FDIC Drops Brokered Deposit Rule; Dave & Coastal Partner; FairPlay Raises $10Mn

Economic anxiety grows. FDIC drops rules. FairPlay raises $10Mn. Ramp scores $13Bn valuation. Dave partners with Coastal. Marqeta makes an acquisition. Aspiration cofounder arrested.

Noah Cooper, Head of Cross River’s Capital Solutions Group, sat down with American Banker to discuss the bank’s full-service solutions and capital markets growth strategy. Read the article here and catch the team at Fintech Meetup this week!

New here? Subscribe here to get our newsletter each Sunday. For even more updates, follow us on LinkedIn.

Economic Anxiety Grows

Concerns about the potential negative impacts of a variety of President Trump’s policies are beginning to show up in economic indicators. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow estimate, which is not an official forecast, dropped again last week. As recently as February 19th, the measure suggested GDP would grow at an annualized rate of 2.3% in Q1. Now, the measure points to an annualized contraction of 2.8% for the first quarter. The forecast expects personal consumption expenditures to be flat, while real private fixed investment is expected to decline by 3.5%. Meanwhile, factory activity dipped, with orders and employment in the sector contracting. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index dropped by 0.6 points in February to 50.3. Levels above 50 indicate growth.

FDIC Drops Brokered Deposit Rule

Last week, the FDIC, currently led by acting Chair Travis Hill, withdrew a number of proposed rules, including the proposed rollback of 2020’s brokered deposit rule. The measure was introduced by now-former Chair Martin Gruenberg, who had opposed the 2020 rule’s loosening of brokered deposit restrictions. In justifying his position, Gruenberg pointed to largely anecdotal evidence, including bank failures during the 2023 regional banking crisis and the collapse of middleware platform Synapse. Hill had previously criticized the effort to roll back the 2020 changes, describing it as “a poor use of our time and resources” and arguing the deposit market is too dynamic to be described as brokered or non-brokered in a fair and risk-sensitive way.” The FDIC also rescinded its bank merger policy, which it adopted last year, and dropped a rule governing banks’ use of incentive-based compensation. Notably, the FDIC did not drop what many are calling the “Synapse Rule,” designed to impose tougher recording keeping requirements on certain types of custodial accounts.

Fairplay Raises $10Mn

“Fairness-as-a-Service” startup Fairplay AI announced it has secured an additional $10Mn in capital. Nyca Partners, JPMorgan Chase, and Infinity Ventures provided the capital. The company also reported it has tripled its business during 2024, which, the company says, demonstrates strong demand for its solutions. FairPlay offers a number of capabilities, including helping banks and fintech lenders increase approval and acceptance rates while staying compliant with fair lending requirements. JPMorgan Chases Head of Impact Finance & Advisory said of the investment, “FairPlay has built an impressive set of products to help its customers evaluate their models, broaden credit access, and strengthen the financial services ecosystem so that institutions of all sizes can adopt responsible AI practices.”

Ramp Scores $13Bn Valuation

Ramp notched a $13Bn valuation in a secondary share sale. The $150Mn deal enabled early employees and investors to cash out. General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and Thrive Capital all bought shares in the offering. The valuation is a sharp jump from Ramp’s last known peak valuation of $8.1Bn, which it achieved in 2022, and is more than double the $5.8Bn valuation it raised at in 2023.

Neobank Dave Partners with Coastal Community

Neobank Dave announced last week it’s partnering with Coastal Community Bank. Dave, which currently works with troubled Evolve Bank & Trust, will begin onboarding new customers to Coastal as soon as next quarter, for Dave’s banking and ExtraCash products. Of the partnership, Brian Hamilton, who leads Coastal’s banking as a service business, said, “We are thrilled to work with Dave as a sponsor bank. From our first discussions with their team, it was clear that we are aligned in bringing accessible, transparent financial services to traditionally underbanked populations.”

Marqeta Acquires European Payment Firm

Marqeta is shaking things up, with a new CEO and an acquisition that marks its entrance to the European market. Simon Khalaf has stepped down as CEO, with CFO Mike Milotich named as interim CEO. The company also announced it has agreed to acquire TransactPay, a European electronic money transfer firm. Marqeta will pay €45Mn, or about $47Mn, for the acquisition. The news comes alongside Marqeta’s fourth quarter earnings, showing a net loss of $27.1Mn, though the company posted a profit of $27.3Mn for the full year. The fourth quarter loss was narrower than the $40.4Mn Q4 loss it posted in 2023. Marqeta has also teamed up with Green Dot to enable end users to make cash deposits across more than 95,000 locations, which include retailers like Walgreens, Walmart, 7-Eleven and CVS.

Aspiration Cofounder Arrested

Joseph Sanberg, a cofounder of green fintech Aspiration, was arrested last week. Aspiration offers a neobank product, as well as selling environmental consulting services and carbon credits. The Department of Justice alleges the Sanberg conspired to defraud two investor funds of at least $145Mn. The DOJ complaint alleges Sanberg obtained $145Mn in loans secured by a co-conspirator, AlHusseini, who has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in the scheme. Sanberg allegedly entered into put contracts for his shares in Aspiration with AlHusseini, which he knew AlHusseini didn’t have the financial means to fulfill, in order to use shares as collateral for the loans.