Financial Services

Mastercard rolled out a payment option Thursday that lets cardholders give an AI agent a virtual card to buy things online without checking in before each purchase, with limits on spending, retailers, or required approval before checkout. Rival Visa partnered with Alchemy earlier this year and has announced its own AI shopping and payment product, Visa Intelligent Commerce, which the company says is still being deployed, while Meta's Muse can search for products and navigate checkout but presents the purchase for the user's final approval. Phil Bruno, chief strategy and growth officer at payments company ACI Worldwide, called it "a land grab for infrastructure standards," saying that if card companies set the standards for agentic commerce they can keep the commerce in their environments for decades to come. Consumer appetite lags the infrastructure push: just 7% of U.S. and U.K. consumers surveyed who buy fashion items said they would allow an AI assistant to make purchases without approval under predefined conditions, according to research commissioned by ACI Worldwide, and more than half said they were uncomfortable allowing AI to purchase on their behalf. Mastercard has developed a digital paper trail called Verifiable Intent to record who authorized the agent to shop and what it was authorized to buy, but when asked who would be responsible if an agent made an incorrect, fraudulent, or unauthorized purchase, Mastercard pointed back to Verifiable Intent and did not specify who would ultimately be responsible if an agent bought something outside those instructions.

PayPal Holdings is using its PayPal World initiative to strengthen connectivity across its consumer ecosystem, and the effort facilitated roughly $200 million in total payment volume between PayPal and Venmo in the second quarter. The company is focusing on increasing engagement among existing customers, as second-quarter payment transactions rose 8% year over year and transactions per active account, excluding payment service provider activity, rose 7%, while monthly active accounts increased just 1%. Venmo illustrates the monetization potential of deeper engagement: Venmo total payment volume grew 14% year over year, monthly active accounts for the Venmo Debit Card increased more than 50%, and customers using both Venmo Debit and Pay with Venmo generated more than nine times the average revenue per account of peer-to-peer-only users. Among competitors, Block generated $3.17 billion in gross profit in the second quarter of 2026, up 25% year over year, with Cash App gross profit up 31% to $1.97 billion and Square gross profit up 13% to $1.16 billion on Square GPV of $72.8 billion, while Fiserv reported $5.29 billion in GAAP revenues, down 4%, adjusted revenues of $4.96 billion, down 4%, and adjusted EPS of $1.84, down 26%. PayPal shares have gained 24.5% over the past three months and trade at a forward 12-month P/E of 9.31X, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2026 EPS has been revised upward to $5.38 over the past two months, indicating a year-over-year increase of 1.3%.

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway effective immediately at age 96, becoming chairman emeritus while remaining on the board, with Greg Abel now running the company and Howard Buffett becoming chairman. Buffett took control of Berkshire in 1965 and compounded per-share market value at 19.7% annually from 1965 through 2025, versus 10.5% for the S&P 500 with dividends, producing a 6,099,294% cumulative gain against 46,061% for the index. Abel became chief executive in January and has already put Berkshire's cash to work, investing $10 billion in Alphabet's June private placement and accumulating roughly 106 million shares worth $37.8 billion by June 30, making Alphabet Berkshire's third-largest stock holding. Berkshire was a net buyer of stocks in the second quarter, investing $23.5 billion while selling $3.7 billion. Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, becomes chairman as a guardian of the company's culture and values, while Abel retains responsibility for major capital-allocation decisions.

Alchemy has integrated AgentCard with Mastercard Agent Pay, establishing a dedicated identity layer that gives each autonomous AI agent its own email address, phone number, stablecoin wallet, and tokenized payment credentials. The integration adds Verifiable Intent, a standard co-developed with Google that provides tamper-resistant cryptographic proof linking a consumer's specific instructions to a transaction outcome, with selective disclosure of only the minimum required information at checkout. AgentCard originally launched in June 2026 with Visa Intelligent Commerce, and setup now takes a single command-line instruction and under one minute, with credentials encrypted at rest and granular controls including merchant category restrictions, geographic limits, and instant freeze-or-revoke. Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan said AI agents are moving from simple assistants to software that can take action, while Mastercard EVP of Digital Commercialization Sherri Haymond said the future of commerce is about agents that can be trusted to act on your behalf. The infrastructure push comes as only 3% of transactions involve agents and developers face integration costs of $5,000 to $500,000 per protocol, while Visa completed hundreds of secure agent transactions in a closed beta and projects millions by holiday 2026. Structural obstacles remain: only 23% of consumers trust AI to handle payments and 85% demand transparency on data use, 90% of executives express confidence in their visibility over AI usage while only 11% of applications are visible to IT departments, and 93% of merchants believe the AI provider should bear the financial risk of transactions.

Berkshire Hathaway announced Friday that Warren Buffett has been named chairman emeritus, effective immediately. Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, succeeds his father in the role, while Susan L. Decker will continue as Lead Independent Director. Buffett will remain a member of the Board of Directors in his new capacity and will continue to offer counsel to the company, Berkshire said in a statement. Buffett stepped down as CEO on January 1st of this year, passing full operational control to Greg Abel while staying on as Chairman of the Board. Under Abel's leadership, Berkshire built a $37 billion stake in Alphabet, Google's parent company, making it a top-five holding.

SoftBank Group Corp. has increased its margin loan backed by shares of its chip unit Arm Holdings Plc by $5 billion to $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the conglomerate funds its expanding artificial intelligence investments. The Japanese investment company renegotiated the terms and signed a deal with creditors this month. It is the third time SoftBank has upsized the facility, which began as an $8.5 billion loan in 2023, rose to $13.5 billion in 2024 and then to $20 billion last year. SoftBank was initially looking to increase the facility by $3 billion to $5 billion but received about $7 billion in demand from lenders, helped by a 142% spike in Arm's share price this year. As of May, the loan was secured by 769 million Arm shares, a 72% stake in the chip designer, and SoftBank had drawn $20 billion as of December, with the loan set to expire in September 2027. The proceeds help fund a nearly $65 billion commitment to OpenAI, alongside recent purchases including ABB Ltd.'s industrial robotics business for $5.4 billion and DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash.

Equitable Holdings added the industry's first bitcoin-linked investment option to a registered index-linked annuity on September 2, tracking the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF through a new SCS Premier option. The bitcoin option offers one-year segments with buffers of 10%, 15%, 20% and 40%, and allocations are generally capped at 25% of contract value, giving clients defined protection rather than open-ended exposure. The same update added Optimal Mix Segments, which spread money across multiple indices and weight the best performers at maturity, plus Dual Direction Downside Advantage segments that can turn a decline within the buffer into a gain worth twice the size of that drop. The launch sits on top of a business that is already growing: in the second quarter of 2026, Equitable posted net inflows of $1.7 billion in Retirement, $2.0 billion in Wealth Management and $0.8 billion in Asset Management, pushing total assets under management and administration to a record $1.2 trillion, up 10% from a year earlier, while returning $449 million to shareholders and staying on track for a 60% to 70% payout ratio in 2026. The headline growth hides a rockier bottom line, with a GAAP net loss of $453 million, or $1.68 per share, for the second quarter of 2026 even as non-GAAP operating earnings came in positive at $488 million, and book value per common share of negative $6.79 once accumulated other comprehensive income is included. The pending merger with Corebridge Financial, approved by shareholders on July 30, still needs regulatory sign-off before it can close, leaving the promised earnings boost of more than 10% to earnings per share on a run-rate basis by year-end 2028 dependent on approvals still to come.

Walker & Dunlop arranged $293,200,000 to refinance 40 Tenth Avenue, a 158,957-square-foot mixed-use property in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The fixed-rate, permanent debt refinancing came from Corebridge Financial, with Walker & Dunlop Capital Markets Institutional Advisory serving as exclusive advisor to Aurora Capital and William Gottlieb Real Estate. Completed in 2019 and designed by Studio Gang, the building holds 112,241 square feet of office space across floors three through 10 and 46,716 square feet of retail space on the ground and second floors. Hyundai Motor occupies the entire retail component, while office tenants include Starwood Capital Group, WestCap Management, RTW Investments, Stripes and Checkout.com. The property also offers more than 18,000 square feet of landscaped private outdoor space, including an approximately 10,000-square-foot rooftop terrace and an approximately 8,000-square-foot planted second-floor terrace.

Visa has joined Mastercard and Ant International in pushing for common identity standards for AI purchasing agents, proposing a Know-Your-Agent framework that would let verified trust signals travel across card networks, digital wallets, marketplaces and agent platforms without forcing every participant into the same approval system. Under the proposal, each company would still decide which agents it trusts, while shared certification, identifiable operators and ongoing transaction monitoring could give the emerging agent-commerce ecosystem a common security backbone. Visa shares slipped approximately 0.4% to $369.39. For Visa, interoperability cuts both ways: common standards could strip friction out of agent payments, reduce duplicated verification and accelerate adoption across merchants and platforms, potentially expanding the pool of transactions flowing through Visa's network, but Visa would not control the identity layer alone. No transaction-volume, pricing or revenue commitments were disclosed.

PayPal's Venmo has launched its 2026-2027 Name, Image and Likeness campaign with nine student-athletes spanning football, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and softball, seven of whom compete in women's sports. Alongside the partnerships, Venmo introduced Money Moves, an initiative letting participating athletes receive part of their NIL earnings through Venmo and use the app to give back to teammates, coaches, mentors, family and fans, with campaign content running on Venmo's Instagram and TikTok throughout the school year. The push builds on Venmo's existing college-campus presence through college-branded debit cards, NIL partnerships and game-day experiences, and Venmo-commissioned research found 68% of surveyed college students said splitting costs helps prevent money issues between friends while 63% were more likely to join plans when costs could be split digitally. The campaign arrives as Venmo's second-quarter 2026 total payment volume rose 14% year over year to about $93.8 billion, a seventh straight quarter of double-digit growth, with Pay with Venmo volume up 44% and Venmo Debit Card monthly active accounts up more than 50%. Customers using both Venmo Debit and Pay with Venmo generated more than nine times the average revenue per account of P2P-only users in the second quarter of 2026, and that higher-value group roughly doubled over the past year.

Mastercard rolled out an AI payment option on Thursday that allows a virtual credit card to be issued to a user's AI agent, letting the bot make purchases without seeking the cardholder's approval each time, through a partnership with startup Alchemy. Users connect an existing AI agent to their Mastercard through Alchemy and set restrictions on what the agent can do, including spending caps and limits on which retailers it can shop at, and the agent can then make purchases at any online merchant that accepts Mastercard, though cardholders can also choose to have the agent check back before completing a transaction. Mastercard said its system depends on agentic tokens that the issuing bank generates, bundling together the cardholder's stated intent and transaction details so the network can confirm the agent is operating within authorized boundaries. Mastercard chief product officer Jorn Lambert said the company views agentic commerce as inevitable, adding that it is not about if but about when and how quickly, and that nothing happens overnight. Visa partnered with Alchemy earlier this year, according to The Wall Street Journal, meaning a majority of credit cards can now work with the tool, and Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have each announced their own tools and standards to support AI-driven purchases. Trust remains the biggest barrier to widespread adoption, according to The Wall Street Journal, with many users wary of trusting an AI agent with their financial details and worried about bots running up charges they never approved, and Citizens Financial Group president Brendan Coughlin said the concept is a really good one but certainly not without its risks. Uncertainty also surrounds the regulatory treatment of agentic payments, and it remains unsettled who would bear responsibility if an AI agent, whether malfunctioning or acting outside its intended scope, were to complete a transaction the cardholder never sanctioned, according to The Wall Street Journal, with bank executives including Coughlin remaining skeptical that the technology will take over the payments landscape soon.

Jack Henry & Associates reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results, with earnings of $1.57 per share surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9%, though the bottom line declined 10.2% year over year. Revenues rose 4.7% year over year to $644 million, beating the consensus mark by 2.3%, while non-GAAP revenues were $633.1 million, up 6.6% year over year after adjusting for deconversion revenues of $9.3 million and acquisition revenues of $1.6 million. GAAP operating income declined 12.2% year over year to $136.8 million, with the operating margin contracting to 21.2% from 25.3%, as higher personnel costs and a 19.2% surge in selling, general and administrative expenses pressured profitability. For fiscal 2027, the company expects GAAP revenues of $2.684-$2.709 billion, representing growth of 5.5-6.5%, and GAAP earnings of $7.33-$7.38 per share, suggesting year-over-year growth of 5-5.7%. Management highlighted a record 58 competitive core wins for fiscal 2026, including 14 institutions with more than $1 billion in assets, and CFO Mimi Carsley noted a 23.2% return on invested capital for the full year.

Global Payments Inc. is entering a new phase as a pure-play commerce solutions provider, with Worldpay now central to its strategy after the acquisition brought complementary payment capabilities and a broader global distribution network. In the second quarter of 2026, adjusted net revenues increased 33.8% year over year to $3.2 billion, helped by the addition of Worldpay, while on a normalized basis that includes Worldpay's pre-acquisition results, adjusted net revenues rose 4% and adjusted operating margin improved 70 basis points to 42%. Management pointed to progress in the Worldpay integration during the second quarter, alongside continued development of its Genius platform and the application of AI across its ecosystem. For 2026, GPN expects normalized constant-currency adjusted net revenue growth of approximately 4%-5%, with adjusted EPS projected at $13.60-$13.80, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings stands at $13.64 per share, implying 11.6% growth from the year-ago period. Shares of GPN have risen 11.8% in the year-to-date period against the industry's decline of 11.2%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 5.63 versus the industry average of 17.60.

Mastercard is positioning itself beyond payments with a new Collection for Business offering, citing survey findings that small businesses prioritize stability and integrated tools. Its Dreamonomics survey of more than 6,000 SMEs across 18 countries found that 68% prioritize stability and predictability over rapid growth, while 54% avoid unnecessary financial risk, and 61% favor deeper customer relationships over simply reaching more buyers. The new Collection for Business combines payment capabilities with productivity tools, travel and lifestyle benefits, cybersecurity support and business-focused experiences for eligible cardholders. Mastercard sees clear gaps: SMEs already rely on five digital tools on average, yet 89% intend to add more and 78% say integrated tools are critical, while 71% consider cyber protection a priority but only 37% currently use cybersecurity tools. Rival Visa launched its Visa & Main platform with a $100 million working-capital facility, and American Express offers its Business Blueprint, as Mastercard shares have lost 0.5% year to date compared with the broader industry's 11.2% decline.

Fidelity National Information Services said its core banking business is gaining traction as banks launch, merge and modernize their technology, signing five newly chartered banks in the first half of 2026, including Mercury, which has conditional approval for a national bank charter and FDIC deposit insurance approval. FIS also won the core banking mandate for a newly formed U.S. institution with more than $100 billion in assets. Two top-15 U.S. banks completed proofs of value for FIS' enterprise platform strategy, which lets banks progressively adopt modern capabilities, including AI, while preserving the stability of their existing core environments. The wins come as the FDIC approved 14 deposit insurance applications in the year through April 2026, twice the number approved during calendar 2025, signaling renewed de novo activity in banking. FIS shares have declined 44.6% year to date, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Warren Buffett told CNBC that markets are in a gambling mood and that prices for many assets will look very silly, while confirming he initiated Berkshire Hathaway's aggressive buying of Alphabet stock, a position now worth about $38 billion and representing roughly 12.6% of its public equity holdings. Buffett said the decision was made by Greg Abel, and when asked why he was comfortable buying Alphabet over other hyperscalers spending heavily on AI-related capital expenditures, he said he did not want to knock the others because they have no choice, adding that in many cases they are playing a game they do not want to play. Bond markets are pricing in default risk for Oracle, with a mid-market credit default swap spread of 192 basis points implying a 3.2% one-year default probability and 14.8% cumulatively over five years, after S&P Global Ratings downgraded Oracle debt from BBB to BBB-, its lowest investment-grade rating, warning that an industry downturn would hit Oracle worse than other hyperscalers. The takeaway is that any significant market-led weakness tied to weaker hyperscalers could be a buying opportunity in higher-quality names like Alphabet.

SBI Holdings announced on the 17th that it will make internet-related company Livedoor a wholly owned subsidiary. It will acquire all of Livedoor's shares from parent company Minkabu The Infonoid for about 7.5 billion yen. SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao and Takafumi Horie, who led Livedoor, once clashed in the battle for Nippon Broadcasting System shares, so the two have now come together as a group, transcending their past feud. SBI will strengthen its media business by leveraging Livedoor's assets, including its news sites in Japan and overseas. Minkabu will also form a capital alliance with NTT Data, and the three companies including SBI will consider new services in the financial sector, aiming to become a financial information platformer originating in Japan.

SBI Holdings announced on the 17th that it will make internet-related company Livedoor a wholly owned subsidiary. It will acquire all of Livedoor's shares from parent company Minkabu The Infonoid for about 7.5 billion yen. SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao and Takafumi Horie, who led Livedoor, once clashed in the battle for control of Nippon Broadcasting System shares, so the two have now come together as a group, transcending their past feud. SBI will strengthen its media business by leveraging Livedoor's assets, including its news sites in Japan and overseas. Minkabu will form a capital alliance with NTT Data, and the three companies including SBI will consider new services in the financial sector, aiming to become a financial information platformer originating in Japan.