#512
Mass Affluent Momentum

Plaid says consumer centric innovation will power money movement - The year 2023 has been one of the biggest yet for innovation across the payments landscape. New, emerging rails including the FedNow® Service and RTP® (Real-Time Payments) have changed the game for both consumers and businesses when it comes to the choice, flexibility and security of how money moves. Read more

Solana Labs plans to grow ecosystem through new incubator program - Solana Labs has launched an incubator program to help scale startups interested in building on its network. This incubator program is designed to support teams interested in building on the Solana network by providing engineering and go-to-market support. Read more

Your ‘set it and forget It’ 401(k) made you rich. No more - Longer-term Treasury yields have hit their highest levels in 16 years, causing their value to plummet, and stocks are expensive. Investors now need to lower their expectations and play defense. Read more


Private equity wants a piece of your retirement savings - Amid the roster of banks and brokerages helping KKR & Co. raise money for some of its newest infrastructure investments, two names stand out: Fidelity and Charles Schwab Corp. The brokerages offer access to individual retirement accounts, which have far more leeway to invest in alternative assets. Read more

Never mind the 1%, mini-millionaires are where wealth is growing fastest - Many people in the upper middle class are now millionaires thanks to college, savings, bull markets and timing. Read more

Meet Morgan Stanley's new power trio and the challenges they face - Gorman has been steadfast in his resolve to have a bloodless succession, a rarity on Wall Street, and the leadership changes are promising. Analysts have commended the move, and the bank's stock price has risen since the Wednesday evening announcement. It was up 0.9% at market close Thursday. Read more

The EU’s upcoming AI law could be “a zero or one regulation” - After four years of intense negotiations, the EU is expected to finalise its rules for AI companies by the end of this year. The new regulation, the first of its kind in the world, is likely to put extra requirements, such as reporting on data and algorithms, on companies that use AI classified as “high risk”. Read more

US companies shy away from debt markets as Treasury rout drives up costs - Turmoil in government bond markets has forced US companies to delay borrowing plans, making this the slowest October for debt issuance in more than a decade. Read more

Arbitrum Orbit prepped for mainnet launch - Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum Orbit is officially mainnet ready, developer Offchain Labs says. This means that builders can create their own chains which will settle onto one of Arbitrum’s layer-2 chains, including Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, and testnets Arbitrum Goerli or Arbitrum Sepolia. Read more

There’s a reason why UK stocks need UK owners - The withdrawal of the home crowd puts UK companies at the mercy of opportunistic hedge funds when they need to raise cash. The shift in ownership has also coincided with a drop in London capital raising - annually worth 2% of the FTSE 100 market capitalization from 1990 to 2005, but only worth 0.9% from 2006 to 2022. Read more

OpenAI is starting a new team to reduce risk from future AI - The team will also come up with a policy to help determine how it can can reduce risks that may come with the development of so-called “frontier models” — the next generation of AI technology that is more capable than that what’s generally in use today. Read more

Jamie Dimon to sell JPMorgan stock for first time - JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon will sell 1mn shares in the bank next year, the first time he has reduced his stake in the group since joining nearly two decades ago. Read more

Stablecoin market caps stay steady amid bitcoin upswing - The stablecoin market cap stayed relatively steady at $124b during bitcoin’s sudden upswing, failing to break the sector’s levels from early September, perhaps indicating that new liquidity is still yet to find its way into crypto. Read more

20 UK VC firms commit to plan to direct pension funds cash to startups - Nine of Britain’s biggest pension funds signed up, committing to allocate at least 5% of their assets into British startups and VC firms by 2030. This could unlock up to £50bn in assets from private defined contribution (DC) pension schemes by 2030. Read more