Financial Services

McLean, Va. – September 18, 2026 -- ID.me and Plaid have launched a partnership allowing government agencies to verify a benefits claimant's identity and confirm their linked bank account belongs to them before disbursing funds, addressing a gap that contributed to $5.6 billion in unemployment insurance improper payments in fiscal year 2025.

Improper payment rate hit 14.9% for the fourth straight year

According to the Government Accountability Office, the 14.9 percent improper payment rate for unemployment insurance exceeded the federal standard for four consecutive years. Agencies have strengthened identity verification but lacked equivalent controls over where payments land, allowing claimants to pass identity checks and then enter a bank account that is not theirs.

Singapore – September 17, 2026 -- Peak3 has launched Graphene Harness, an end-to-end AI-driven delivery lifecycle (AI-DLC) for insurance software, alongside Graphene v4, an AI-native evolution of its core platform, cutting end-to-end new-feature development and core system implementation costs by 50% where deployed.

Peak3 targets an 80% cost reduction within 18 to 36 months

The Singapore-based insurance software provider said the current 50% reduction already applies to clients using Graphene Harness, with timelines shortened accordingly. Peak3 builds and maintains Graphene on the Harness system itself and is now extending access to selected implementation partners, with client availability planned over the next 6 to 12 months.

Tacoma, WA – September 17, 2026 -- Sound Credit Union and the University of Washington Tacoma Milgard Center for Business Analytics will host the second annual HuskyHack fintech competition on October 17, 2026, offering a $15,000 grand prize to the winning team.

Student Teams Get 24 Hours to Build Fintech Solutions

Students from colleges and universities across Washington State will compete individually or in teams at the University of Washington Tacoma campus. Participants have 24 hours to develop a product, prototype, or concept aimed at helping consumers manage their finances with greater confidence while building trust in financial services. The specific challenge topic will be disclosed at the opening ceremony.

Toronto – September 17, 2026 -- Thomson Reuters has become the only provider named a Leader across four IDC MarketScape categories covering value-added tax, sales and use tax, global trade, and e-invoicing compliance.

ONESOURCE Pagero earns Leader status in worldwide e-invoicing assessment

IDC positioned the company's e-invoicing and continuous transaction control (CTC) solution as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Compliant e-Invoicing 2026 Vendor Assessment (doc #EUR154882626, September 2026). The platform now covers compliance across more than 90 jurisdictions, serving over 65,000 active e-invoicing customers and a business network reaching approximately 14 million companies globally.

Washington, D.C. – September 17, 2026 -- The fourth annual CBC Summit USA will convene 200 executives, regulators and legislators on Sept. 17, 2026, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to address crypto banking, compliance and stablecoin infrastructure.

Wyoming Stable Token Commission and Congressman Kevin Kiley headline keynote sessions

The one-day program brings together traditional financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, fintechs, government agencies, law firms and compliance organizations. Panel discussions will incorporate audience questions alongside keynote appearances from the Wyoming Stable Token Commission and Congressman Kevin Kiley.

Providence, R.I. – September 17, 2026 -- Wealthbox, a CRM software provider for financial advisors, has become a launch partner for Claude for Financial Advisors, a new offering from Anthropic that embeds the Claude AI model into advisor workflow tools.

Wealthbox connector brings client history directly into Claude

The new Wealthbox connector for Claude includes prebuilt skills that let advisors pull client history, notes, and activity stored in Wealthbox directly into Claude's reasoning environment. Advisors can use the tool to prepare meeting agendas, organize post-meeting follow-up that saves back into Wealthbox, summarize recent client activity, draft client communications, and identify outstanding tasks.

Windsor, Conn. – September 17, 2026 -- Nearly six in ten pre-retirees (59%) rate themselves highly prepared for retirement, yet 76% have either no written plan or spent fewer than five hours in the past year developing, reviewing, or updating one, according to LIMRA's 2026 Retirement Income Readiness Report.

Confidence outpaces action among workers nearing retirement

The survey found 88% of pre-retirees — defined as workers age 45 and older planning to retire within 10 years — say they have thought about how they'll generate income after leaving the workforce. But half (50%) either lack a written retirement plan or have one they haven't updated recently, exposing a gap between stated confidence and actual planning behavior.

Beijing -- Jianpu Technology Inc. (OTCQB: AIJTY) confirmed that FINRA has fixed October 20, 2026 as the ex-dividend date for the special cash dividend the Chinese fintech platform announced on September 2, 2026.

Dividend payout of $0.499 per ADS exceeds a quarter of share price, forcing regulatory intervention

The special cash dividend of US$0.02495 per ordinary share, equivalent to US$0.499 per American depositary share, surpasses 25% of Jianpu's ADS trading price. Under FINRA rules, this threshold requires the ex-dividend date to fall on the first business day after the payment date rather than before it, pushing the ex-dividend date to October 20, 2026, one day after the scheduled October 19, 2026 payout.

LONDON – September 17, 2026 -- Sokin has released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector that links its licensed payment infrastructure directly to AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, allowing finance teams to prepare cross-border payments without leaving the chat interface.

Sokin's MCP connector processed 10 multi-currency invoices in under 10 minutes during testing

In internal testing, the connector handled 10 multi-currency invoices and treasury moves in under 10 minutes, a task that would normally require manual keying by accounts payable staff. Every instruction generated by the AI agent is still presented to the customer for confirmation, and existing Sokin approval rules apply before any payment settles on its rails.

Riyadh – September 16, 2026 -- Thunes has expanded its Direct Global Network to add payout services across six Middle East markets, giving Members faster and more transparent access to bank accounts, mobile wallets, and cash pickup points in Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, South Yemen, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.

Members can now process payouts in local currencies through direct API integration with Thunes or via existing Swift connectivity, extending reach into millions of bank accounts and mobile wallets across the region. The rollout follows Thunes' September 2025 expansion of real-time payments in Saudi Arabia.