THE FINTECH COWBOYS

UNCLE SEAN'S WEEKLY UPDATE

Happy Friday!!!!  It is COLD here in Texas!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update: The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is taking a close look at Ethereum based decentralized finance (DeFi).  They recently published a report titled “Decentralized Finance: On Blockchain and Smart Contract Based Financial Markets”.  Who cares???  Well, it’s more evidence that governing bodies are looking at this very closely; and yields more support.  New investors / interests coupled with new political...

Happy Friday!!!!  There is quite a bit of substantial crypto news this week.  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 2/12/21: Last week we mentioned Visa’s plans related to crypto (testing with OCC approved Anchorage Trust and First Boulevard fintech company), so it’s only fair that we share Mastercard’s plans. Check out their blog on Why Mastercard is Bringing Crypto Onto Its Network.  Here are some cool statistics for you:  Mastercard is accepted at 37 million merchants in 210 countries; Visa is...

Happy Friday!!! There was a lot of activity in the payments space this week; and I heard a rumor that there is a football game this weekend! On to Uncle Sean's Update: Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner!  Even if you don’t like football, pretty much everyone enjoys the Super Bowl commercials; and some have been leaked early.  This year sports a string of FinTech debuts into the most coveted ad space on TV.  Robinhood is moving forward with their commercial debut during the Super...

Happy Friday!!!! WOW, what an exciting week this was! So let’s get to it!  Reddit creates “Woodstock moment” as a new breed of retail investors armed with stimulus checks and connected through social media via wallstreetbets seek to “stick it to the man” – and have largely succeeded in crippling some of the biggest Wall Street hedge funds by targeting heavily shorted stocks.  Peace, Love, and Investing – yeah baby (channeling my inner Austin Powers). Robinhood once again finds itself in the...

​Happy Friday!!!! FinTech news events were pretty light due to the short week related to the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday; and just a few other things going on in our Nation’s Capital - LOL!  Here are the highlights for the Uncle Sean Update for 1/22/2021: LendingClub receives regulatory approvals to acquire Radius Bank.  Deal is expected to close on or around Feb 1, 2021 per the LendingClub press release following the customary 15 day Federal Reserve waiting period. ...

Happy Friday once again!  It’s been a crazy week even if you ignore the political stuff and global pandemic.  So let’s get to it – here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/15/21:Money, money, money, money ("For The Love of Money" by The O'Jays - you’ll be singing it the rest of the day)!  From capital raises to smoking hot IPO markets, there is no shortage of investors or liquidity.  Here are a few of the honorable mentions this week: Blend raises $300M in Series G (yes – G) and jumps to $3.3B...

Happy Friday and welcome to the Uncle Sean Update for WK 2 of 2021!!!! SoFi goes public via SPAC merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings V (NYSE:IPOE).  The deal values SoFi at a whopping $8.65B. (CNBC) ​In case you are wondering what the heck a SPAC is (don’t worry – if you don’t know what it is, that just means your normal), here is a good definition from Investopedia - FinTech IPO PipelineFor 2021 should be exciting – scratch SoFi off the list now, but we are still looking forward to...

Happy New Year’s Eve!!!! Wow – and we thought last week was a light week!  I think everyone is just laying low trying to exit 2020 as quietly as possible (there is no need to poke the bear).  Anyhoo – here is the last Uncle Sean Update of 2020: Stimulus Package (stop me if you’ve heard this one before - LOL) was signed into law late Sunday evening despite President Trump’s push for higher direct payments.  There was a subsequent attempt to increase the direct payments to individuals from $600...

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!! It has been a very light week as expected, but there are a few big items worth noting – below is the WK52 General Update from Uncle Sean:  FIS courting Global Payments – FIS was in talks to acquire Global Payments, but negotiations fell apart over the weekend.  Check it out here – https://www.pymnts.com/news/partnerships-acquisitions/2020/fis-global-payments-eyed-merger-but-talk-broke-down-report-says/ Many are speculating that this is a negotiation strategy and...

Happy Friday once again!!!!  Here is the WK51 General Update from Uncle Sean:  BREAKING NEWS - Fed announced late today that it will allow the nation’s largest banks to resume share buybacks in the first quarter of 2021.  This is really big news for bank stocks and could spur M&A activity as share prices rise - https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/18/fed-to-allow-big-banks-to-resume-share-buybacks-with-limitations.html Immediately, JP Morgan announces $30B buyback program for 2021...