Uncle Sean's Update - 9/13/24

Happy Friday the 13th 😧🐈‍⬛!!!
 
Whew – quite a bit of market research this week so we are going to go at it in rapid fire fashion!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/13/24:

• 👀 ICYMI….  The OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC are holding a joint Ask The Regulators webinar regarding bank-fintech arrangements on Tuesday, 9/24 at 2PM EDT.  
  • The webinar will include a Q&A session. Participants must submit questions in advance via email at [email protected]. Panelists will give priority to questions received by Tuesday, Sept. 17.
    • Might be a good one to sit in on for directional clarity…  Uncle Sean will be there listening intently…

• In a bit of a reprieve related to bank-fintech arrangements…  The OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC have extend comment period on request for information on bank-fintech arrangements from Sept 30, 2024 to Oct 30, 2024.

• Setting the stage for our first anticipated rate cut at next week’s FOMC meeting, August CPI headlined at 2.5% YoY slightly below estimate of 2.6% (last month actual was 2.9%); and monthly came in at 0.2% in line with expectations.  Core CPI held at 3.2% (same as last month and in line with expectations) with the monthly read at 0.3% which was slightly higher than estimates of 0.2%.
  • CNBC has a good summary as always.

• Full disclosure – Uncle Sean loves this!!! ❤️  Privacy Lock and DCI have teamed up to offer privacy solutions and open banking compliance to banks across the nation.  1033 Open Banking is coming with compliance and data privacy protection being center stage for FI’s – It’s good to see these companies out front protecting the consumer.  Love it!!!!

• Congratulations to equipifi (BNPL platform for FI’s) for successfully completing their SOC 2 Type 2 audit – nice job!!! 😊🎉

• Embedded finance for the win…  Walmart Marketplace and Parafin team up to provide sellers with working capital through the Walmart Marketplace Capital program for eligible sellers using Parafin’s embedded finance infrastructure platform.  A little bit of digging shows that the business loans are provided by Celtic Bank (but if you subscribe to FedFis FinTech Analytics©, you already knew that – nice plug, right???  LOL!).

• 💥 ZSuite Tech broadens their reach via their announced integration with Jack Henry digital banking platform Banno to provide “a seamless banking experience, and real-time origination of transactions” for JKHY banks.

• Rapid Finance also branches out by announcing their integration with Q2's Digital Banking Platform to provide small business lending solutions, including small business loans, sales-based financing, and business lines of credit.

• Bankwell Financial Group (Nasdaq: BWFG; Bank subsidiary is Bankwell Bank, FDIC 57368, Total Assets $3.1B) selects Lendio's Intelligent Lending platform to provide instant SBA 7(a) loan offers to business loan applicants; as well as Lendio’s digital loan application for non-SBA applicants.

• Galileo continues to push into new ways to fight fraud with the launch of Instant Account Verification (GIVE) and Transaction Risk GScore.

• Mastercard drops some serious coin $$$ this week and boosts their threat intelligence capabilities by acquiring Recorded Future cybersecurity firm for $2.65B.
  • As my friend Robin is fond of saying, “pretty soon that’s gonna add up to some real money!”

• Mercury (business banking platform) makes their first acquisition by acquiring Teal, an infrastructure dev platform for building SMB accounting applications.  Mercury also started offering working capital loans built for ecommerce.

• Regent Bank (FDIC 4160; Total Assets $1.6B) launched a new direct digital bank called Believe Bank.  Believe Bank combines high-yield savings with philanthropy by donating 1% APY of your average balance on a quarterly basis to a nonprofit charity of your choice.

• Alibaba.com partners with Mastercard to Alibaba.com Business Edge Credit Card, a co-branded US credit card powered by Cardless and issued by First Electronic Bank.

• Imprint is making headlines again as Eddie Bauer shifts from private label to co-branded open loop credit card with the new Eddie Bauer World Mastercard powered by Imprint and issued by First Electronic Bank.

• Money, money, money 🤑…  Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) announced they have raised their minimum hourly wage to $24 on their way to $25 per hour by 2025 as part of a campaign that began in 2017.

• MoneyLion (NYSE: ML) announced they have partnered with Nova Credit to activate cash flow underwriting within MoneyLion’s hosted decisioning engine via Nova Credit’s Cash Atlas™ platform.

• Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union (Charter 24362; Total Assets $4.2B) has selected Lumin Digital to enhance and streamline online and mobile banking for the CU.  Nice win for Lumin!

• And of course the news that everyone saw, Wells Fargo hit with new AML Consent Order.  😲

• Some Personnel moves:
  • R&T Deposit Solutions names Kim Liao as Head of Regulatory Affairs.
  • Grasshopper Bank names several key hires to their Digital Banking Team including: Rob Burnett as Director of Startup Banking, Vince Peterson as VP of Embedded Finance, Nate Gruendemann as Product Manager, and Vince Magpayo as SMB/SBA Digital Loan Specialist.
  • Freddie Mac names Diana Reid as CEO.
  • Nium adds some new players in the C-Suite with Andre Mancl as CFO and Phillip Doyle as CCO.
  • ComplyAdvantage (financial crime intelligence platform) hired Paul Kizakevich as CRO.

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Illuma Labs (voice authentication and fraud prevention technology for FI’s) raised $9M in Series A $9M in Series A funding round.
  • Versana (loan syndication platform) raised $26M in capital.
  • Finally (AI-powered bookkeeping including a corporate card) raised $200M in capital consisting of $50M Series B and a $150M credit line.
  • Every (small business bookkeeping, payroll, treasury, and banking platform) raised $22.5M in Series A round.
  • Push Cash (A2A / Pay-by-Bank platform) raised $4M in Seed round funding.

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Running late this week so I’m just gonna skip to the good stuff…  Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
  • I work out almost every day….  For instance, I almost worked out on Tuesday, almost on Wednesday, and almost on Thursday too! 😅
  • Confucius says, “everyone who gets glasses looks better…” 🥸
  • When I get in an elevator with a stranger, I try to hold their hand to make them feel they’re safe with me…  LOL!!! 🤐😂
  • The older I get, the earlier it gets late… 🤷‍♂️
  • Parenting tip….  If your kid asks for a napkin, it’s already too late! 🙄

 
 
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.