Singapore – – October 04, 2026 -- S&P Global Ratings has launched a new risk-assessment framework for digital asset lending vaults, a market that has grown to $10 billion in deposits as of September 2026 from $1.5 billion two years earlier. The Vault Risk Assessment (VRA) delivers independent, forward-looking analysis of impairment risk for investors in blockchain-based lending vehicles that pool deposits and deploy them according to defined strategies, functioning much like traditional fixed income funds.

Vancouver, BC – October 03, 2026 -- Two independent research firms diverge on the size of the global online trading platform market, with Mordor Intelligence valuing it at $11.65 billion in 2025 and projecting $18.18 billion by 2031 (7.66% CAGR), while Fortune Business Insights puts 2025 value at $10.82 billion, rising to $18.50 billion by 2034 (6.00% CAGR). Mordor Intelligence attributes 69.59% of 2025 platform volume to retail investors and 63.42% of deployment to cloud-based infrastructure, underscoring smartphones as the primary entry point for individual traders.

Seattle – October 02, 2026 -- ORSNN, an electronic trading platform for institutional whole loan markets, has named Aaron Khoo as Chief Product Officer and Werner Koepf as Chief Technology Officer, while adding Ken Plank as Senior Advisor, Credit Unions, as the company nears completion of a new capital raise.

Scottsdale, Ariz. – October 02, 2026 -- equipifi has grown BNPL transaction volume on its platform by 128% year over year while nearly doubling its headcount following a Series B raise earlier this year.

San Francisco – – October 02, 2026 -- GoodLeap, LLC has closed a $434 million securitization backed solely by home improvement loans it originated, marking the sixth such issuance for the fintech lender.

Chicago – October 02, 2026 -- Setara Financial Corp. has advanced development of its Reference Layer, a benchmark and reference-data infrastructure designed to bring standardized measurement to the fragmented global compute market.

Stamford, Connecticut – October 02, 2026 -- Steward Partners placed three senior executives as finalists in the 2026 Wealth Management Industry Awards, drawing national attention across leadership, compliance and M&A categories in a single cycle.

San Diego – – October 02, 2026 -- A national survey of 5,000 U.S. adults has found that Americans rate a family birthday party as a more awkward setting for discussing inheritance than a funeral, upending assumptions about when families confront estate planning. Trust & Will's 2026 Death & Inheritance Report found 63% of respondents call a birthday the most awkward occasion for the conversation, compared with 41% for a funeral or wake and just 32% for an ordinary phone call.

Toronto – October 01, 2026 -- Manulife Financial Corporation has closed a reinsurance transaction transferring biometric risk on a block of long-term care policies carrying $3.2 billion in reserves to Munich American Reassurance Company, a US subsidiary of Munich Re Group.

Las Vegas – October 01, 2026 -- Bold Penguin, the Digital Broker for commercial insurance, has entered a global strategic partnership with bolttech, an insurtech operating in 39 countries across four continents, to build a joint commercial and personal lines offering for agents, insurers and embedded partners in the U.S., Europe and Asia.