Uncle Sean's Update - 2/7/25

Happy Friday!!!
 
Interesting economic updates and quite a bit going on in the bank core processor market this week – so let’s jump right in!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 2/7/25:

• Kicking off this week is a special congratulations to Mr. Cal Roberson for his promotion to Vice President, Financial Institution Division for Integris.  Be sure to check out Integris' Managed IT services built for banks and credit unions – and tell them Uncle Sean sent you! Congrats Cal – well deserved!!! 🤙

• The BLS Jan Jobs Report comes in with a mixed bag of results leading with 143K jobs added in January (below 175K estimate and well below Dec results of 307K which was revised up by 51K – see revisions here).  However, the unemployment rate fell to 4.0% as the labor force participation rate increased 0.1% over Dec to 62.6%.  Average hourly wages rose more than expected by 0.5% for the month and up 4.1% YoY (estimates were 0.3% and 3.7% respectively).
  • Keep in mind that there are some material issues with census data – notably the household survey data for Jan reflects relatively large updated population estimates including net immigration updates.  CNBC has a pretty good summary.

• 👀 Looks like we have our first bank tech vendor market event of the year as Finovifi has acquired Modern Banking Systems (MBS) core processing platform.  Very interesting expansion and integration strategy move for Finovifi.

• First Security Bank & Trust (an MDI bank in Oklahoma City) selects Smiley Technologies as its core AND digital banking provider.  Nice win for Smiley in replacing core, online, and mobile for the trifecta!!! 👍

• 👉 CSI announced the launch of its real-time proprietary check fraud detection solution for NuPoint® customers and powered by Mitek Systems.

• Fiserv (NYSE: FI) continues to lean into embedded finance opportunities per CEO Frank Bisignano during their recent earnings call this week stating “a pipeline of other embedded finance opportunities…” 🚀

• FIS (NYSE: FIS) announced it is one of the first providers in the fintech industry certified to enable send capabilities for credit transfers in the Federal Reserve’s FedNow® instant payment service. “FIS now supports the full payments lifecycle in FedNow, providing consumers and commercial borrowers with a holistic, human-centric instant payments experience.”

• Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) and Moov implement Visa Direct to offer real-time account-to-account money movement on the Visa Direct network via Jack Henry Rapid Transfers (offered only through financial institutions).  Definitely seeing more traction in the A2A / Pay-by-Bank space….

• Speaking of A2A / Pay-by-Bank…  Trustly partners with Spreedly to “provide merchants with full-service access to Pay by Bank to drive improved conversion rates and optimize payment efficiency across expanded regional and global markets.“

• Holy smokes – that didn’t take long!!!!  Santander Bank, N.A. (FDIC 29950; total assets $103B) announced that their direct digital bank, Openbank (just launched in 4Q2024), has hit $2B in total deposits as of Jan 29, 2025. WOW!!! 💥

• More flexing! 💪  The Clearing House reported that the RTP® network has surpassed 1 billion transactions and also set a new single-day records on Jan. 31 “for payments volume (1,592,419 transactions) and value ($1.44 billion).”   NICE!!!

• Ready for round two…  GM Financial announced they have again submitted an application to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Utah Department of Financial Institutions for GM Financial Bank, a proposed Utah-chartered industrial bank.  Banking Dive has a good summary including history of GM’s ILC bank charter aspirations.

• Highnote announced the launch of a new consumer credit card program with Fasten Rewards.  The Fasten™ Rewards Visa® Card program is an open loop custom card solution that “rewards consumers for auto loan or lease payments while increasing dealership loyalty, engagement, and sales velocity.”

• Zest AI and MeridianLink (NYSE: MLNK) continue to add to their longer term partnership as Zest AI now provides access to their AI-powered fraud detection tool (Zest Protect) to MeridianLink’s 2,000+ customers to identify and prevent “fraudulent activity during the application process.”

• Raiz Federal Credit Union (charter 1409; total assets $990M) partners with MANTL to offer a bilingual omnichannel account opening / deposit origination experience seamlessly integrated with their Fiserv DNA Core.

• The Penalty Box headline this week goes out to Brinks Global Services USA, Inc. (yes – the armored car company)…  FinCEN announced a $37M civil money penalty (OUCH) against Brinks as FinCEN determined that Brinks operated as a “money services business” (MSB) through the expanded definition of “money transmitter” and subject to BSA / AML compliance yet failed to file a single SAR. 
  • "…the violations that FinCEN identified were numerous, substantial in aggregate value of the currency shipped, and occurred over an extended period. Brink’s failed to register as an MSB despite conducting business as a money transmitter, and furthermore failed to implement an AML program, conduct an appropriate risk assessment of its products lines, and to comply with the recordkeeping and reporting requirements under the BSA for approximately a two-year period, leaving the US financial system vulnerable to illicit actors.” 😬

• More personnel moves:
  • nCino promotes Sean Desmond to President and CEO.
  • Happy Money hires Gaurav Agarwal as Chief Credit Officer.
  • Lithic welcomes Robin Gandhi as Chief Product Officer.
  • BMG Money names Victor Loyola as its new Chief Risk Officer.
  • NCR Voyix announces James Kelly as CEO and President.

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Closinglock (fraud prevention for RE transactions) raised $34M in Series B funding round.
  • Wisetack (consumer installment loan solutions for home services) raised $25M in growth capital.
  • Lynx (healthcare payments and administration platform) raised $27M in Series A oversubscribed round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• 🏈 Walking into the weekend excited about the Super Bowl - but don’t forget that next Friday is Valentine’s Day ♥️ (you’re welcome)!!!  Keep an eye out for this Super Bowl commercial from Ramp featuring Saquon Barkley.
• Recipe time!!!! 😋  I really don’t like sliced tomatoes, but I do like pico de gallo, hot sauce, tomato soup, ketchup, and pizza / spaghetti sauce…  So I tried a new recipe that involved slow roasted tomatoes and it was AWESOME!  It’s a long cook at 7 hours, but worth it – and your house will smell like pizza!  Here are the details:
  • 7 Roma tomatoes sliced in half longways and placed open side up in a roasting pan (definitely use foil or something in the bottom to help with cleanup) spaced at least a few inches apart to help with airflow.
  • ¼ cup olive oil (I used Avocado oil)
  • 1 tsp coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic salt
  • 1 tsp oregano (or you can use thyme as a substitute)
  • 1 tsp basil
  • Mix ingredients well and cover the tops of the tomatoes (open side facing up).  Slow roast at 200 degrees for roughly 7 hours (looking for the tomatoes to shrink up about 2/3rds).  When you take them out, cover with some mozzarella cheese and enjoy (I added a dash of Uncle Chris steak seasoning on top of the cheese for good measure)! 
• And finally (you can stop scrolling down now 😊) - here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week!!!
  • You think your job is bad, electricians have to strip to make ends meet… 😮😅
  • Some very exciting news to share – I got a raise today!!!!!  It was in medication dosage from my doctor, but still a raise nonetheless! 🙃
  • Our CTO had to drive 50 miles through ice and snow to pick up a computer part.  It was a hard drive…. 🙄
  • Never make snow angels in a dog park… 🐶
  • The swordfish has few predators to worry about in the wild…  Except for the penfish, which is said to be even mightier… 🤔🤣

 
 
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.