Don’t forget to leave milk and cookies out for Jason tonight (pathetic Friday the 13th Dad Joke attempt – eyes rolling)… ANYWAY…. Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 10/13/23:
The BLS September CPI Report came in a pretty much stubbornly flat at 3.7% (expectation was 3.6% and August was 3.7%). Core CPI slowed to 4.1% (spot on with expectation of 4.1% and August was 4.3%). Shelter, which makes up about one-third of the CPI weight, remains sticky at 7.2% over last year. 😬CNBC has a good summary (that graph tells the whole story).Directly related to CPI-W from the BLS, Social Security announced a 3.2 percent benefit increase for 2024 – good news for the 71M Americans receiving benefits.
It’s official…. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) announced the sale of GreenSky – the fintech home improvement lending platform (including a book of loans) to a group of investors led by PE firm Sixth Street. GS originally acquired GreenSky for $2.24B in an all-stock transaction and announced that the sale will result in a steep $0.19 per share reduction to 3Q earnings (this is after taking a $504M write-down of Goodwill last quarter related to the acquisition).
The Federal Reserve issued their monthly Update on Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) showing a total outstanding amount of $119.1B as of 9/30/23….. Uncle Sean Spoiler Alert – BTFP funding balance has remained largely flat for the entire 3rd quarter at around $119B – $121B. 🤔
👀 Apple’s financial ecosystem continues to expand as the Apple Wallet app now integrates balances and transaction history for Discover US credit cards. Many media outlets covered this product launch in the UK last month, but this is a first for the US; and it is specific to Discover credit cards (for now)….
Bank of Hawaii announced they have partnered with Greenlight to help the banks customers teach their children financial literacy and smart money management through the Greenlight for Banks platform. Nice!!!!Starting to see much more of this trend in the BaaS / Fintech space… Fintech challenger banks (old school terminology because I’m old) shifting from a B2C model to a B2B2C / white-label solution as a bank vendor as opposed to a bank competitor for a differentiated distribution strategy. Evolution baby!!!! 😊
Biz2X (subsidiary of Biz2Credit) announced a partnership with Republic Bank of Arizona to streamline the banks “business lending decision-making, expand lending operations, and make it easy for Arizona businesses to get the capital they require for growth.”
Legacy Credit Union (Charter 24421; Total Assets $645M) selects Digital Onboarding adoption program. The CU previously used outdated generic mailers and email campaigns to motivate new accounts to engage fully with the CU. Leia Ragland, Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Legacy Credit Union stated, “We selected the Digital Onboarding adoption platform because members can enroll in direct deposit online in seconds and make our card their default payment method at their favorite merchants. We can now deliver highly personalized onboarding journeys for every member and see the results in real-time. It is the ideal solution for credit unions focused on maximizing organic growth!”
Sila (end-to-end embedded payments infrastructure platform) has partnered with Fortress Trust to bring together “the best practices from banking, fintech development, and custodial services to create an all-encompassing solution tailored to meet the diverse needs of fintech and crypto companies.”
Orum announced the launch of Verify. Built on top of the new FedNow instant payment rail, Verify can determine “within 15 seconds whether a bank account is open and valid before initiating payments” making it fast and easy to authenticate any type of bank account.
Blend (loan application software platform) announced expanded partnership with MeridianLink beyond mortgages (Blend is already integrated with MeridianLink® Mortgage) to include broader consumer loan products so that “lenders using MeridianLink® Consumer will have the ability to leverage Blend’s unified platform and consumer banking origination software for a fast onboarding and application process for banking, credit card, and loan products.”
CoreLogic announced the launch of their integrated Digital Mortgage Platform (DMP) capitalizing on their acquisition of Roostify announced earlier this year.
Scienaptic AI announced an integration with Nymbus that enables Nymbus bank and credit union clients to “enhance and automate their credit decisioning by utilizing Scienaptic’s fair, inclusive, and regulatory-compliant AI platform.”
Glia announced partnership integration with Lumin Digital to provide Lumin’s online banking customers with access to Glia’s Digital Customer Service (DCS) platform.
The FDIC launched a national educational campaign titled “Know Your Risk. Protect Your Money.” The campaign is targeted towards people who may have lower confidence in the U.S. banking system or who are unbanked, as well as those who use mobile payment systems, alternative banking services and financial products that may appear to be FDIC-insured but are not.
Interesting personnel moves:Ally Financial CEO Jeffrey Brown will step down in early 2024 to become President of Hendrick Automotive Group.Square Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Weinberg departs for QuickBooks (apologies for the paywall).Fiserv EVP and Co-Head Banking Organization Himanshu Patel is leaving to become CEO at Verifone.
The CFPB is after TransUnion again… The CFPB and the FTC have fined TransUnion $23M that includes $15M for allegedly failing to ensure the accuracy of rental background checks and another $8M for the mishandling of customer requests for credit freezes and locks.
Notable FinTech funding for the week:Lendbuzz (AI-powered automobile finance platform) raised $345M in Capital consisting of $45M equity round and $300M in forward flow facility.Canopy Servicing (API-enabled loan management and servicing) raised $15.2M in Series A1 funding round.Careful (financial safety) raised $16.5M in Series A round to help banks protect older customers from fraud, scams, and “money mistakes.”Zolve (fintech neo-bank for immigrants) raised $100M debt facility to expand credit offerings for Indian immigrants in the US.Alpaca (API-enabled stock and crypto Brokerage-as-a-Service) raised $15M in Capital in the form of a convertible note to fund its expansion in Asia.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:The McRib is back!!! 😲😄 After a faux “farewell tour” last year, McDonalds has confirmed that the McRib is due to return to select restaurants in November. So rest easy McRibbers – only a few more weeks!The ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse is tomorrow (10/14/23). If you are not fortunate enough to watch it in person (please use appropriate protective eyewear 😎), you can watch it online at space.com.You can stop scrolling now – LOL!!! Some classic old school Dad Jokes right here:I walked down a street where the houses were numbered 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K, and 1MB…. It was a stroll down memory lane… Hehehehe!!!If you get slapped at a very high frequency, it Hertz… 🤣It’s pretty rare for a defibrillator to fail, but when it does – no one is shocked….Aunt Patty made chicken salad last night… Apparently they prefer grain. 🐔🐓There is a chess maneuver called “The Bob Seger” – that’s when the ‘Knight moves’…. Okay – I’m done!!!!! 😝
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!
Uncle Sean
Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis
FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he’s a little bit different; but that’s why we love him.
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