Happy Friday!!!
Hoping everyone enjoyed a wonderful Veterans Day here in the US; and a happy 250th anniversary of the US Marines being organized under the Continental Congress. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 11/14/25 (you can subscribe here for free along with 18,000+ of your industry peers):
- The Government shutdown is officially over, but don’t expect a flurry of economic data just yet as this CNBC article highlights significant uncertainty as to when, and in some cases if, data will be available. 🤷♂️
- Uncle Sean loves seeing this – two great companies expanding on an existing multi-year partnership 💥… RiskScout announced they have been selected as the preferred provider of BSA/AML and fraud solutions for Data Center Inc. (DCI). RiskScout will replace DCI’s BSA Navigator system, which is scheduled to be retired in December 2026. Very nice!!! 😊
- Vine Financial expands its AI-powered document reading capabilities beyond tax returns to include audited and interim financials supporting faster and more efficient loan decisions.
- As someone who has literally keyed in thousands of financial statements into models and spreadsheets earlier in my career – all I can say is, “YES, PLEASE!” 🤠
- ICYMI… Openbank, Santander Bank, N.A. (FDIC 29950; total assets $98B) direct digital bank, announced that Openbank has grown to more than $6 Billion in deposits since its launch in Oct 2024.
- Yeah – that’s $6 Billion with a B in one year!!! Holy Smokes!!! 💰
- Bangor Savings Bank (FDIC 18408; total assets $7.3B) has selected Helix by Q2 (NYSE: QTWO) as one of its Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform partners to help power its expansion of fintech solutions.
- PNC Bank. N.A. (FDIC 6384; total assets $564B) added another 100 branches to its expansion plan stating it would now open 300 new locations by 2030. As part of the initiative, the bank plans to hire approximately 2,000 new employees; and placed a specific growth emphasis on Nashville (35 new branches) and Chicago (25 new branches).
- The Synapse bankruptcy case gets dismissed as per bankruptcy trustee Jelena McWilliams’ request. This is largely the result of the CFPB coming in and taking over as the option of last resort with Synapse’s estate being insolvent and has had no viable bidders for the firms remaining assets.
- However… Plenty of eyes are looking at the CFPB’s ability to continue as the acting Director has called for its elimination.
- Propel Holdings and Column N.A. (FDIC 58224; total assets $1.2B) announce a strategic partnership to expand access to credit across the US. The new product – Freshline, provided by Column – is expected to launch in Q1, 2026. Propel will provide servicing and forward flowing the loan economics to third-party partners.
- Everything old is new again… SoFi Technologies (Nasdaq: SOFI) announced the launch of SoFi Crypto, the “first and only nationally chartered bank where consumers can bank, borrow, invest — and now buy, sell and hold crypto – all in one place and on a platform they trust.”
- This Banking Dive article is a good summary of SoFi’s relaunch of crypto trading.
- Serial acquirer (47 acquisitions over the last 52 years 😲) Central Bancompany, Inc. (bank subsidiary is The Central Trust Bank; FDIC 12633; total assets $19.2B) announced the launch of their IPO (Nasdaq: CBC) with their sights clearly set on additional acquisitions.
- Per the Amended S-1 filing with the SEC (pg 22 of the Prospectus Summary), “This offering is intended to facilitate our acquisition efforts. As we have grown larger, so have our target acquisitions and our potential partners’ preference for stock consideration. Our private company status has slowed our desired acquisition pace. We believe the combination of a liquid public stock and our significant efforts over the last several years to cultivate relationships with high-quality potential partners will position us to substantially accelerate our deployment of capital.”
- JPMorgan Chase has officially launched JPM Coin (JPMD), a digital deposit token for institutional clients, on Coinbase’s Base network – marking the bank’s first deployment of a native payment product on a public blockchain.
- Meanwhile, the FDIC is preparing new guidance for tokenized deposits and expects to introduce an application process for stablecoin issuers by the end of 2025
- Speaking of JPM… Yodlee and JPM further strengthened their 20-year partnership through an amendment to their existing Data Access agreement which includes mutual commitments and a pricing structure for “open finance” data access.
- Per this CNBC article, JPM now has agreements in place “with fintech middlemen that make up more than 95% of the data pulls on its systems. Including Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar and Akoya.” (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean)
- Telcoin gets its final charter approval from the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance to launch Telcoin Digital Asset Bank.
- Freestar Financial Credit Union (charter 60406; total assets $326M) has implemented Mahalo Banking’s digital platform that also coincided with the CU’s core conversion to Corelation Keystone completed in August. Yeah – they’ve been busy!!!
- Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union (charter 67352; total assets $2.2B) partners with Alkami for account opening and onboarding. The CU will implement Mantl’s (acquired by Alkami earlier this year) account opening solution in two phases starting with business accounts and then expanding to retail customers.
- SouthPoint Financial Credit Union (charter 68667; total assets $583M) partners with InvestiFi to offer digital investing to its 34,000 members
- equipifi gets a 2’fer this week (they’re on a roll)🤠:
- North Star Community Credit Union (charter 62563; total assets $459M) launches debit BNPL through the CU’s mobile app via equipifi for its 20,000 members; and is the first CU “to introduce this program on debit cards in North Dakota.” 👏
- Velocity Credit Union (charter 68359; total assets $1B) launches their new BNPL program (powered by equipifi) through its mobile and online banking platforms for its 80,000 members.
- Reseda Group, a wholly owned CUSO of MSU Federal Credit Union (charter 23279; total assets $8.2B), has acquired Tandem a fintech app that helps couples manage shared finances.
- Interesting note that Tandem offers a deposit account provided by Third Coast Bank – I am curious to see if this changes going forward…
- Some personnel moves:
- DailyPay hires Andrew Brandman as Chief Operating Officer.
- FIntegrate Technology welcomes Boyce Adams as Strategic Partner.
- Fiserv picks up Rob Thatcher as Vice President of Information Technology.
- Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Crew (high-yield checking and budgeting app) raised $3.8M Seed Round.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:
- 🤔 According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is nearing a deal to pay roughly $1 billion per year (cha-ching!!!) to use Google’s Gemini AI model to power an upgrade of Siri, due to launch sometime next spring.
- 🏈 Looking forward to some college football this weekend – particularly the Oklahoma Sooners (#11) at Alabama (#4) on ABC at 2:30 PM CST. Following that is Texas (#10) at Georgia (#5) also on ABC at 6:30 PM CST.
- Okay – let’s get to the good stuff! Here are the Dad / Bad Jokes for the week:
- Putting ketchup on your steak should negatively affect your credit score. 🥩
- I usually don’t’ talk about expensive trips I take… But I just got back from the grocery store! 😬
- Managing your weight around the holidays just requires a little planning… For example, I took the batteries out of my scale on Monday. 🤠
- Aunt Patty gave me an envelope that said, “do not open until 2026.” Inside was a list of reasons why I apparently can’t be trusted to carry out simple instructions! 😂🤣
- Having a weird Dad builds character… At least that’s what I tell my kids!!! 🤪
Have a GREAT weekend, and please stay safe!
Uncle Sean
