Uncle Sean’s Update 9/12/25

Happy Friday!!!
It was a relatively light week in the news (yay, finally!) – so let’s get to it!  Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 9/12/25 (click here to subscribe):
A quick personal note…  The events of this week as well as the remembering of 9/11 serve as a reminder that life can change in an instant.  Making the world a better place begins with each and every one of us in our daily lives.  So please work hard but enjoy life, smile & hug those around you, and above all – strive to be kind and helpful in everything we do 🙏❤️.

• With all eyes on the FOMC meeting next week, the BLS August CPI Report came in just a smidge over expectations for the month at 0.4% (0.3% expected with last month at 0.2%) brining YoY CPI at 2.9% which was exactly as expected (2.7% last month).  Core CPI came in at 0.3% bringing YoY Core CPI to 3.1% (both exactly as expected and both flat compared to last month).
  • With softening in the labor market (we talked about this last week), most analysts are predicting a 25 bps dovish rate cut.  We’ll know more next Wednesday; and the Summary of Economic Projections should prove to be interesting.

• Big merger announcement this week as PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC; FR 1069778), bank subsidiary is PNC Bank, NA (FDIC 6384; total assets $555B), announced a definitive agreement to acquire FirstBank Holding Company (FR 1060627), bank subsidiary is FirstBank (FDIC 18714; total assets $26.8B), in a mixed deal of cash and stock valued at $4.125B. 💰💰💰
  • More info can be found in this Investor presentation deck by PNC.

• More merger info – this time in the card space…  Atlanticus Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: ATLC) announced it has acquired Mercury Financial LLC near-prime credit card platform for $162M in cash.  The Mercury Financial acquisition brings 1.3M card accounts and $3.2B in receivables to Atlanticus – growing their total portfolio to over 5M accounts and $6B in receivables.
• Green Dot Bank (FDIC 22653; total assets $4.8B) adds Stripe as Green Dot Network Partner.  “Powered by Green Dot’s embedded finance platform, Arc, Stripe Treasury will allow users to quickly and conveniently add cash to their accounts at any of Green Dot’s more than 50,000 money processing locations nationwide, with additional enhancements and capabilities planned for the future.”
• 👀 ICYMI…  A bipartisan bill has been introduced by Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) proposing deposit insurance reform – specifically to raise federal insurance coverage for noninterest-bearing business accounts to $20M for IDI’s under $250B in total assets.  The bill filed as S.Amdt. 3649 to the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can be viewed here.
• CSI partners with HuLoop to bring HuLoop’s AI-based Work Intelligence Platform to banks on CSI’s NuPoint® Core Banking System.
• 🤔 Fifth Third Bank, N.A. (NASDAQ: FITB; FDIC 6672; total assets $209B) replaces BNY as Direct Express partner with the 5-year term beginning Sep 9th.
  • Although BNY was originally selected for the Direct Express prepaid card program last November (replacing Comerica), the Treasury Department’s Fiscal Service Bureau replaced BNY with Fifth Third due to “readiness challenges” of one of BNY’s providers. 😬

• 👉 As has been anticipated, the Federal Reserve Financial Services will increase the FedNow® Service network transaction limit from $1M to $10 million to meet increased demand, unlocking higher-value use cases effective Nov 2025.
  • Keeping in mind that FedNow had just recently raised the transaction limit from $500K to $1M effective Jun 24, 2025.
  • This follows The Clearing House RTP Network transaction limit increase from $1M to $10M beginning Feb 9, 2025.

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers gaining traction…
  • This week, Personetics (AI-driven cognitive banking platform) launches MCP Server enabling banks to develop and deploy Agentic AI applications “including financial behavior analysis, predictive analytics, and contextual engagement frameworks—through a secure, scalable server environment. This empowers financial institutions and fintech innovators alike to craft personalized, proactive Agentic AI experiences that guide customers toward smarter financial decisions.”
    • Recall last month where Grasshopper Bank, N.A. (FDIC 59113; total assets $1.3B) launched a first-of-its-kind Model Context Protocol (MCP) server from Narmi that will allow its business clients to access personalized financial analysis and insights through Claude, Anthropic’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.

• Taktile announced the launch of fully customizable AI agents enabling SMB lenders to “process 5x more loans without adding headcount – eliminating bottlenecks and freeing underwriters to focus on high-value, strategic decisions.”
• Uber Eats to provide revenue financing capital solution to its restaurant small business customers via Pipe.
• Piercing the corporate veil (although not entirely unexpected)…  FINRA has charged former Synapse execs with misconduct that allegedly led to end users losing access to over $100M.
  • The allegations include failure “to reasonably supervise” Synapse Brokerage’s cash management program including the movement of customer funds without adequate authorization from customers; and failure to preserve books and records required by FINRA (specifically, email communications, instant messages and electronic communications of Synapse Brokerage or Synapse Fi personnel) as well as allegedly providing false information to FINRA about Synapse Brokerage’s access to its books and records. 😲

• Some personnel moves:
  • FinPro welcomes Jonathan Finley as Executive Vice President of Regulatory Matters per this LinkedIn post.  Congrats to Jonathan AND my friends at FinPro!!! 👏
  • Marqeta promotes Mike Milotich as permanent CEO.  Milotich has served as CFO since 2022 and interim CEO since Feb.
  • Varo Bank hires Asmau Ahmed as Chief Artificial Intelligence and Data Officer (CAIDO) reporting directly to CEO Gavin Michael.

• Notable FinTech funding for the week:
  • Rainforest (embedded payment processing) raised $29M in Series B funding round.
  • Aven (credit platform via home equity) raised $110M in Series E round at a $2.2B valuation.
  • Highbeam (embedded finance platform for ecommerce / brands) raised $30M in Series A round
  • Mazlo (fintech banking platform for non-profits) emerged from stealth with $4.6M in capital stating gross profit growth of nearly 4x over the last 12 months and zero churn to date.

Random Uncle Sean stuff:

• Texas State University sets an all-time enrollment record with more than 44,700 students for Fall 2025 – WOW!!!  Fun fact – about 40% of the FedFis Team are Texas State Alumni (including yours truly)!  And my daughter just started her junior year there!  Eat ‘Em Up Cats!!!! 🚀
• Yes – bring on the Dad / Bad Jokes to close this week out:
  • Nothing embarrasses psychics more than throwing them a surprise party! 🤣
  • The biggest problem with retirement is you typically have to get old to do it! 🤷‍♂️👴
  • Did you hear about the dyslexic zombie???  He only eats Brians… 🧠🙃🧟
  • How do you console an English teacher???  There, their, they’re…. 😉
  • I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise…  But that was 6 hours ago – back when I was younger and full of hope! 🤠😅

Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!

Uncle Sean