Uncle Sean's Update - 6/27/25

Happy Friday!!!
 
There will not be an Uncle Sean Update next week as we take some family time to celebrate Independence Day (I LOVE the 4th of July) 🧨🎆🤠!!! But first – there is a lot going on this week, so here is the Uncle Sean Update for 6/27/25:
 

• Pardon me while I completely geek out 🤓 with some macroeconomic data:
  • The third and final estimate of 1st Quarter GDP came in at -0.5%.
    • Real GDP was revised down 0.3 percentage point from the second estimate, primarily reflecting downward revisions to consumer spending and exports that were partly offset by a downward revision to imports.
      
  • Meanwhile, the BEA PCE for May came in at 2.3% (as expected and compared to 2.2% upwardly revised for Apr) with Core PCE at 2.7% (expectation was 2.6% and April was revised up to 2.6%).
    
    • Note that headline PCE last summer was pretty light, so there could be a bit of skew in YoY readings for the next few months.

 

• 👉 Might want to take a second look at that marketing plan targeting Gen Alpha…  The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting the U.S. population age 65 and older rose by 3.1% (to 61.2 million) while the population under age 18 decreased by 0.2% (to 73.1 million).  Adding to a continuing and growing statistic, older adults now outnumber children in 11 states and nearly half of all U.S. counties.  So here’s to the white hair / no hair club still rockin’ it!!! 🤘

 

• 👀 Definitely keeping an eye on this…  TransUnion is reporting that approximately six million student loan borrowers are 90 days+ past due (31%) as of April 2025.  That 31% 90+ DPD is up from 20.5% in February 2025; and is nearly triple the 11.7% from Feb 2020 (pre-pandemic).
  • TransUnion also estimates that “approximately 1.8 million, could reach default status in July 2025. An additional one million of the 5.8 million total are estimated to reach default status in August 2025, followed by two million more in September 2025.”  Default status can result in wage garnishments and forfeiture of income tax refunds and certain government benefits.

 

• 💥 Whoa Nelly!  Look at the increase in M&A activity this week:
  • Acorns acquires Zeta and marks Acorn’s fifth acquisition in less than two years.
  • Xero acquires Melio SMB bill pay platform for $2.5B in cash and equity consideration.
  • Envestnet, Inc. to sell Yodlee, Inc. to STG.  Originally purchased by Envestnet in 2015 for $590M, but was subsequently written-down by almost half by 2024.
  • Capchase acquires Vartana in the B2B vendor finance space.

 

• And check out the bank deals this week 😲 as the flood gates open up (source - FedFis Bank M&A):
  • Maverick Bancshares, Inc. (FR 5725997), bank subsidiary is Maverick Bank (FDIC 17446; total assets $334M), to acquire Sandhills Bancshares, Inc. (FR 3951998), bank subsidiary is Tejas Bank (FDIC 18216; total assets $224M).
    
  • Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: GBCI; FR 2003975), bank sub is Glacier Bank (FDIC 30788; total assets $27.8B), to acquire Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: GNTY; FR 1862036), bank sub is Guaranty Bank & Trust, N.A. (FDIC 1208; total assets $1.2B) in an all-stock transaction valued at $476.2M.
    
  • First Financial Bancorp (FR 1071276), bank sub is First Financial Bank (FDIC 6600; total assets $18.3B), to acquire Westfield Bancorp (FR 3828661), bank sub is Westfield Bank, FSB (FDIC 57077; total assets $2.1B) in a mixed deal of 80% cash and 20% stock with a transaction value of $325M. 
    
  • Newly formed One America Bancorp Inc. to acquire Hopeton Bancshares, Inc. (FR 1992661), bank sub is The Hopeton State Bank (FDIC 12585; total assets $26.5M).
    
  • Rhineland Bancshares, Inc. (FR 4902906), bank sub is Peoples Savings Bank of Rhineland (FDIC 15264; total assets $679M), to acquire Green City Bancshares Inc. (FR 1061165), bank sub is farmbank (FDIC 16103; total assets $78M).

• Nissan submits application to form Nissan Bank U.S., LLC, an ILC bank headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • 🤔 Nissan joins other automobile companies including Stellantis (Dodge), GM, and Ford who all have pending ILC applications out.

 

• CoastalSouth Bancshares Inc. (FR 3274727), bank subsidiary is Coastal States Bank (FDIC 57756; total assets $2.2B), announced the launch of its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “COSO” with plans to raise approximately $58.5 million.

 

• Wealthfront confidentially filed for a US initial public offering stating the IPO is anticipated after the SEC's review, contingent on market conditions (number of shares and price range for the offering remain undetermined).

 

• 🚀 Things are once again moving at light speed in the crypto and stablecoin world:
  • Fiserv (NYSE: FI) to launch new FIUSD stablecoin for financial institutions…
    • Fiserv is building the platform, which’ll live on the Solana blockchain, with help from blockchain infrastructure company Paxos and stablecoin platform Circle. Fiserv plans to make the platform compatible with other tokens, too, like PayPal’s PayUSD.
    • The stablecoin is planned to go live by year-end and will be integrated across Fiserv’s network of “10,000 financial institution clients and six million merchant locations processing 90 billion transactions annually…” WOW!!!
      
  • Kraken announced the launch of launch of Krak app (yes, that name “Kraks” me up 🤠), an all-in-one global money app built from the ground up on crypto infrastructure.
    • Instantly send 300+ crypto tokens, stablecoins and fiat currencies to friends and family (P2P) in more than 160 countries (Venmo and Zelle only support payments between US users) using Kraktags (their version of a payment handle).
    • 👉 Coming soon – physical and virtual Krak cards per their blog.
      • Okay – I’m still laughing at the whole “Krak” thing – I love it!!!! 😊
  • Coinbase launched a stablecoin payments stack to make it easier for online merchants around the world to accept USDC; and is already live with Shopify.
  • SoFi announced new global remittance service as well as crypto investing coming later this year.
    • “…SoFi members later this year will be able to buy, sell, and hold a selection of crypto currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Over time, SoFi intends to offer stablecoins and a wide range of other services, such as providing members the ability to borrow against their crypto assets, expanding payment options, and introducing new staking features, as well as blockchain and digital asset infrastructure capabilities for other companies offered by Galileo, SoFi’s technology platform.” (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean)

 

• I.H. Mississippi Valley Credit Union (charter 60337; total assets $2.2B) launches BNPL to its digital banking lineup powered by equipifi.
  • I think this marks equipifi’s 3rd CU deal this month (following Vantage West and Sunward).  Nice work!!! 🤙

 

• FedNow raised the transaction limit for real-time payments from $500K to $1M (equivalent to RTP and same day ACH); and added new security features, enabling financial firms to limit the dollar amount and transaction speed depending on the customer segment.

 

• Coastal Credit Union (charter 18297; total assets $5.7B) selects Lumin Digital as its new digital banking provider.

 

• Nova Credit partners with Imprint allowing Imprint to integrate Nova Credit's Cash Atlas™ solution into its underwriting capabilities via Alloy's identity and fraud prevention platform.

 

• Finastra announced a series of strategic executive hires this week, including:
  • Don Baptiste as Chief Operating Officer
  • Shirley Powell as Head of Strategic Communications
  • Mike Stawchansky as Chief Technology Officer expanding on his existing role

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Spinwheel (API-enabled and agentic AI-based consumer debt management platform) raised $30M in Series A funding round.
  • Quinn (AI-powered financial planning and wealth advisory available as an embedded, co-branded or fully white-labeled experience for financial institutions) raised $11M Seed round.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• 🏀 Congrats to the Oklahoma City Thunder for their first NBA Championship!  The series with the Indiana Pacers was nothing short of amazing.  I was sad to see Tyrese Haliburton go down with a torn Achilles tendon in the first quarter of game 7 – but I was happy to see the sportsmanship and respect when OKC MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went to Indy's locker room to check on Haliburton after the game was over. 👍
• Okay – let’s get to the good stuff so we can kick off the weekend!!!  Here are the Dad / Bad jokes:
  • I ate the entire box of Slim Fast bars…  I can’t wait to see how skinny I’ll be when I wake up tomorrow!!!! 💪
  • Why do vampires get booed off stage???  Because they suck! 🧛‍♂️🦇🤣
  • That awkward moment when you’re running…  And your boobs are bouncing all over the place…  And you’re a 55 year old guy!!! 🏃‍♂️‍➡️🤠
  • Someone needs to invent an alarm clock that sounds like a dog about to throw up because nothing will get you out of bed faster than that!!! 🐶😅

 
 
Have a GREAT weekend and a wonderful 4th of July Holiday next week; 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.