Happy Friday!!!
Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to your inbox every week. And without further ado, here is the Cinco de Mayo edition of the Uncle Sean Update for 5/5/23:
Shout out to my friends at DCI as they renew their premier sponsorship of Bankers Helping Bankers and their dedication to helping community banks thrive!!!”We are thrilled to partner with an organization that aligns so well with our mission to improve profitability and competitive position for community banks,” said Sarah Fankhauser, DCI’s President and CEO. “As a company that is community bank centric and customer owned and led, we understand the importance and diligence it takes when considering technology solutions. This is where Bankers Helping Bankers shines.”
It’s Fed Week!!! As expected, the FOMC unanimously voted to raise rates by 25 basis points bringing the Fed Funds Rate to 5.00% – 5.25%. This is the 10th consecutive rate increase. Probably the most important statement was the move away from the term “anticipates additional policy firming” to being driven by incoming data at each meeting. Here is the detailed info if you really want to get weird like me: 😊Transcript of Chairman Powell’s Press Conference (23 pages)FOMC press conference video (49 minutes)Not so fast…. April Jobs Report from the BLS showed a very strong +253K jobs for the month surpassing expectations of 180K while unemployment remained at 3.4% (expectation was 3.6%). CNBC has a good summary.
First Republic Bank was closed by regulators and purchased by JPMorgan Chase after revealing a $100B deposit run that resulted in no real way to profitability going forward.JPM has a really good investor deck detailing the $10.6B acquisition and assumption of all deposits.Some perspectives from Uncle Sean… First Republic Bank now owns the dubious distinction of being the second largest bank to ever fail in the U.S. at $233B in total assets (second place was previously held by Silicon Valley Bank – yep). Washington Mutual is still in first place. Somewhat ironic, JPMorgan Chase was the bank that assumed the banking operations and all deposits of WaMu back in 2008. Source: https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/I’m sure hoping we are done with this!!!
In response to recent bank runs, the FDIC released a report titled, Options for Deposit Insurance Reform. It’s a little long at 70+ pages but it is a really good read for risk freaks like me! If nothing else, scroll through the graphs / tables and you will get a good sense of some macroeconomic trends facing banks from a deposit / ALM perspective. If you are looking for a TLDR shortcut, FDIC Chairman Gruenberg gives a good and quick summary. Essentially, the report looks at 3 options:maintaining the current structure of Limited Coverage, including the possibility of an increased but clearly delineated deposit insurance limit.Unlimited Coverage of all deposits.Targeted Coverage (which is the regulators recommended approach), which would allow for higher or unlimited coverage for business payment accounts.
Last week we saw writeups from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve regarding recent bank failures. This week the GAO released their review of agency actions related to March bank failures (very much in line with the aforementioned FDIC and Fed reports).
Land of Lincoln Credit Union (charter 63716; $391M Total Assets) to acquire Nokomis Savings Bank (FDIC 29532; $28M Total Assets).If Land of Lincoln CU sounds familiar, well – it is… Land of Lincoln also entered into a merger agreement to acquire Colchester State Bank back in December.For those keeping score, this is the second CU acquisition of a bank so far for 2023. That compares to 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019 (source: FedFis)
Greenwood announced the acquisition of Kinly (fka Tenth, fka First Boulevard) adding 300,000 Kinly community members to the Greenwood platform.
Neural Payments (P2P platform) announced a multi-year agreement with Firstrust Bank in PA for “Neural’s P2P solution that will come fully-embedded within their Q2 digital banking platform.”
No real surprise as this has been scripted for a while now, but TD Bank and First Horizon mutually agree to terminate their merger agreement as it did not appear that TD could get the necessary regulatory approvals completed by the already extended May 27 deadline.
Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE: WAL) issued a public statement disputing claims made by Financial Times that the bank was considering a potential sale of all or part of its business.This gets even better as WAL went on to say, “There is not a single element of the article that is true. Western Alliance is not exploring a sale, nor has it hired an advisor to explore strategic options. It is shameful and irresponsible that the Financial Times has allowed itself to be used as an instrument of short sellers and as a conduit for spreading false narratives about a financially sound and profitable bank. We are considering all of our legal options in response to today’s article. (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean). Heck yeah – I’d be mad too!!!!! Meanwhile….. Reuters is reporting that US officials are assessing possible ‘manipulation’ on banking shares. This could get very interesting!
Franklin Templeton has launched a money market fund on the Polygon blockchain and becomes the “first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership.”
Synapse (BaaS middleware/connector platform) announced a partnership with AMG National Trust Bank as a bank partner.
Wow – that brand power of Apple… Forbes is reporting that the new Apple Savings account (Goldman Sachs) picked up close to $1 Billion in deposits within the first week of launch and $400M in the first day. Holy Moly!!! 😮
Notable FinTech funding for the week:Setscale (trade finance – fka Float Financial) raised $79.5M in capital consisting of $9.5M Seed and $70M debt financing.Slash (mobile banking app targeting entrepreneurs and online businesses) raised $19M in combined Seed + Series A rounds.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:
WHAT?!?!?! Aerosmith (yes, Uncle Sean is a fan!) announced their PEACE OUT Farewell Tour with special guest The Black Crowes (yep, also a fan). The 40-date North American tour kicks off September 2nd in Philadelphia. 🤘 Did you know….. May 4th (“Acquisition Day”) was the date that the U.S began working on the Panama Canal 119 years ago!!! But the idea of connecting the two oceans dates back to at least the 1500’s.And here they come – Dad Jokes:I don’t want to get too technical, but according to chemistry – wine is a solution…Han Solo had to send his steak back… It was chewy… 🙄One minute you are young and wild, the next you’re totally into air fryers!Over 50 is when you start to find out why they call it the wee hours of the night!!! 🤣😂
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.
Don’t forget to sign up here to have the Uncle Sean Update delivered straight to your inbox every week. And without further ado, here is the Cinco de Mayo edition of the Uncle Sean Update for 5/5/23:
Shout out to my friends at DCI as they renew their premier sponsorship of Bankers Helping Bankers and their dedication to helping community banks thrive!!!”We are thrilled to partner with an organization that aligns so well with our mission to improve profitability and competitive position for community banks,” said Sarah Fankhauser, DCI’s President and CEO. “As a company that is community bank centric and customer owned and led, we understand the importance and diligence it takes when considering technology solutions. This is where Bankers Helping Bankers shines.”
It’s Fed Week!!! As expected, the FOMC unanimously voted to raise rates by 25 basis points bringing the Fed Funds Rate to 5.00% – 5.25%. This is the 10th consecutive rate increase. Probably the most important statement was the move away from the term “anticipates additional policy firming” to being driven by incoming data at each meeting. Here is the detailed info if you really want to get weird like me: 😊Transcript of Chairman Powell’s Press Conference (23 pages)FOMC press conference video (49 minutes)Not so fast…. April Jobs Report from the BLS showed a very strong +253K jobs for the month surpassing expectations of 180K while unemployment remained at 3.4% (expectation was 3.6%). CNBC has a good summary.
First Republic Bank was closed by regulators and purchased by JPMorgan Chase after revealing a $100B deposit run that resulted in no real way to profitability going forward.JPM has a really good investor deck detailing the $10.6B acquisition and assumption of all deposits.Some perspectives from Uncle Sean… First Republic Bank now owns the dubious distinction of being the second largest bank to ever fail in the U.S. at $233B in total assets (second place was previously held by Silicon Valley Bank – yep). Washington Mutual is still in first place. Somewhat ironic, JPMorgan Chase was the bank that assumed the banking operations and all deposits of WaMu back in 2008. Source: https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/I’m sure hoping we are done with this!!!
In response to recent bank runs, the FDIC released a report titled, Options for Deposit Insurance Reform. It’s a little long at 70+ pages but it is a really good read for risk freaks like me! If nothing else, scroll through the graphs / tables and you will get a good sense of some macroeconomic trends facing banks from a deposit / ALM perspective. If you are looking for a TLDR shortcut, FDIC Chairman Gruenberg gives a good and quick summary. Essentially, the report looks at 3 options:maintaining the current structure of Limited Coverage, including the possibility of an increased but clearly delineated deposit insurance limit.Unlimited Coverage of all deposits.Targeted Coverage (which is the regulators recommended approach), which would allow for higher or unlimited coverage for business payment accounts.
Last week we saw writeups from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve regarding recent bank failures. This week the GAO released their review of agency actions related to March bank failures (very much in line with the aforementioned FDIC and Fed reports).
Land of Lincoln Credit Union (charter 63716; $391M Total Assets) to acquire Nokomis Savings Bank (FDIC 29532; $28M Total Assets).If Land of Lincoln CU sounds familiar, well – it is… Land of Lincoln also entered into a merger agreement to acquire Colchester State Bank back in December.For those keeping score, this is the second CU acquisition of a bank so far for 2023. That compares to 16 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 7 in 2020, and 16 in 2019 (source: FedFis)
Greenwood announced the acquisition of Kinly (fka Tenth, fka First Boulevard) adding 300,000 Kinly community members to the Greenwood platform.
Neural Payments (P2P platform) announced a multi-year agreement with Firstrust Bank in PA for “Neural’s P2P solution that will come fully-embedded within their Q2 digital banking platform.”
No real surprise as this has been scripted for a while now, but TD Bank and First Horizon mutually agree to terminate their merger agreement as it did not appear that TD could get the necessary regulatory approvals completed by the already extended May 27 deadline.
Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE: WAL) issued a public statement disputing claims made by Financial Times that the bank was considering a potential sale of all or part of its business.This gets even better as WAL went on to say, “There is not a single element of the article that is true. Western Alliance is not exploring a sale, nor has it hired an advisor to explore strategic options. It is shameful and irresponsible that the Financial Times has allowed itself to be used as an instrument of short sellers and as a conduit for spreading false narratives about a financially sound and profitable bank. We are considering all of our legal options in response to today’s article. (bold emphasis added by Uncle Sean). Heck yeah – I’d be mad too!!!!! Meanwhile….. Reuters is reporting that US officials are assessing possible ‘manipulation’ on banking shares. This could get very interesting!
Franklin Templeton has launched a money market fund on the Polygon blockchain and becomes the “first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership.”
Synapse (BaaS middleware/connector platform) announced a partnership with AMG National Trust Bank as a bank partner.
Wow – that brand power of Apple… Forbes is reporting that the new Apple Savings account (Goldman Sachs) picked up close to $1 Billion in deposits within the first week of launch and $400M in the first day. Holy Moly!!! 😮
Notable FinTech funding for the week:Setscale (trade finance – fka Float Financial) raised $79.5M in capital consisting of $9.5M Seed and $70M debt financing.Slash (mobile banking app targeting entrepreneurs and online businesses) raised $19M in combined Seed + Series A rounds.
Random Uncle Sean stuff:
WHAT?!?!?! Aerosmith (yes, Uncle Sean is a fan!) announced their PEACE OUT Farewell Tour with special guest The Black Crowes (yep, also a fan). The 40-date North American tour kicks off September 2nd in Philadelphia. 🤘 Did you know….. May 4th (“Acquisition Day”) was the date that the U.S began working on the Panama Canal 119 years ago!!! But the idea of connecting the two oceans dates back to at least the 1500’s.And here they come – Dad Jokes:I don’t want to get too technical, but according to chemistry – wine is a solution…Han Solo had to send his steak back… It was chewy… 🙄One minute you are young and wild, the next you’re totally into air fryers!Over 50 is when you start to find out why they call it the wee hours of the night!!! 🤣😂
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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