Uncle Sean's Update - 4/7/23

Happy Good Friday!!!
 
Fintech | Banking | Data – it’s not just what we do, it’s who we are.  For the best (and sometimes entertaining) market research, sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to your inbox every week!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 4/7/23:
 

• Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) is at it again this week!  The BHB Fund is excited to announce a capital investment in RiskScout, a leading regtech company specializing in compliance automation for FI’s – check them out at riskscout.com. 

 

• Jamie Dimon released his 2022 Annual Letter to Shareholders.  There are plenty of summary takes out there related to Jamie Dimon’s op-ed sections, so I will politely decline to summarize as I don’t want to infer or influence anyone else’s opinion (like I have any real influence – HA!).  I do, however, encourage reading this as it is packed with a ton of information.  There are plenty of areas where not everyone will agree on all points (including myself), but it is good info nonetheless.
  • Uncle Sean will admit that I did laugh when I saw The Motley Fool refer to Jamie Dimon as “America's shadow Treasury Secretary” – LOL!!!!

 

• Sorry Charlie (see what I did there)….  The DOJ and the SEC charged Charlie Javis with multiple counts of fraud over the $175M sale to JP Morgan alleging Charlie “falsely and dramatically” inflated the number of customers Frank actually had in a scheme to “fraudulently induce” JPMorgan to acquire the startup.
  • The official charges include conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and securities fraud.
  • “This arrest should warn entrepreneurs who lie to advance their businesses that their lies will catch up to them, and this Office will hold them accountable for putting their greed above the law,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.  WHOOF!!!  😲

 

• Digital Onboarding announced that their platform is now accessible through the Jack Henry Banno digital platform.
  • Full disclosure – I still have my DO hat and I love it!!!!

 

• Citizens Bank of Edmond partners with Narmi to offer digital account opening for the bank’s consumer and business customers.

 

• Allied Solutions selects MANTL as its preferred solution provider to help financial institutions enhance the digital new account opening process and automate back-office tasks.

  

• Richmond City Employees FCU (charter 14768; $7M Total Assets) was merged with NCUA assistance into Kemba Credit Union (charter 61810; $1.6B Total Assets).
  • Richmond City Employees FCU was originally conserved on Dec 12, 2022 citing the standard “unsafe and unsound practices” – Sept 2022 call report showed a material loan charge-off bringing their Net Worth capital ratio to a Significantly Undercapitalized 2.32% (down even more to 2.03% as of Dec 2022 call report) – source: FedFis CU data platform.

 

• Bunq (European neobank) announced that they have applied for a U.S. banking charter to serve European expatriates in the U.S. “with strong ties to both sides of the Atlantic.”

 

• SoFi acquires Wyndham Capital Mortgage in an all-cash deal (pricing was not disclosed but is expected to be accretive within six months).

 

• Acorns (investing and savings app) acquires GoHenry, a European based neobank (with a presence also here in the U.S.) focused on money management and financial literacy for 6-18 year-olds.  In the U.S., GoHenry will operate as GoHenry by Acorns.

 

• Apiture announced the launch of Business Insights for their business banking customers via an integration with Monit’s cash flow, forecasting, and guidance platform for FI’s to provide to their business customers.

 

• Pacific West Bank announced a partnership with Unit allowing Pacific West Bank to embed banking services into Unit’s middleware / connector platform.

 

• Flush with $80B in long-term funding, the IRS has released their Strategic Operating Plan (150 pages) on how they will utilize this new budget money over the next few years. 
  • Uncle Sean was happy to see that the IRS did produce a “TLDR one-pager version” for the rest of us that shows the high-level roadmap of the 5 key objectives and milestones broken down by short-term (FY 2023 – 2024) and longer-term (FY 2025 – 2028). 
    • Heck if nothing else, just simplifying that 150 pg doc into a one-pager is a GREAT start on improving the IRS – LOL!!!! 😊  Oh dear – I hope I don’t get audited now….  😲

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Hype (f/k/a Pico, a marketing and payments platform for creators and small businesses) raised $10M in Series A round.
  • Earned (f/k/a Forme Financial – a comprehensive financial planning & advisory / wealth management service designed specifically for physicians) raised $12M in Series A funding round as they emerge from stealth and transition the brand from Forme to earnedwealth.com over the next six months.
  • Prism (alt lending) raised $26M in Capital consisting of Seed and Series A.  Prism works directly with pre-IPO technology companies to allow employees of those startups to borrow against their company equity for personal use.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean Stuff:

• Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter – and best of luck to all on the upcoming Easter Egg hunt! 
• And finally, here are some Dad Jokes to get you into Easter Weekend:
  • Remember – we’re all here because we’re not all there…..  Wait, what???  😊
  • If you wear a full suit of armor to bed, you’ll get a good knight’s sleep…..
  • Olives really should be called Greece’s pieces.
  • (shout-out to Brad Giddens at Integris | CalTech for providing this one to me) – What is the difference between a camera and a foot?  Well, a camera has photos and a foot has five toes….  😝
  • Old rabbits have gray hares….
  • And lastly – I don’t suffer from insanity…  I actually enjoy every minute of it!!!

 
 
Have a GREAT Easter 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.