Uncle Sean's Update - 2/3/23

​Happy Friday!!!
 
You can sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to your inbox every week.  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 2/3/23:
 

• Shout out to Urban FT (AI-powered mobile imaging and process automation solutions and much more) as the latest innovative company to join the BaaS Association!  Check them out at urbanft.com.

 

• It’s Fed Week!!!  The FOMC voted to raise rates by 25 basis points bringing the Fed Funds Rate to 4.50% – 4.75% and they anticipate that further increases may be appropriate.  While too early declare victory on inflation, Chairman Powell reiterated “over the past year we’ve taken forceful actions to tighten the stance of monetary policy.  We’ve covered a lot of ground and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far are yet to be felt.  Even so, there is more work to do.”  Chairman Powell went on to state, “we've raised rates four and a half percentage points and we're talking about a couple of more rate hikes to get to that level we think is appropriately restrictive.”
  • Here is Chairman Powell’s Press Conference Transcript (24 pgs) and broadcast video (44 min).
  • Next FOMC meeting is scheduled for March 21-22 and will include a Summary of Economic Projections (dot plot).

 

• Meanwhile, the BLS Jobs report came in scalding hot with 517,000 jobs added in January (versus 187,000 market estimate) and an unprecedented low unemployment rate of 3.4% - the lowest since 1969!!!  WOWZA!!!!

 

• Marqeta (Nasdaq: MQ) announced an agreement to acquire Power Finance, Inc. (credit card program management platform) for $223M in cash plus another $52M if certain undisclosed milestones are achieved in the next 12 months.  TechCrunch has a good write-up for more detail as Marqeta continues to expand their product offerings.

 

• SendFriend (B2B cross-border payments) announced an agreement to acquire DigiPli, an onboarding (KYC/KYB) and AML compliance platform.

 

• LevelField Financial, a financial services firm that looks to meld traditional banking and digital assets products into one platform, announced an agreement to acquire Burling Bank (FDIC 27556; $197M Total Assets) pending regulatory approval, of course…

 

• Here is a very cool real-world blockchain use application…  The California DMV announced they will digitize car titles on Tezos blockchain with plans to streamline title transfers as well.  Essentially creating an NFT version of the customers car title that (hopefully) makes managing authenticity and transfers easier (and another use case for digital wallets outside of just cards).  Very exciting!

 

• And more California news - yet another risk aspect for my Ag Banker friends to continue to monitor…  The Colorado River water fight escalated up a notch this week as California split from the other 6 states on a U.S. government deadline to negotiate their own supply cuts or face possible mandatory cutbacks by the federal government.  California receives the largest allocation portion of the water with 80% going to the Golden State’s massive $50B+ agricultural industry.  California has senior water rights and has released its own proposal for water conservation based on the elevation of Lake Mead, setting up a scenario that could potentially end up in the nation’s highest courts if a mutual agreement cannot be met.
  • You can certainly see why CA is flexing their muscle when you look at these Ag statistics from California Department of Food and Agriculture stating “over a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California.” 

 

• Speaking of flexing – KlariVis announced 218% growth in 2022 including more than doubling their client base and a host of awards and accolades.  NICE WORK!!!

 

• Citizens Bank (FDIC 57957; $226B Total Assets) announced the launch of Zelle® to eligible small business customers enabling near real-time payments (typically within minutes) within the Citizens mobile banking app. 
  • Recall where Zelle for Small Business has been a growth engine with latest results from Q2 2022 showing an 87% quarter-over-quarter increase in disbursement transactions.

 

• Congrats??? 😲 Chainalysis reported that 2022 was the biggest year ever for crypto hacking with $3.8B stolen.  DeFi protocols were by far the biggest victims with the majority of that coming from cross chain bridge vulnerabilities…  OUCH!!!

 

• More CFPB developments worth keeping an eye on:
  • As the CFPB leans into Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, some small banks and fintechs are asking the CFPB to ease into the elimination of "screen scraping" in favor of APIs stating a sudden ban would “put community banks at a disadvantage and limit consumer choice.”
  • CFPB proposal to reduce CC late fees to $8 from as much as $41, end the automatic annual inflation adjustment for the provision, and cap late fees at 25% of the minimum payment owed by the cardholder.  Impacting as much as $9B per year.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Moov (full-stack payments platform) raised $45M in Series B $45M in Series B funding.
  • Treasury Prime (BaaS middleware connector) raised $40M in Series C round.
  • Finley (debt capital software – think covenant dashboard, terms, draw requests, etc.) raised $17M in Series A.
  • Wink (biometric identity and payments) raised an additional $3M in Seed investment.
  • Oxygen (personal and business fintech banking app) raised $20M in Series B funding round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

• It’s official - Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow Thursday morning to let everyone know that there are some documents marked “classified” down there; and then quickly changed the subject to predict 6 more weeks of winter!  Pwahahaha!!!!  😝  Okay – maybe the classified document jokes are starting to get a little stale, but that one was funny!!!
• Well, we survived another Texas Ice Apocalypse this week - although not nearly as bad as the one a few years ago.  Is February too soon to say it’s been a tough year (asking for a friend)??? 😲
• Okay – let’s share some Dad jokes to get us into the weekend with a smile on our face!!!!
  • Why can’t you list “meme lord” as a skill on your LinkedIn profile???
  • Dear IRS, please remove me from your mailing list…  LOL!!!!
  • Remember, it takes guts to be an organ donor (okay, even I cringed a little at that one - 😊)!!!

 
 
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.