Uncle Sean's Update - 9/19/25

Happy Friday!!!
 
It was certainly an exciting week – but first…  Don’t forget to tell your friends to sign up here for FREE to join over 18,000 of their peers in having the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to their inbox every week! 🤠 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/19/25:
 

• It’s Fed Week!!!  As widely expected, the FOMC voted to reduce rates by 25 basis points to 4.0% - 4.25%.  For me, it was kind of a benign meeting since this was so widely expected.  However, I did find this CNBC full interview with Fed Governor Stephen Miran (20:22) related to his dissent and outlier on SEP to be very interesting (and very professional and respectful).  Fed Governor Miran noted that he will be giving a speech this coming Monday describing a full accounting of his economic outlook.
  • For more info, here is:
    • Chairman Powell’s press conference transcript (26 pages)
    • The always entertaining Summary of Economic Projections
    • Full video of the FOMC Press Conference September 17, 2025 (52:14)

 

• 👉 Thread Bank (FDIC 9499; total assets $800M) partners with LoanPro to enhance lending operations with LoanPro’s API-first modern lending and credit platform.
  • Per the PR, “The LoanPro system of record will standardize both internal community bank lending programs and external embedded finance lending programs, making this partnership the first of its kind for sponsor banking data allowing Thread to innovate faster while ensuring compliance” 💥 (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean).  Check out LoanPro’s impressive API-first platform here - Loan Management Software | LoanPro.
  • 👀 Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) played a pivotal role in facilitating this partnership, bringing together aligned institutions and helping to identify the right technology fit to support long-term growth.
    • This comes just a few weeks after Thread Bank selects Finxact from Fiserv to power embedded banking strategies; where BHB also played an instrumental role in fostering the expansion of the relationship and formalizing the shared vision between Thread Bank, Fiserv, and Infinant. 🚀

 

• Speaking of Bankers Helping Bankers…  Uncle Sean gives a HUGE shout-out to InvestiFi as BHB's newest Premier Sponsor supporting community banks!!! 🙌🎉 Be sure to check out InvestiFi’s InvestTech platform at https://investifi.co/ - allowing for trading to and from deposit accounts, enabling community banks and CU’s to retain more assets and attract new account holders.

 

• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) raises U.S. Minimum Hourly Wage to $25, increasing starting salaries to more than $50K – making good on their 2017 pledge to hit $25 by 2025.
  • With the increase to $25, starting salary for full-time U.S. employees at the bank will have gone up by more than $20,000 since 2017.

 

• 🤔 JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) and Plaid announced an extension to their data access agreement for sharing of consumer permissioned data…  Details of the agreement or the fee structure was not disclosed.
  • This Banking Dive article (Plaid to pay for JPMorgan data) reiterated that many in the fintech space were (and still are) quite alarmed back in July when JPMC informed them of substantial new fees to access consumer data the bank had previously transmitted without cost.
    • Just speculating here, but I would expect to see similar agreements with the other top banks and fintech firms needing to access customer data…

 

• 💪 Flex time…  This week it is Zelle® Hits New Highs in the First Half of 2025 with 2 billion transactions (a 19% increase) and a dollar volume of nearly $600B (up by 23%).

 

• Another Texas bank acquisition…  National Bank Holdings Corporation (NYSE: NBHC, FR 3973888), bank subsidiary is NBH Bank (FDIC 59052; total assets $10B), to acquire Vista Bancshares, Inc. (PCO FR 1135897), bank subsidiary is Vista Bank (FDIC 1210; total assets $2.4B) for approximately $369.1M in a mixed deal of cash and stock.
  • A quick sort in the FedFis M&A database shows 10 announced deals in Texas since June 1, 2025 – with half of those deals coming from out of state suitors.

 

• 👀 FIS (NYSE: FIS) leans into banking modernization by announcing their proprietary Bank Modernization Framework empowering “financial institutions to tailor their modernization journeys to their current needs, allowing them to begin with any part of their technology stack, whether it’s digital channels, data and AI, or open banking integrations.”
  • The solution, labeled as “core-agnostic,” enables banks to bypass traditional “rip and replace” approach and modernize incrementally as desired – anywhere along the tech stack.
    • More info can be found here in this core banking modernization white paper by FIS.

 

• Mercantile Bank (FDIC 34598; total assets $6.1B) selects Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) core processing platform.

 

• First Fed Bank (FDIC 28405; total assets $2.2B) launches Apiture's Business Banking solution (in the process of being acquired by CSI) for online and mobile banking for its business customers.

 

• Savers Co-operative Bank (FDIC 26455; total assets $788M) partners with Narmi via their Narmi Grow platform to drive new customer acquisition and streamline its digital account opening processes.

 

• Wolf & Company, P.C. (national CPA and advisory firm) announced a strategic partnership with Cable to integrate Cable’s real-time control testing capabilities into Wolf & Company's trusted network of recommended technologies for financial institutions.  👏
  • "Partnering with Wolf & Company was an obvious choice, given our shared customer base and the increased value that we can bring to banks and credit unions by working together to automate compliance testing. We are excited to get our industry-leading technology in the hands of their exceptional team," said Natasha Vernier, Cable CEO.  🙌

 

• And more compliance partnering…  Hummingbird and Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) have partnered together to deliver an integrated compliance solution that accelerates customer screening with AI-enhanced workflows.
  • “By combining TRSS LincsConnect™ AI-powered screening capabilities with Hummingbird’s unified risk and compliance operations platform, teams can reduce manual work, dramatically cut false positives, and focus on the risks that matter most.”  NICE!!!! 😊

 

• Clair and Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) announced the availability of Clair On-Demand Pay (EWA originated by Pathward®, N.A.) as part of Intuit Enterprise Suite and QuickBooks Payroll on the Intuit platform.

 

• LawFi® announces Cordell & Cordell® as Key Partner for its limited Florida rollout offering a legal fee financing solution.  The partnership will enable Cordell & Cordell to gain early access to the platform and provide valuable feedback to shape the final statewide release.

 

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Stablecore (infrastructure platform enabling banks and CU’s to offer stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and digital asset products) raised $20M in capital.
    • Led by Norwest and with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Curql, BankTech Ventures, Bank of Utah, EJF Ventures, Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) Fund and the backing of more than 200 limited partner financial institutions and others, this news comes at a crucial time following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025.
  • SEON (AML compliance and fraud prevention platform) raised $80M in Series C funding.
  • Splash Financial (AI-enabled lending marketplace) raised $70M in Series C round.
  • Extend (infrastructure platform enabling banks to offer expense management solutions for their business customers) raised $20M in new capital and hires Francois Horikawa as CFO (was previously Head of Finance for PayPal’s consumer business unit).
  • PayNearMe (payment acceptance and processing platform) raised $50M in Series E and renamed its platform to PayXM™

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Remembering Robert Redford who passed away this week at the age of 89…  An Oscar-winning actor, director, founder of the Sundance Film Festival and The Redford Center (both of those links have great pics and tributes to Robert Redford) for climate change and the environment – and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2016.
  • My all-time favorite is Jerimiah Johnson (“can you skin Griz, pilgrim?”) followed closely by The Natural, A River Runs Through It (directed by Redford), and Spy Game.
• You made it!!!  Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes 😊:
  • ICYMI (for my mathemagician friends ❤️🤓🏆)….  9/16/25 was Pythagorean Day…  9/16/25 = (3²+ 4²= 5²) or 9+16=25.
  • A guy I went to school with 40 years ago contacted me to complain about the time I put superglue on his pen…  He just can’t let it go… 🤠
  • Dad Law - You’re not really yawn-stretching if you don’t include crazy dinosaur noises… 🦕🦖
  • Contortionists are not good scuba divers…  You know, because of the bends… 🤿🙃

 
 
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.