Finance, Banking & Insurance

MINNEAPOLIS and HOUSTON – October 28, 2026 -- Skyward Group has become the primary carrier partner of AI-native insurer Slingshot Insurance. The deal gives Slingshot customers access to an AM Best A-rated carrier in all 50 U.S. states.

Skyward co-led Slingshot's $27 million seed round

The partnership follows Slingshot's emergence from stealth with a $27 million seed round co-led by Skyward Group. Skyward's operating businesses include Skyward Specialty Insurance Group, Inc. and Apollo Group Holdings Ltd. The group trades on Nasdaq under the ticker SKWD.

Wiesbaden – October 28, 2026 -- German households saved 18.9% of their gross disposable income in 2025, 4.6 percentage points above the European Union average of 14.3%, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), which published the data ahead of World Savings Day on Oct. 30/31.

Germany ranks above France, the Netherlands, Austria and Italy

French households saved 17.8% of disposable income in 2025, Dutch households 17.4% and Austrian households 15.7%. Italy recorded 10.8%. Switzerland posted 27.4%, the highest among the countries comparable to Germany. Destatis attributes the Swiss figure to the greater role of private retirement provision there. The United States recorded 10.7%.

Ten-year average of 19.1% confirms Germany's saving habit

German households saved 19.1% of income on average over the past ten years. Every comparison country had a lower long-term figure:

Brazil – October 27, 2026 -- Snowflake has made its Online Feature Store generally available, serving machine learning features in under 10 ms for real-time fraud detection. Two financial-sector customers, Neon and VALID Systems, report lower latency and lower fraud losses after moving to the platform.

Neon halves P99 feature latency to 72 ms after vendor discontinuation

Neon, a Brazilian digital financial institution with over 27 million customers, routes every login, card payment, transfer and loan request through Viper, its in-house fraud engine. Its previous feature store vendor, Tecton, was being discontinued, which set a hard deadline.

In three months, Neon's team rebuilt almost 300 features across eight fraud workflows on Snowflake Feature Store. P99 feature latency fell from 140 ms to 72 ms, almost twice as fast. Viper's service availability rose from 99.7% to 99.9%.

Hamburg – October 27, 2026 -- German corporate insolvencies will rise 8% in 2026 to 25,900 cases, the highest level in 13 years, according to Allianz Trade's latest global insolvency study. The credit insurer expects no relief in 2027, with cases flat (0%) at the same level.

Allianz Trade raises German forecast well above spring estimate

In spring, Allianz Trade projected a 2% rise for Germany in 2026, or 4% if the Middle East conflict persisted. Transport and logistics, construction, hospitality, and the automotive and mechanical engineering industries are hit hardest, according to Milo Bogaerts, CEO of Allianz Trade for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Cases have climbed a cumulative 85% since 2021 and sit 30% above pre-pandemic levels, though still well below global financial crisis peaks. A 5% decline to 24,600 cases is forecast for 2028, as economic headwinds ease and fiscal stimulus takes effect.

LONDON – October 27, 2026 -- Solana Foundation has named 37 additional speakers for Solana Breakpoint 2026, taking place 15-17 November at Olympia London, adding UK political figures and executives from payments, banking and market infrastructure to the program.

UK policymakers and City chairs join the stage

Revolut Chair Martin Gilbert will appear alongside former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Chancellor Sajid Javid, Standard Life Chair Sir Nicholas Lyons and ICE Europe President Hester Serafini. Lord Vaizey of Didcot, a former culture and digital economy minister, is also on the list. Patrick Witt, former Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House, adds a Washington perspective.

The Foundation framed the lineup around the UK debate on keeping capital, listings and talent in London.

Global – October 27, 2026 -- Coalition's newly appointed Chief Information Security Officer, a 25-year InfoSec veteran, argues that security teams run on a finite supply of organizational trust, and that high-friction controls drain it and push staff toward less-protected workarounds.

Coalition's CISO treats organizational trust as a limited token budget

The executive spent five years at Coalition before taking the CISO role. The CISO describes trust as a basket of tokens: every control costs tokens, and some cost more than others. Friction belongs only where risk warrants it, while teams should look for changes that raise protection and lower cost at once. Hoarding tokens benefits attackers, the CISO writes, because a control adequate two years ago may fall short today. Coalition holds vendors and itself to the same standard.

EU – October 27, 2026 -- The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) has published its Annual Work Programme for 2027. It lists digital operational resilience, technological innovation, sustainable finance, securitisation and cross-sectoral risk monitoring as the five key priorities for the EU financial sector.

ESAs continue DORA oversight of critical ICT third-party providers

Under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the three authorities will continue oversight of critical ICT third-party service providers. They will also work to strengthen the financial sector's preparedness against cyber threats. Financial institutions that depend on external technology vendors remain within the supervisory scope.

European Union – October 27, 2026 -- National authorities across the European Economic Area (EEA) imposed more than 950 administrative sanctions and measures in 2025, with administrative fines totaling almost €82 million, according to the third Sanctions Report from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

The number of sanctions and measures was stable compared with the past two years. The report also records an increased use of settlements.

Market abuse and MiFID breaches dominate enforcement activity

As in previous years, enforcement focused mainly on breaches of the Market Abuse Regulation and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation.

Germany, France and Spain account for two thirds of fine value

Enforcement remained concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions. Germany, France and Spain together accounted for two thirds of the total value of administrative fines across the EEA.

European Union – October 27, 2026 -- The EU will switch to T+1 settlement on 11 October 2027, and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) says the regulatory framework is now complete. ESMA is calling on market participants to finalise technical preparations, assess readiness across their entire ecosystems and start testing across the trading and settlement chain as soon as possible.

First compliance deadline for allocations and confirmations falls on 7 December 2026

Investment firms and their clients must comply with the new allocation and confirmation requirements from 7 December 2026. From that date, the amended RTS on Settlement Discipline makes two things mandatory:

- electronic, standardised communication channels and international messaging standards;
- machine-readable communication methods, except during temporary technical disruptions.

European Union – October 27, 2026 -- The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has finalised its revised Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) guidelines on delaying the disclosure of inside information, adding five legitimate interests that issuers can cite to justify a delay.

Under MAR, issuers must disclose inside information concerning them as soon as possible, so that investors are informed and insider dealing is prevented. Issuers may delay disclosure in specific circumstances to avoid prejudicing their legitimate interests. The guidelines give issuers a non-exhaustive list of such interests. The update completes the revised regulatory framework.

Five new legitimate interests follow public consultation

After a public consultation, ESMA added five situations in which a delay may be justified: