Uncle Sean's Update - 4/18/25

Happy Good Friday!!!
 
Happy Easter wishes to all!!! 🐰🐥  I hope everyone gets to spend some wonderful time with family and loved ones this Easter weekend!!! ❤️  It’s a smoking-hot news week, so let’s get to it!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 4/18/25:
 
Let’s kick this week off with some Merger Mania and key divestitures:
 

• 💥 Headlining this week is a bombshell announcement and significant market event in the payments space…  Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) announces agreements to acquire Worldpay from FIS and GTCR - and divest Issuer Solutions business to FIS.  There’s a lot to take in here, so let’s look at it from a very high level:
  • Worldpay was spun off from FIS back in 2023 as a stand-alone entity; and in July 2023, GTCR signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 55% majority stake in Worldpay from FIS (thus the Global Payments acquisition of Worldpay being from FIS and GTCR).
    • Side note..  For comparative PR purposes – Here is the merger PR from FIS as well as the PR from GTCR.
  • Now for the divestiture part from Global Payments…  Recall back in 2019 as part of the Payments Merger Frenzy days (more below) where Global Payments acquired TSYS processing solutions, well now they are selling that part of the business to FIS.  Here is some chronological perspective that might help clear things up (based on original announcement date):
    • Jan 2019 – Fiserv to acquire First Data.
    • Mar 2019 – FIS says “hold my beer” and acquires Worldpay.
    • May 2019 – Global Payments to acquire TSYS.
    • Feb 2023 – FIS spins off Worldpay as a separate entity and subsequently sells majority stake to GTCR.
    • Which brings us to the current Apr 2025 announcement of Global Payments acquisition of Worldpay from FIS and GTCR as well as the divestiture sale of the old TSYS processing business to FIS.
      • See – that wasn’t so bad, was it??? 🙃🤯
        • Giving credit where credit is due - Tanner Mayo has been talking about the “great unwinding to come” for a while now!

 

• Another CU acquisition of a bank…  Marion and Polk Schools Credit Union (charter 64166; total assets $1.4B) to acquire Lewis & Clark Bank (FDIC 58428; total assets $342M) in a local Oregon transaction.
  • This is the 4th announced CU acquisition of a bank thus far for 2025.  This compares to 22 for 2024, 11 in 2023, 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019.  Source: FedFis Bank M&A data.
    • Lewis and Clark Bank recently announced their intention to exit BaaS as they were previously was using Solid as a middleware platform (now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy).
  • Unsolicited commentary warning… 😊  Of course no one asked me (LOL), but with bank stocks depressed and lingering unrealized losses in securities portfolios – Uncle Sean suspects we may see more of these CU purchases going forward due to the cash-basis nature of these acquisitions…  The flip side is also extremely relevant – when we finally due to come back to some sense of normalcy in bank stocks, it sure “feels like” there is a lot of pent up demand for bank to bank acquisitions…  Could be crazy 2H2025, but I broke (okay, smashed) my crystal ball years ago…  Time will tell… 🤷‍♂️

 

• 👉 Done deal…  Capital One gets the green light as they received approval from the OCC as well as approval from the Federal Reserve to acquire Discover Financial Services and thereby indirectly acquire Discover Bank.

 

• Trabian announced the acquisition of Mesh, a “comprehensive banking infrastructure platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs operate more efficiently, innovate faster, and adapt to evolving customer and market demands.”
  • “Mesh helps financial institutions and fintechs connect core systems, apps, and third-party services through its integration platform (iPaaS). The solution empowers teams to build on top of the core and seamlessly connect fintech partners.”

 

• Pipe acquires Glean.ai to bring together embedded capital and spend management for small businesses via its partners.

 

• 👀 Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) continues to build out their fintech and embedded finance offerings.  This week they announced they will acquire key technology and welcome talented team members from Deserve, a mobile-first fintech company providing credit solutions and program management.

 

• ICYMI…  Shazam announced they have sold their merchant services portfolio to NCMIC Finance per this press release earlier this month; allowing for Shazam to streamline its core business and focus on its debit rails.

 
And a host of new partnerships:
 

• Zions Bancorporation, N.A. (FDIC 2270; total assets $88.8B) selects nCino (Nasdaq: NCNO) as they digitally transform their loan origination process. 🙌

 

• Klarna inks a deal with Fiserv (NYSE: FI) to make Klarna-powered BNPL and installment loans available through Fiserv’s Clover point of sale devices across 100,000 U.S. merchant locations initially, with a larger rollout to new and existing Clover merchants slated for early 2026.

 

• Brightstar Credit Union (charter 67347; total assets $907M) partners with Spiral to enhance member engagement by enabling BrightStar's members to achieve financial wellness while giving back to their communities through everyday banking via Spiral’s Roundup Center – giving members the ability to round up their everyday purchases to grow their savings and support their favorite charitable causes and nonprofits direct from their digital accounts.

 

• F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB; BHC for First National Bank of Pennsylvania – FDIC 7888; total assets $48.5B) introduced direct deposit switch capabilities as well as enabling clients to digitally move their recurring debit transactions to FNB later in 2025.  Both services are being launched through a partnership with the great folks over at Atomic, and marks another massive win for the Atomic Team!!!! 🚀🤙

 

• Latino Community Credit Union (charter 68430; total assets $1.1B) announced the successful implementation of its new digital banking platform powered by Lumin Digital.
  • Ah, but if you are a customer of our FedFis FinTegration Ecosystem©, you already knew that – so call our own Bobby Button for sales and strategic market intel! …  Nice shameless plug if I do say so myself!!! 😉

 
How ‘bout some new product launches, entrance strategies, and funding:
 

• 💥 Shout out to Natasha Vernier and the entire Cable Team for their new product launch.  In addition to BSA, Cable now supports automated control testing for Reg B, Reg E, and Reg Z — “some of the most critical consumer protection regulations in financial services.”
  • The announcement states, “Banks and fintechs can now automatically test Reg B, Reg E, and Reg Z controls across 100% of their dispute and lending data, ensuring compliance with credit access, disclosure, investigation, error resolution, and record-keeping requirements, all within a the Cable platform.”  Nice!!!!
    • And be sure to take the Cable Compliance Challenge quiz in the link above to win some SWAG!!! 🤠

 

• 👉 U.S. Bank (FDIC 6548; total assets $663B) launched a new all-in-one checking account combined with payments acceptance for small businesses that integrates into existing software and allows real-time insights and cash flow management with a business banking dashboard – all within a single interface.  YES, Please!!!!!! 😊🚀
  • Uncle Sean is continuing to see a tremendous amount of expansion and targeting in the small business space over the last few years – no doubt in response to serious fintech endeavors (i.e. Brex, Mercury, etc.).  Check it out direct at U.S. Bank Business Essentials®.

 

• 👀 Starling Bank (yeah, the UK digital bank) is coming to America…   Starling is opening a US subsidiary called Engine by Starling Services US and is now building a team and scouting for a regional headquarters on the US East Coast.  They are looking to bring a new core solution to the US targeting  mid-tier banks, community banks and credit unions.

 

• Bunq (yep – another European digital bank) has filed for a broker-dealer license in the US – completing the first step of its two-phase strategy of entering the US market.  Bunq is expecting to refile for a full banking license later this year.

 

• Edward Jones has filed for an ILC banking charter again with the FDIC and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to establish Edward Jones Bank.

 

• And some Rumor Mill as reported by TmoNews (the unofficial T-mobile blog) – it looks like T-Mobile is once again looking to launch its own credit card, but this time it is allegedly working with Capital One (previously was working with Goldman Sachs).

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Tapcheck (EWA) raised $225M in capital consisting of a $25M Series A and a $200M credit facility.
  • Meadow (financial services provider for college students) raised $14M in Series A funding round to reform the student financial experience on behalf of over-burdened colleges and universities.
  • SoFi (Nasdaq: SOFI) secures an additional $3.2B for their Loan Platform Business (refers pre-qualified borrowers to loan origination partners as well as originates loans on behalf of third parties).

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• 🏈 Lee Corso will retire from ESPN's "College GameDay" in August, completing almost a 40 year career with the show that began in 1987 – WOW!!!!  Coach turns 90 on August 7th.  He and Kirk Herbstreit have been part of the show since 1996.  “Corso's final broadcast will be Aug. 30, ESPN announced, saying additional programming to celebrate Corso is planned in the days leading up to that weekend.”  Definitely an amazing career – well done, Coach Corso!!! 🏆
• Uncle Sean having a 1970’s Easter flashback - I can still smell the vinegar in Mom’s kitchen as we dyed hardboiled eggs using PAAS® Color Cups with dye tablets! 😊❤️
• Okay – let’s get this thing closed out so we can enjoy Good Friday!!!  Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
  • Sometimes I eat Doritos in my underwear…  But I really wish the other customers would quit staring!!!! 😲😅
  • A quick PSA…  Cigarettes are like squirrels…  They are perfectly harmless until you hold one in your mouth and light it on fire!!!! 🐿️🤠
  • Thanks to Zane Ellzey for this one - What is a pirate’s favorite restaurant?  Arrrrby’s! 🏴‍☠️
  • And of course an obligatory Easter Sunday Dad / Bad joke…..
    • The Pastor interrupts the sermon to ask 3 men in the front row, “What would you want your loved ones to say as they are looking down at you in your coffin?”
      • Tom:  That I was a good husband and father.
      • Bill:  That I lived a good life of kindness to others.
      • Dan:  “LOOK! He’s moving!!!” 😂🤣

 
 
Have a GREAT weekend as well as a wonderful Easter holiday - 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.