Happy Friday!!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend!!!! 🤠 It was a fairly light week in the banking and fintech market research space (thankfully – LOL), so let’s jump right in so we can get the long weekend started. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 8/30/24:
- The BEA July PCE (the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation) report came in very benign and largely as expected at 2.5% over last year and 0.2% over June. Core PCE came in at 2.6% over last year and 0.2% for the month.
- For reference – PCE inflation, month-over-month, July (+0.2% expected, +0.1% previously); PCE inflation, year-over-year, July (+2.6% expected, +2.5% previously); “Core” PCE, month-over-month, July (+0.2% expected, +0.2% previously); “Core” PCE, year-over-year, July (+2.7% expected; +2.6% previously).
- Next up on the data front is the August Jobs Report from the BLS on next Friday, Sept 6th at 7:30 AM CDT.
- Shout out to Q2 (NYSE: QTWO) as they celebrate 20 year anniversary of innovation in the banking industry. 👏 Keep up the good work!!! 😊
- Narmi announced it is now live with FedNow® service in receive mode with Grasshopper Bank (FDIC 59113; Total Assets $836M) as the first step in Grasshopper’s instant payments strategy. Per the PR:
- Narmi’s seamless integration with FIS’s IBS core via Code Connect platform enabled Grasshopper Bank’s efficient FedNow Service implementation.
- “Through the FedNow Service, Grasshopper is positioned to provide its On-Core financial technology (fintech) clients with the option to receive payments in real-time, offering enhanced cash flow management, immediate access to funds, and improved operational efficiency. The ability to receive instant payments is particularly crucial for fintechs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that depend on timely transactions to sustain and grow their operations.” Nice! 😎
- WebBank (FDIC 34404; Total Assets $2.2B) to be the exclusive bank partner for Sezzle BNPL, subscription products, and card products.
- WebBank is a known powerhouse in the Sponsor Bank arena focusing on the credit / asset side of embedded finance (including cards). Some key customers include Klarna, Zip, and PayPal among many others. For more detail – contact Bobby Button in relation to the FedFis FinTech Analytics© database (nice plug if I do say so myself – LOL 😊).
- PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) expands its global partnership with Fiserv by simplifying how Fiserv (NYSE: FI) “clients enable PayPal, Venmo and related services, and provides these businesses with a simple connection point to Fastlane by PayPal to accelerate guest checkout flows in the U.S.”
- Synctera teams up with Marqeta to offer the Synctera Fleet Card for the freight and logistics industries.
- Surety Bank (FDIC 33026; Total Assets $206M) selects Apiture for Online and Mobile digital banking upgrade.
- CPI Card Group announced a partnership with Rippleshot to provide its AI/ML-based fraud prevention services to CPI customers.
- 👀 Interesting to me… Orlando Credit Union (Charter 68706; Total Assets $358M) launches new merchant services via Fort Point Payments, Inc. ” to help businesses streamline their payment processes and support growth with advanced payment solutions.”
- Seeing more and more CUs leaning into business / commercial banking services (and my opinion is that this is a large driver for CUs acquiring banks). Recall a few weeks back where more CU announcements regarding commercial and non-traditional operations:
- 8/13/24 – Forum Credit Union (Charter 68248; Total Assets $2.1B) selects Apiture Business Banking Solution to deliver online and mobile banking to its commercial members.
- 8/14/24 – North Bay Credit Union (Charter 63373; Total Assets $121M) selects Sharetec’s web-based core, Sharetec Velocity for its innovation and Open API platform – presumably for BaaS / embedded finance.
- Seeing more and more CUs leaning into business / commercial banking services (and my opinion is that this is a large driver for CUs acquiring banks). Recall a few weeks back where more CU announcements regarding commercial and non-traditional operations:
- Some personnel moves:
- Socure promotes Matt Thompson to Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).
- Taktile hires Jason Mikula as Head of Industry Strategy for Banking & Fintech. Selfishly, I hope Jason Mikula is still able to commit sufficient time to his Fintech Business Weekly newsletter!!! 😊
- Payouts Network appoints Jeffery D. Johnson as Chief Revenue Officer.
- Notable FinTech funding for the week:
- Linker Finance (digital banking platform focused on community FI’s) raised $3.7M Seed Round.
- PrivacyHawk (consumer data protection) $3M in new capital while officially passing “1 million users just 2 years after launching.”
- Comun (neo immigrant banking app) raised $21.5M in Series A funding round just nine months after their $4.5M raise.
- Parafin (lending side infrastructure solution for embedded finance) closed a $93M debt facility with potential to increase to $187M.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:
- Have you seen BLAND.AI (check out the video demo) – voice AI for automated calling operations (can accommodate both outbound and inbound)? Not sure if I am incredibly impressed, terrified, or all of the above!!!
- Aunt Patty’s Mom and Dad are coming over for the weekend – rumor has it that we may head over to Shreveport for the day on Saturday for some gambling and shenanigans! Sure hope I don’t have to get a second job when I get back – LOL!!!! 😊
- Okay – let’s crank out some Dad / Bad Jokes so we can get the Holiday Weekend started early:
- Rolling out of bed is easy…. Getting up off of the floor is another story! 😬
- Dogs are not allowed in bars because they can’t control their licker… 🐶😂
- I run like the winded…. 😅
- Not saying I’m old, but “pulling an all-nighter” now means I didn’t have to wake up to go pee.
- Ah but Confucius says, “it is better to wake up and pee than pee and then wake up…” 🙏
Have a GREAT Labor Day Holiday weekend and please stay safe!!! ❤️
Uncle Sean
