Uncle Sean's Update - 5/8/26

​Happy Friday and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY ❤️❤️❤️ to all the Mom’s 🙏!!!
 
Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 5/8/26 (subscribe here for free):
 
A quick economic update (because you know I am obsessed with macroeconomics 🤓):

• The BLS issued the April Jobs Report showing +155,000 jobs added (Dow Jones estimate was +55k) with unemployment holding steady at 4.3%.
  • Revisions…  March was revised up by +7K from +178K to +185K ; and February was revised down an additional -23K to a total of -156K.  You can see the detailed revision history here.
    • Per the release, “In April, health care added 37,000 jobs, in line with the average monthly gain of 32,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, job gains occurred in nursing and residential care facilities (+15,000) and home health care services (+11,000).”
    • Worth noting that average hourly earnings have increased 3.6% YoY…  Potentially pointing towards a somewhat challenging consumer picture when considering PCE inflation at 3.5% for March (Core PCE was 3.2%); and CPI for March was 3.3% (Core CPI was 2.6%)…
      • CNBC has a good summary.

 

• Looking forward…  April CPI report is expected next week on Tuesday, May 12.

 
Some big headlines around AI this week (I’m going to try to hit these in rapid-fire fashion):

• Anthropic announced the launch of 10 new AI agents for banks, insurers, and other companies designed for financial services.  Note the existing and new connectors in the blog post as well as Moody’s MCP
  app.

 

• FIS (NYSE: FIS) announced that it is working with Anthropic to bring agentic AI to banking beginning with the Financial Crimes AI Agent combining Claude's reasoning with FIS's banking data and regulatory infrastructure.
  • BMO and Amalgamated Bank will be among the first institutions to deploy the agent, with broader availability planned for H2 2026.

 

• In a speech (Artificial Intelligence in the Financial System), Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman stated that the Financial Stability Board’s Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation, of which she is the chair, is working with the U.S. Treasury and the SEC on a report that will cover sound practices for AI adoption, use and innovation. A draft is set to be released in the third quarter.

 

• Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released guidance “CI Fortify | CISA” urging critical infrastructure operators to defend against disruptive cyberattacks with proactive isolation and recovery planning noting “constant intrusion attempts from nation-state cyber threat actors.”
  • In case you are wondering, here is the list of the 16 Critical Infrastructure Sectors | CISA.

 
And back to the rest of the Update:

• 🤔 This appears to be moving forward…  The SEC proposes amendments to permit optional semiannual reporting by public companies (form 10-S) as opposed to the existing quarterly (form 10-Q) reports.  “The proposing release will be published on SEC.gov and in the Federal Register. The public comment period will remain open until 60 days after the date of publication of the proposing release in the Federal Register.” (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean)

 

• COCC announced a partnership with Digital Onboarding allowing COCC clients to gain access to Digital Onboarding’s turnkey engagement platform that drives early activation and product adoption beyond the initial account opening. 🤙

 

• 👉 CSI introduces its AI-powered Customer Intelligence Suite to help FI’s with more meaningful engagement with their consumer and business customers by using “AI-driven signals that synthesize data from core, digital banking, payments, deposit and loan origination, and other third-party sources to identify meaningful changes in a customer’s financial life.”  Check it out at Customer Intelligence Suite | CSI.

 

• Vine (a BHB Fund company) announced the launch of its AI Assistant within the Vine platform designed to help lenders analyze borrower documents, compare the loan package to bank policies, surface insights, and prepare robust credit memos – providing speed and accuracy in the entire loan workflow process (and aligned with the institutions lending standards empowering the banks to make informed decisions rather than letting technology make the decision for them).  Very nice!!!

 

• Stablecore (a BHB Fund company) makes headlines as the Tennessee Bankers Association Endorses Stablecore as Digital Asset Technology Provider. 👏

 

• Modak (family-focused financial platform) announced the launch of MoGold premium membership along with its parent debit card that has surpassed 200,000 accounts nationwide (deposit account and the Modak Visa® debit card are issued by Legend Bank, N.A.). 🙌
  • Uncle Sean is always a supporter of financial literacy for kids and young adults – family apps like this bring the conversation and education back to the home. 😊

 

• Blend Labs (NYSE: BLND) announced the launch of Autopilot MCP server giving authorized AI agents access to the full Blend platform.   

 

• Ncontracts announced the launch of Nquiry Ntelligence – “an AI-powered compliance intelligence platform purpose built to help financial organizations get fast, accurate, cited, auditable answers to complex regulatory questions in minutes.” 

 

• Intuit Credit Karma announced the launch of Credit Spark, a multi-stage credit building tool designed for the “roughly 17 million American adults are “credit invisible” or “thin file,” meaning they have no credit report whatsoever, or they have a credit file but not enough history to generate a valid credit score.”

 

• Plaid (recall their status as a consumer reporting agency (CRA)) announced the launch of  Plaid Cash Advance Index – “a risk solution built specifically for cash advance and earned wage access providers that surfaces repayment risk across a user’s full financial footprint” for cash flow credit decisioning as opposed to just a single linked bank account.

 

• Cedar Point Federal Credit Union (charter 5234; total assets $903M) selects Velera for debit and credit card processing services and support via “a phased rollout from late 2026 to early 2027.”

 

• Primeway Federal Credit Union (charter 2131; total assets $732M) selects Mahalo’s Thoughtful Banking® platform for digital banking and its close alignment with its existing core processor, Corelation Keystone.

 

• Summit Choice Credit Union (fka Fire Police City County FCU; charter 21593; total assets $209M) partners with InvestiFi to allow members to invest directly from their checking accounts through the credit union’s existing digital banking platform.

 
Some Risk Management updates:

• Unfortunately, we had our second bank failure of the year late last Friday as the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed Community Bank and Trust - West Georgia in La Grange, GA (FDIC 25796; total assets $288M; total deposits $268M).  The bank had a FedFis Rating© of 4.64 as of the Dec 2025 QTR placing them in the lowest percentile of all banks.  You can read more about this in our FedFis Bank Failure Alert notice that includes additional insights.
• Credit to Jason Mikula with this excellent and detailed LinkedIn post revealing the Ch. 7 Bankruptcy of fintech platform Parker (SMB business payments, banking, and CC offering) and their abrupt shutdown this week.

 
A few FinTech funding headlines:

• InstaSwitch (white-labeled and embedded business account switching solution) $4.7M in Seed Round funding.
• Rumor mill…  Ramp is allegedly looking to raise $750M at a $40B valuation according to The Wall Street Journal.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Upon review, it appears that Jeff Bezos is NOT selling his super-yacht…  That’s too bad as I was going to see if Tanner Mayo wanted to go in halves with me for the most epic catfishing boat ever (do you think ole Jeff would take a check? 😬😉)!!! 🤠
• I seized the rare opportunity to take last Monday afternoon off (I know – don’t tell my Boss 😊)!!!  Aunt Patty and I went to Dangerfield State Park here in deep East Texas and enjoyed a nice and easy 2.5 mile hike around Little Pine Lake – WOW such a beautiful and peaceful place!!!  We highly recommend visiting for a few hours or an entire weekend.  We even stopped at Sonic for some ice cream on our way back home (negating the benefit of exercise, but it was so worth it). 🍦
• And here are the Dad / Bad Jokes to end the week:
  • If you ever get a bladder infection…  Urine trouble… 🤦‍♂️😅
  • Turns out it’s true that exercise helps with decision making.  I went for a run at 5 AM this morning and decided never to do that again! 🏃‍♂️‍➡️
  • Why isn’t the bedroom called the restroom??? 🤷‍♂️
  • It’s pointless to use fractions instead of decimals… 😉
  • In honor of May 4th (Star Wars Day)…  We were watching The Empire Strikes Back scene where Han Solo placed Luke inside a dead tauntaun to prevent him from dying of hypothermia and Aunt Patty asked how warm it could actually be inside that animal… To which I replied…  “Lukewarm.”  😂🤣

 
 
“The world needs good people - be one of them.”
 
Have a ❤️❤️❤️ GREAT MOTHER’S DAY 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 and its affiliates – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.