Unlce Sean's Update - 1/3/25

​Happy Friday!!!
 
Hoping everyone had a wonderful Holiday season!  News was extremely light as expected the last few weeks, so this will be very brief as we kick off 2025 🎉.  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/3/25:
 

• Sneak peek into next week 😉….  Keep an eye out for big announcements from Bankers Helping Bankers; and be sure to tune into the FinTech Cowboys episode next week that features one of the kindest and sincerest people in the industry (and a dang good executive bank analyst)!!! ❤️

 

• 👀 Over the Holiday’s, we had a few more CU acquisitions of a bank…  The magic number is now 22 for 2024… 
  • Late (at 5PM eastern) on Friday, Dec 20, Hanscom Federal Credit Union (charter 9095; total assets $1.8B) announced an agreement to acquire The Peoples Bank (FDIC 12885; total assets $300M).
  • Then on Monday of this week, Zeal Credit Union (charter 62426; total assets $839M) announced an agreement to acquire Gogebic Range Bank (FDIC 57192; total assets $147M).
    • As stated above, the record of announced CU acquisitions of a bank is now at 22 for 2024 compared to 11 in 2023, 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019 (source: FedFis).
      • 🤔 Just a reminder that not all of these deals get completed as Atlanta Postal CU (charter 67389; total assets $2.4B) and Affinity Bank (FDIC 29510; total assets $879M) announced the mutual termination of their merger agreement after discussions with “applicable regulatory agencies.”

 

• Fiserv (NYSE: FI) announced a definitive agreement to  acquire Payfare Inc. (TSX:PAY) to enhance its embedded banking, lending and card management services.
  • This Payments Dive article is a reminder that Fiserv recently won the DoorDash business from Payfare.

 

• Tough news for CBW Bank (FDIC 13959; total assets $73.6M as of 9/30/24 call report) as the FDIC has issued a Civil Money Penalty (FDIC-22-0171k) (22 pages) in the amount of $20.45M for failing to maintain “an adequate Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance program, which led to multiple incidents where Respondent repeatedly violated the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)… Further, Respondent’s violations were part of a pattern of misconduct, and Respondent received financial gain or other benefit.”  Oof!!! 😯
  • I personally cannot recall a penalty of this material and devastating magnitude from the FDIC given CBW’s size and declining balance sheet ($23M in total equity as of 9/30/24 – source: FedFis)…  Naturally, CBW has no choice but to vigorously contest the penalty in court.
    • 👉 Be sure to follow the amazing Sarah Beth Felix on LinkedIn as she consistently provides amazing factual coverage of these orders (including this one) in an easy to read / understand format – an amazing resource for learning!!! 😊

 

• Infinant closed their $15M Series A funding round led by FINTOP Capital and partner JAM FINTOP BankTech, with participation from Raido Capital Partners, Woodforest Financial Group, and Bankers Helping Bankers. 
  • “With this round, Infinant will continue to expand their product offerings that include the Interlace Console for customer and account management, Settlement Ops for ledger and reconciliation management, Payments Hub that offers centralized payments for ACH, Wire and FedNow, and their Card Platform that includes card issuance and processing directly to Visa DPS.”  NICE!!!! 🚀

 
 
Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• ❄️🥶 Brrrr…  Be sure to bundle up as an Arctic blast is set to arrive this weekend and will cover the majority of the US.
• The College Football Playoff bracket 🏈 got a little bit clearer this week as #6 Penn State is set to face #7 Notre Dame (Jan 9) in the Orange Bowl; while #5 Texas faces #8 Ohio State (Jan 10) in the Cotton Bowl.  Winners advance to the National Championship game to be played on Jan 20.
• All right – let’s wrap it up with some terrible Holiday themed Dad / Bad Jokes 😊:
  • Scotch tape doesn’t taste anything like Scotch! 🤢😂
  • Day 1 of my New Years diet - I removed all of the bad food from the house….  It was delicious!!! 🌝
  • The classy term for box wine is “cardboardeaux.” 🍷😎 (be sure to hold that pinky out)
    • Is it just me, or is this Dry January thing already dragging on a bit? 🤠
  • If you think about it, lasagna is really just spaghetti flavored cake… 😅
  • And last but not least….  Snowmen hate ranch dressing because everyone rubs their noses in it! ☃️🤣

 
 
Have a GREAT weekend  - and please stay safe (and warm)!!!
 
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.