Happy Friday!!!
Although the recent snow pics from Houston, New Orleans, and Florida were extremely fun to see – I have to admit that my favorite part of winter (other than Christmas, of course) is when it’s over! 😆 Bring on the sunscreen, frozen slushy drinks, and the smell of freshly cut grass!🌴🌞 Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 1/24/25:
- 💥 Whew – Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) has been B-U-S-Y!!! This week the BHB Fund announced its investment in Neural Payments – a banktech platform providing community banks with tools to offer real-time P2P payments, disbursements, and scalable fraud protection to their customers.
- Plenty of eyes looking towards the FOMC meeting (particularly the press conference Q&A) next week, even though markets are signaling essentially no chance that the Fed will lower rates (currently between 4.25%-4.5%)…
- 👉 New administration focus is already being felt as:
- The FDIC released the Statement from Acting Chairman Travis Hill laying out the FDIC focus over the coming weeks and months.
- The NCUA also released a statement from Kyle S. Hauptman as incoming Chairman of the NCUA outlining his priorities.
- 👀 And we’re off!!! We have the first CU acquisition of a bank this year as Frontwave Credit Union (Charter 68494; total assets $1.5B) announced an agreement to acquire Community Valley Bank (FDIC 58500; total assets $316M).
- This is the 1st announced CU acquisition of a bank in 2025. Compares to the record of 22 for 2024, 11 in 2023, 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019. Source: FedFis Bank M&A data.
- Another first for 2025 (albeit unfortunate)… Late last week we had our first bank failure of 2025. Pulaski Savings Bank (FDIC 28611; total assets $49.5M) in IL was closed due to “suspected fraud.” Here is the FedFis Bank Failure Alert if you are looking for more information.
- Idaho Central Credit Union (Charter 63194; total assets $11.7B) announced a strategic investment in ModernFi CUSO and joins Modern Fi’s innovative deposit network.
- ModernFi had partnered with Members Development Company last year to launch the first deposit network dedicated to credit unions. 👍
- Ramp (corporate card and expense management platform) continues to expand (I was going to say, “ramp up” – but that was a little too cheesy even for me LOL 😊) their product set by announcing the launch of Ramp Treasury earning 2.5% cash rewards in a Ramp Business deposit account (First Internet Bank of Indiana); or invest excess cash in a money market fund (FUGXX) currently earning up to 4.38% via the Ramp Investment Account (facilitated by Apex Clearing Corporation). Nice!!!! 🚀
- CardWorks, and its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Merrick Bank (FDIC 34519; total assets $5.9B) to acquire Ally’s credit card business including a portfolio of $2.3 billion in credit card receivables with 1.3 million active cardholders as of Dec. 31, 2024.
- 🤓 Somewhat of an ironic twist of fate…. If you recall, Ally had announced a deal to acquire CardWorks back in Feb 2020 for $2.65B. However, the agreement was mutually terminated with the onset of the pandemic.
- Q2 (NYSE: QTWO) announced a new partnership with Alloy to deliver a joint fraud monitoring solution for Q2 Digital Banking customers powered by Alloy’s centralized identity decision engine for fraud detection and prevention.
- Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) announced they have entered into a multi-year extension of its 30-year strategic credit card relationship with Sam’s Club. 🤙 30 years – WOW!!!
- Texas Security Bank (FDIC 58739; total assets $1.2B) partners with ATTUNE to enhance its business deposit origination and mortgage origination processes.
- Some Personnel moves this week:
- Fiserv (NYSE: FI) appoints Michael P. Lyons as President and CEO-Elect effective January 27, 2025. Lyons is set to replace Frank Bisignano on June 30, 2025, or upon an earlier confirmation by the U.S. Senate as the Commissioner, Social Security Administration.
- Nav welcomes Grace Liu as Chief Financial Officer.
- ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW) names Philip Bruno as Chief Strategy and Growth Officer
- TD Bank Group (TSX: TD) promotes Jacqueline (Jackie) Sanjuas as Global Head of Financial Crime Risk Management replacing the exiting Herb Mazariegos. She will also continue serving as U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer.
- And last but not least – a huge congratulations to IBAT’s Mr. Bill Briggs for being nominated as Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration – an arena that he is more than just a little familiar with! Congrats, Bill; and best of luck!!!
- Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Highnote (modern card issuance and program management platform) raised $90M in Series B funding.
- Clutch (modern loan and deposit onboarding for credit unions) raised $65M in Series B round.
- Method (consumer permissioned financial connectivity) raised $42M in Series B funding round.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:
- 🏈 WOW – that Ohio State and Notre Dame college football National Championship game was exciting! After a dominant start by Ohio State, they had to hold off a rally by a scrappy Notre Dame team in the second half that would come within a one possession game at one point. But the Buckeyes were able to pull away late and seal the deal. 🏆
- And more football!!! 🏈🏈 In the NFL, we are down to an action packed Sunday afternoon with the Buffalo Bills vs Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Commanders vs Philadelphia Eagles to see who gets to play in the Super Bowl on Feb 9.
- Here we go!!!! Time to wrap it up with some Dad / Bad Jokes!!!
- I recently cured my fear of flying… Riding 22 hours on a Greyhound Bus will do that!! 🙄😜
- As we age, we all know that mirrors don’t lie… I’m just grateful they don’t laugh!!! 😬😅
- If you think about it, the entire salad dressing industry exists because people really don’t like the taste of salad! 🤔🤠
- Tough work environment for Snow White’s dwarfs.. I heard 6 out of 7 of them were not Happy…. 😂🤣
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!
Uncle Sean
