Finance, Banking & Insurance

New York – September 28, 2026 -- Lazard, Inc. (NYSE: LAZ) has appointed Pranjal Gambhir as Head of Medical Technology, based in New York, as the advisory firm expands its healthcare coverage.

Gambhir brings two decades of Citi experience to Lazard's healthcare practice

Gambhir joins from Citi, where he most recently served as Managing Director covering Medical Technology companies across multiple sub-sectors. He spent 20 years at Citi in roles based in New York and New Delhi, building coverage across the sector's various segments.

Dubai – September 28, 2026 -- Bybit and Franklin Templeton, a $1.7 trillion asset manager, have launched a collateral program letting institutional clients pledge tokenized money market fund shares to access trading credit on Bybit's exchange.

Institutional clients can now pledge Benji-issued fund shares for USDT or USDC credit lines

Eligible investors use ByCustody, Bybit's institutional custody platform, to pledge shares issued through Franklin Templeton's Benji Technology Platform, a blockchain-integrated recordkeeping and transfer agency infrastructure. The pledged value is mirrored inside Bybit's trading environment while the underlying assets stay off-exchange in custody, allowing clients to continue earning yield on holdings while using them to support trading activity.

Chicago – September 28, 2026 -- Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT) has promoted Maxime Jeanniard du Dot to Executive Vice President, Margin Analytics, putting him in charge of the TT Margin business formed after TT's acquisition of OpenGamma in December.

TT consolidates margin analytics under new executive after OpenGamma deal

Jeanniard du Dot spent 10 years as Chief Operating Officer of OpenGamma before the acquisition, giving him direct oversight of the platform now positioned as TT's core margin-analytics offering for hedge funds, asset managers, commodity trading firms and banks.

New York – September 28, 2026 -- Bank of America has launched Payments Insights, a new CashPro capability giving corporate and commercial clients AI-driven analytics on payment efficiency, cross-border flows and working-capital performance across U.S. accounts.

CashPro processed 213 million payments in the first half of 2026, up 10% year over year

The volume growth underscores the scale treasury teams now manage, with Bank of America framing even incremental efficiency gains as materially impactful at that transaction level. Payments Insights joins CashPro Data Intelligence, the bank's AI-powered suite that already includes Capital Markets Insights, Mobile Security Insights, CashPro Forecasting and CashPro Search.

Atlanta – September 28, 2026 -- The three-year widening of America's K-shaped economy paused in the second quarter of 2026, according to new data from Equifax, as top-tier consumers gained ground while the most financially strained households pulled back sharply.

Thrivers gain 3.2% while Strivers contract 4.2%, the sharpest drop since Q4 2023

The Equifax Market Pulse Index recorded a 3.2% quarterly increase among Thrivers (Index above 80), a 0.9% rise in the Middle segment (Index 50-79), which represents nearly 70% of the U.S. population, and a 4.2% contraction among Strivers (Index of 49 and below). "For the last three years, we have watched the gap between the top and the bottom of the 'K' widen, while the middle class shrank. In the second quarter of 2026, that pattern paused," said Emmaline Aliff, Advisory Leader at Equifax.

New York – September 28, 2026 -- CFO confidence in North America climbed back into "high" territory in the third quarter, with Deloitte's CFO Confidence Score rising to 6.1 from 5.9 in Q2, even as finance chiefs grew warier of technology and cybersecurity threats.

Company optimism holds firm despite muted economic outlook

Ninety percent of surveyed CFOs said they remain optimistic about their own companies' financial prospects, according to Deloitte's Q326 CFO Signals report. Only 37.5% rated the current North American economy favorably, underscoring a gap between firm-level confidence and broader macro sentiment.

Technology deployment and cybersecurity top CFO concern lists

Fifty percent of CFOs cited technology deployment, including generative AI, as their most pressing internal challenge. An equal share, 50%, ranked cybersecurity as their top external concern, marking technology risk as the dominant theme of the quarter.

Miami – September 28, 2026 -- Finastra unveiled a new Supply Chain Finance (SCF) solution at Sibos 2026, aiming to help banks scale working capital programs and accelerate time to market through cloud, AI and API-enabled infrastructure.

Platform integrates with Trade Innovation and Loan IQ via Nexus API suite

The end-to-end SCF platform supports buyer and supplier acquisition, onboarding, fulfillment, servicing, risk management and secondary market distribution. It connects with ERP systems and trade ecosystem partners through Finastra's Nexus API suite, and is built on a cloud-native architecture with deployment options ranging from on-premise to SaaS.

Riyadh – September 28, 2026 -- Aljazira Bank has signed an agreement with Thunes to overhaul its international remittance infrastructure, giving the Saudi lender real-time access to billions of bank accounts and mobile wallets worldwide.

Saudi Arabia ranks among the highest cross-border payment markets globally

Research by Thunes and Juniper Research found that 56% of Saudi residents sent money internationally in the past year, placing the Kingdom among the world's most active cross-border payment markets. The deal comes as Saudi Arabia positions itself as a digital finance hub under its Vision 2030 economic diversification plan.

Toronto – September 28, 2026 -- Sixty Degree Capital (SDC) saw five portfolio companies complete initial public offerings in 2026, including the largest IPO in history and the largest biotech IPO on record. SpaceX, Parabilis Medicines, Cerebras, HawkEye 360 and Lime each began trading on U.S. exchanges between May and July, while GrubMarket has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

SpaceX offering reaches approximately US$75 billion, the largest IPO ever recorded

SpaceX's public listing totaled roughly US$75 billion, according to the Toronto-based venture capital firm, marking the largest IPO in history. The offering anchors a wave of 2026 public-market exits across SDC's technology and healthcare portfolio.

Iselin, N.J. – September 28, 2026 -- World Insurance Associates LLC, a Top 50 U.S. insurance brokerage, has acquired the business of American Insurance Agency of Hingham, Massachusetts, in a deal closed June 1, 2026. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

World expands its footprint in the greater Boston market

American Insurance, founded in 1991, has built specialized expertise across construction, manufacturing, hospitality, restaurants, real estate, auto services, energy, entertainment and amusement, special events, and skating and sports facilities. The agency's addition strengthens World's presence in the greater Boston area, according to Rich Eknoian, Executive Chairman and Founder of World.