Uncle Sean's Update - 6/21/24

Happy Friday!!!
 
It was certainly a different feeling week with the Juneteenth federal holiday right in the middle of the week on Wednesday.  But I’m not gonna’ lie – I would be 100% okay with having every Wednesday be a federal holiday!!!🤠  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 6/21/24:
 

• Congrats to Thrivent Bank (in organization) for being approved for FDIC Insurance as a newly chartered Utah industrial bank as well as the approval of the merger application to acquire Thrivent Federal Credit Union.  Wait, what???
  • But wait, there’s more…  Thrivent Federal Credit Union (Charter 24849) used to be Thrivent Financial Bank before transferring their consumer operations to the newly formed Thrivent Federal Credit Union back in 2012 (basically the bank converted to a CU).  Now, Thrivent has created a new ILC bank and is acquiring the CU, thus completing the circle. 😁
    • Confused yet??? 🤓

 

• Knot (card-on-file switching platform) partners with Plaid as a preferred referral partner for card management services.  “Through its merchant connectivity infrastructure, Knot will now provide its CardSwitcher™ product to over a hundred of the largest merchants in the United States for their consumer payment updating needs.”  And Plaid will “direct customers to Knot for streamlining their card management processes, ensuring their end users can push their credit or debit cards to top-of-wallet with just a few taps on hundreds of online merchant platforms.”

 

• nCino announced the launch of Banking Advisor, their new Gen AI tool designed to deliver real-time intelligence and decision-making for FI’s. 

 

• My friends over at Revio keep gettin’ it done! 😊 This week, Revio announced a new partnership with Kitsap Bank (FDIC 6161; Total Assets $1.7B) to help the bank improve upon their already exceptional personalized customer service by providing additional advanced data insights through the Revio platform for both business clients and consumers. 🚀

 

• If you were confused last week (like I was) as to why Apple would offer BNPL with Affirm while maintaining their inhouse BNPL option, Apple Pay Later, well it got clearer this week.  Apple announced they are discontinuing Apple Pay Later starting immediately.
  • This statement by Affirm’s CFO saying the BNPL partnership with Apple would have “no material impact on its profit and loss statement for the coming fiscal year” might be why Apple is so content to outsource after just a year from the launch of Apple Pay Later. 🤔

 

• 🤓 As we head into 2H2024 and are starting to kick into 2025 planning, here are a couple of important economic docs to review:
  • The OCC released their Semiannual Risk Perspective for Spring 2024 highlighting increasing credit risk, elevated operational risk (including cyber threats), NIM compression (has it finally peaked?), and risk/fraud profiles of evolving banking products and delivery channels (fintech, AI, P2P, etc.).  Also contains Blue Chip Consensus forecasts for GDP, unemployment, and inflation; as well as CoStar forecasts for various types of CRE vacancy rates.  Good stuff here!!! 😊
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published their Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 - 2034 report detailing forecasts in treasury rates, unemployment, inflation, economic growth, deficits, etc.

                                                                                                   

• Brex announced new digital banking products for startups including a full financial stack for early-stage companies including business accounts immediately upon incorporation with Stripe Atlas…….. 
  • Okay – this is NOT a diatribe against Brex (I personally love what they are doing), but more of a reminder to my Sponsor Bank friends to communicate with and monitor your fintech channels.  Recall just 2 years ago when Brex was exiting the SMB space to focus on larger venture-backed clients….???  Always maintain constant communication with your fintech channels as they often do and will pivot (that’s what they do well) based on any number of factors.

 

• Whew – some merger mania going on:
  • PeoplesBancorp MHC (FR 3186585), bank subsidiary is PeoplesBank (FDIC 90213 - $4.2B total assets), to acquire SSB Community Bancorp MHC (FR 3547010), bank subsidiary is Cornerstone Bank (FDIC 90282 - $1.6B total assets) – source: FedFis
  • Corpay (NYSE: CPAY, a global corporate payments company f/k/a FLEETCOR) to acquire GPS Capital Markets, a b2b cross-border and treasury management platform, for approximately $725M per their 8-K filing.
  • Stake (renter banking services and loyalty rewards platform) to acquire Circa, a rental payments platform, for $9.5M in cash and stock.
  • American Express (NYSE: AXP) to acquire Tock from Squarespace for $400M and acquire the mobile payments platform Rooam (pricing was not disclosed).

 

• 👀And to my Chief Credit Officer and Portfolio Manager friends always keeping an eye on your obligor’s counter party / third party risks…  CDK Global (ERP software provider for 15,000 car dealerships in North America) has been shut down since Wednesday due to back-to-back cyberattacks bringing many dealership sales to a complete halt.  Ugh…😲

 

• Personnel moves:
  • Outpave appoints Tom Payne as Chief Operating Officer.
  • Momnt promotes Chris Bracken from CRO to Chief Executive Officer.
  • Fiserv hires Takis Georgakopoulos as Senior Advisor, Executive Vice President, and a member of the Management Committee.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Gynger (BNPL for technology purchases) raised $20M in Series A funding round plus a debt financing facility up to $100M.
  • Numerated (commercial lending platform for FI’s) picked up a strategic investment (amount undisclosed) and partnership from Citi as a customer to enhance Numerated’s AI-driven financial analysis spreading solution for commercial lending.
    • Now that’s pretty cool!  Check them out at numerated.com.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• We lost the great American baseball hero, Mr. Willie Mays this week at the grand ole age of 93.  This tribute in The New York Times is a must read as we remember one of our great national treasures.  And of course you have to watch this 39 second YouTube video of "THE CATCH"  from Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. 👏❤️
• Okay, here we go – Dad / Bad Jokes:
  • PSA - before losing composure, always remember that they don’t serve alcohol in prison!!! 🤠
  • One time I tripped while walking through Paris…  Eiffel over…  😉🗼😎
  • It’s an unspoken Dad rule – If you continue to tell music based puns, you’ll get band. 🙄
  • Ducks on drugs are called “quack heads”…. 🦆😂
  • What do you call a Father from Indiana?  Hoosier Daddy! 🤣

 
 
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.