- Agentic AI: From Pilot to Production
- Tokenization: The $24 Billion Reality
Tokenized real-world assets surpassed $24 billion in total value by early 2026, growing 266% in 2025 alone. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, Fidelity, and Apollo have moved from experimentation to full-scale institutional deployment. The NYSE has announced a dedicated venue for 24/7 tokenized securities trading. We explore what this means for post-trade efficiency, collateral management, and liquidity.
- T+1 Settlement: The Automation Imperative
The US, Canada, and Mexico completed their T+1 settlement transition in May 2024, with Europe and the UK targeting October 2027. T+1 is a holistic recalibration of the entire trading lifecycle. The DTCC reported that T+1 reduced the NSCC Clearing Fund by $3 billion (23%), unlocking capital for redeployment. Automation, data quality, and custodian integration are now strategic imperatives.
- RegTech: The Sleeper Topic That Cannot Be Ignored
The 2026 regulatory landscape spans the EU AI Act, MiFID III, FRTB, Basel III/IV, ESG mandates, and AML/KYC obligations. AI and RegTech are converging to deliver real-time monitoring and surveillance, reducing fraud detection false positives by over 50%. Regulators now expect firms to prove controls work in practice through auditable, explainable AI-enabled frameworks.
