Uncle Sean's Update - 1/9/26

Happy Friday!!!
 
Hopefully everyone enjoyed a GREAT holiday season (I know I did, and my bathroom scale confirms it 😬😅) – and welcome to 2026 🎉!!!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/9/26 (subscribe here for free):
 

• A virtual fist-bump 👊 to Fiserv for their Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) sponsorship renewal!!!
  • “Fiserv is more than a sponsor—they’re a force for change in community banking,” said Matthew Smith, CEO of Bankers Helping Bankers. “Their continued support ensures BHB remains a place where bankers can discover what’s next, connect with fintechs, and chart a path to growth—at no cost to them.” 💥

 

• Some quick economic updates now that the data is rolling in post-government shutdown:
  • The BLS Dec Jobs Report showed little change and a mixed bag of results with only 50K jobs added (Dow Jones estimate was 73K; and Nov was downwardly revised by 8K to 56K) while unemployment fell to 4.4% (estimate was 4.5% and last month was 4.6%).  Annual wage growth of 3.8% continues to outpace inflation.
    • Prior revisions were once again material (see revision history) with Oct revised down by another 68K to -173K job losses.  CNBC has a good summary.
  • Coupled with strong 3Q GDP (BLS initial estimate) of 4.3%, this may give the FOMC plenty of “wait and see” ammunition in relation to future rate cuts.

 

• It’s official…  JPMorgan Chase has inked a deal to take over as Apple Card’s issuer replacing Goldman Sachs who has been looking to exit the Apple credit card portfolio for a couple of years.  The transition from GS to JPM is expected to take two years.  The $20B portfolio came with a discount of more than $1B (5%).

 

• And we’re off 🏇!!!!  We have our first announced CU acquisition of a bank this week with Zeal Credit Union (charter 62426; total assets $864M) to acquire The Miners State Bank (FDIC 10928; total assets $145M).
  • Worth noting that Zeal just recently completed (12/29/2025) their previous acquisition of Gogebic Range Bank, first announced 12/30/2024.

 

• PayPal announced the launch of their Transaction Graph Insights & Measurement program giving merchants a full view of consumer personalization / spend habits by connecting search, shop, and share signals across more than 430 million consumer accounts and tens of millions of merchants – allowing brands to “identify high-intent shoppers before they convert elsewhere.”
  • PYMNTS has a good summary article reminding us “this data play follows a partnership with generative AI search engine Perplexity last June.”

 

• Hopefully 🤞 some good news here for the principals of CBW Bank (FDIC 13959; total assets $65M) as the FDIC and CBW have reached a settlement (apologies for the Bloomberg paywall).  Details of the settlement have not been made available.  Case #25-3056 in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Here is the original notice of assessment of civil money penalty for $20.4M.

 

• Coming to America… Again…  Europe’s second largest neobank, bunq, has filed for a US de novo banking license with the OCC.
  • bunq had previously submitted applications with the OCC and FDIC in 2023, but withdrew them in January 2024, due to the complexity of the US regulatory process and regulatory differences between the OCC, FDIC and the Dutch authorities.

 

• De Novo Georgia Skyline Bank (closing in on their capital goal of $25M - $35M) is scheduled to open in Roswell, GA in late Feb or early March. 👏

 

• 👉 Core Bank (FDIC 34363; total assets $1.1B) has partnered with Kobalt Labs to enhance the banks TPRM and compliance at scale via Kobalt’s AI-driven solution as the bank leans into BaaS and embedded finance. 

 

• Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) partners with Wink to integrate Wink’s biometric face and palm identity-based payment technology to its Clover platform.

 

• Modulr (real-time payments hub) announced its launch in the US via partnership with FIS (NYSE: FIS) to bring next-gen payments technology to US financial institutions.

 

• Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) announced that Sanibel Captiva Community Bank (FDIC 57425; total assets $1B) has selected Jack Henry for its core processing platform.
  • Impressive as the incumbent processor has (er… “had”) a strategic position (same vendor for core, online, and mobile) – which is hard to break into from a vendor perspective.  For more info about this, reach out to our own Bobby Button here at FedFis to discuss our Fintegration Ecosystem© vendor tech stack for all banks and CUs in the US. 😊

 

• North Coast Credit Union (charter 66734; total assets $412M) is now live with Mahalo digital banking platform and reporting "substantial enhancements in member experience and internal workflows" since making this connection, enabled by "real-time account visibility, consistent data flow, and unified workflows".

 

• Digital Storefront has rebranded as Movemint.

 

• Wolf & Company, P.C. has acquired The Kafafian Group, Inc., further expanding Wolf’s bank and credit union advisory capabilities.  The Kafafian Group has provided consulting services (emphasis on strategic planning, performance measurement, and operations consulting) for over 500 financial institutions in 40+ states with asset sizes up to $100B. 🚀

 

• Some personnel moves:
  • Plaid picks up Jelena McWilliams as President of Corporate and External Affairs.
    • WOW!!!  🤔 Can’t help but wonder out loud if I’m the only one smelling a potential IPO here with this extremely high-profile hire???
  • ICI Consulting appoints Lance Tappa as Sr. Vice President, Partner Relations.
  • CSI welcomes back Shane Ferrell as Vice President of Product Management per this post on LinkedIn.
  • Marqeta (Nasdaq: MQ) named Patti Kangwankij as CFO effective Feb 9.
  • Panacea Financial (direct digital bank division of Primis Bank) strengthens its executive team with key hires in marketing, compliance, and medical education finance including Anna Khayet as Chief Marketing Officer, Robin Garrison as Chief Compliance Officer, and Tal Frank as Head of Student Financial Services.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Rain (stablecoin payments infrastructure) raised $250M in Series C funding at a $1.95B valuation.
  • Onsetto (white-label AI-powered platform to help FI’s with commercial account switching) raised $2.2M in Seed funding round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• 🏈 We are at the peak of football playoffs!
  • The NFL playoff schedule is set with wild-card games kicking off this weekend on the road to Super Bowl LX on Jan 25th.
  • The college football playoff picture is wrapping up after a thrilling semifinal game last night with Miami outlasting Ole Miss 31-27; and another exciting semifinal game this evening with Oregon and Indiana facing off to see who gets a shot at the National Championship game against Miami on Jan 19th.
• And they’re back!!!  Here are the Dad / Bad jokes for the week:
  • The doctor said I need to eat more greens, so I’m switching from French Vanilla to Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream! 😋
  • Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November.  All the rest have thirty-one, except for January which has about 100! 😒😂
  • I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your future doctor is using ChatGPT to pass med school… So you better start eating healthy!!!! 🤣
  • Recent empirical research shows that starting your day with an early morning run is the best way to make sure your day can’t get any worse! 🤠🏃‍♂️‍➡️

 
 
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