all agree that Mother Nature had way too much wine this week 🍷🤪🥶 (not judging, it happens)!  Here in East Texas we had multiple days with lows around 11 degrees and then saw a high of 64 on Thursday… 🤷🏼‍♂️  Alright, let’s get to it - Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/19/24:
 

• Kicking this off with some good vibes - Uncle Sean is happy to see this as an example of the good that FinTech and innovation can do for humanity when times are dark and extremely uncertain…  Shout out to Nova Credit and their collaboration with Creditinfo to help Ukrainian expats and refugees “gain access to the necessary financial services needed to effectively rebuild their lives abroad. The partnership is powered by Nova Credit’s Credit Passport®, the only cross-border credit solution enabling newcomers to access their foreign credit history when applying for financial products in their new home country.”  Nice work!!! 😊

 

• 👀 By the way, if you are interested in CFPB 1033 open banking proposal, tune in to this FREE (one of Uncle Sean’s favorite F-words) webinar on Jan 25th at 2PM CST titled “ Ahead of the Curve” featuring Christopher Williston VI, CAE President and CEO of IBAT, David Ritter CEO of Privacy Lock, David Nohe, CEO of FinGoal, and moderated by Richard Legget, Managing Partner at Latitude38 Venture Partners, through its Bankers Helping Bankers Fund (www.bhbfundvc.com).
  • Register here - https://bit.ly/IBATwebinar

 

• Treasury Prime (embedded banking software platform) is powering a new partnership between FirstBank (BaaS Sponsor Bank) and High Circle (fintech banking and investment platform).

 

• I like this as I am an old Credit and Supplier Finance superfreak 😉….  TreviPay and Mastercard team up to launch TreviPay’s Universal Acceptance solution to allow suppliers who accept Mastercard to extend trade credit to business buyers with TreviPay “assuming all risk associated with collection and guaranteeing settlement to the merchant upfront.”
  • DSO and Cash Flow for the win (yep – that’s me completely geeking out - LOL)!!!

 

• Ncontracts announced the launch of its new AI-Powered Contract Management Tool for financial institutions to improve speed and efficiency (“cha-ching”) of vendor contract management.  Click here for more info on their Ntelligent Contracts Assistant platform.

 

• ‘Tis the season…  Tax season that is… 💩 (queue up Taxman by The Beatles 🎶🎵 “one for you, nineteen for me” 🎸)
  • Varo Bank, N.A. has partnered with Column Tax to allow “all Varo account holders to prepare and file comprehensive tax returns with Column Tax through their Varo Bank App.” 
  • But wait, there’s more…  Column Tax is also integrated with Current, a leading fintech platform, enabling Current account holders to “file their taxes for free directly in the Current app, and most can file in under 20 minutes, regardless of how many jobs they have worked. Every return is backed by Column Tax's maximum refund and accuracy guarantees. Current members also receive their refunds on Current up to five days faster than traditional banks.”

 

• Pinwheel (direct deposit switching) announced a collaboration with Jack Henry allowing financial institutions on JKHY’s Banno Digital Platform to offer their “accountholders a seamless, near-instant digital direct deposit setup experience with Pinwheel.” 

 

• Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) to acquire Ally's point of sale financing business encompassing $2.2 billion of loan receivables with nearly 2,500 merchant locations; and supports more than 450,000 active borrowers in home improvement services and healthcare.

 

• SoFi launches Small Business Financing Marketplace through their SoFi Lending Corp (not SoFi Bank) with OnDeck and LendKey being two of the lenders on the platform so far.  Check it out at www.sofi.com/small-business-loans.

 

• Certainly worth keeping an eye on….  Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Michael J. Hsu, wants regulators to implement additional targeted liquidity requirements to cover “acute, ultra-short-term” deposit outflows to help prevent future bank runs like the ones seen during last year’s regional bank turmoil.  Hsu suggested banks should also be required to do periodic test draws of the discount window to ensure readiness in times of stress.
  • Here is the actual speech and transcript (short 10 pages) given at Columbia Law School titled "Building Better Brakes for a Faster Financial World”

 

• Interesting Personnel moves:
  • R&T Deposit Solutions has hired Jason Mull as Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer (CRO) & Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).
  • Congrats to Jer Wood as the new President of Credit Sponsorship at LoanPro supporting banks and fintech brands that are engaged in credit sponsorships per a LinkedIn update.

 

• WOWZA – check out the FinTech funding for the week:
  • High-five to our friends at Digital Onboarding who raised $58M in Growth Capital this week – Nice!!!!  🚀
    • And a personal shout-out to John Wallace – I’m still rockin’ my DO hat!  Thanks, buddy!!! 😊
  • Zip (BNPL) closed a refinancing agreement for a $225M credit facility to help fund Zip’s receivables growth in the United States.
  • DailyPay (on-demand / EWA platform) $175M in capital consisting of $75M equity round and $100m increase in an existing secured credit facility.
  • Kashable (employer-sponsored credit and financial wellness as a benefit platform) raised $25.6M in Series B round.
  • Panacea Financial (Direct Digital Bank division of Primis Bank) $24.5M in Series B funding round.
    • Hmmm…  A little bit interesting to me that they sought outside funding directly as opposed to getting it internally from the bank (Primis).

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• What a week in the NFL and now we are down to eight for this week’s Divisional Playoff Round:
  • Saturday:  4:30 PM (AFC) Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens; and 8:15 PM (NFC) Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers
  • Sunday: 3:00 PM (NFC) Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions; and 6:30 PM (AFC) Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills
• You can stop scrolling now 😊 – here are the Dad / Bad Jokes to bring a smile to your face:
  • Speaking of NFL playoff games….  A gentleman posted online about not being able to get his mower started as the choke was sticking.  So he put a Dallas Cowboys sticker on it and now it chokes consistently… every… single… time…. OUCH!!!! LOL 🏈🙄🤠
  • I bought my young nephew 3 socks for Christmas as my sister-in-law said that he’d grown another foot this past year… 🤣😂
  • I visited a gym to learn gymnastics.  They asked me, “how flexible are you?”  I said, “Well, I can’t make Mondays or Fridays.”
  • And finally, dropping some Dad Wisdom:
    • You don’t really get smarter as you get older…  You just run out of stupid things to do. 😉
    • There’s no real point in being pessimistic…  It won’t work anyway…

 
 
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.