Blockchain is transforming payments, identity, and investing. Financial institutions must modernize quickly or risk losing relevance amid the shift to real-time, programmable systems.

AI enters 2026 facing energy bottlenecks, regulatory battles, and a gap between promise and performance. From market corrections to voice assistant limits and physical AI’s unreadiness, hype is meeting reality.

The news: Citi Wealth is collaborating with BlackRock to create a customized portfolio offering for its clients, per a press release. The new offering is scheduled to launch in Q4 2025 pending regulatory approval. Our take: Citi is leveraging BlackRock's scale and expertise to focus on its core strength: personalized, high-level advisory services. This is part of CEO Jane Fraser’s broader strategy to streamline operations and boost profitability in Citi's wealth management division. In addition, this move highlights the opportunities that partnerships create. In this case it allows Citi to offer more personalized services through a new platform as well as through the more efficient personalized guidance of experts. This follows the bank’s recent deployment of two new AI solutions that will supercharge client communications.

Critical flaws in its flagship AI hardware force Nvidia into a rushed redesign, threatening delayed shipments and sparking doubts about the AI industry’s breakneck expansion.

The ambitious project aims to supercharge data centers, but the looming energy impact raises sustainability concerns.

The fintech is focused on expanding in foreign markets like India and improving products at home with higher-rate savings accounts.

Some banks are planning job cuts in areas related to investments. But others are adding and upskilling as the economic outlook strengthens.

US regulators are allegedly discouraging banks from working with crypto firms. That could leave them with no option but to fold.

Stronger oversight and a shrinking competitive advantage for ESG products will fail to kill the sustainable investing boom

Major bank executives are now more united in predicting a recession next year, but the degree is uncertain.

The asset manager’s renamed division will be charged with managing critics from the political left and right.

Staggering client losses will force asset managers to bring forward strategies to better meet client demands through their product sets and client servicing.

Some state governments are penalizing them for not supporting the fossil fuel industry.

Voting Choice lets institutional index fund investors vote their shares at company meetings, giving them greater control over ESG topics. The increased clarity could be a model for all financial institutions.

Investors want retailers to take decisive action on ESG initiatives: But companies like Amazon and McDonald’s are pushing back on shareholder demands.

Spiking client demand for ESG-focused investment products will drive AUM growth over the next three years. Yet a lack of quality or public ESG data threatens investment managers’ ability to offer accurate products and might see them run afoul of rising ESG regulatory standards.

With Just Invest, Vanguard acquires the tech to offer direct indexing to a wider pool of investors and corner that market, as it has with traditional index investing.

The US neobank committed to help people boost their savings—its latest initiative to raise its profile as a trustworthy financial institution among customers.