Major acquisitions and investments highlighted activity across investment banking and financial services, led by Aon acquiring USI Insurance Services for $17.0 billion and Grab taking a majority stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion. Regulators and institutions also advanced digital assets, with the SEC granting a five-year exemption for tokenized stock trading and S&P Global buying OpenZeppelin. Meanwhile, Ares Management teamed with PSP Investments on a $2.4 billion logistics venture, and regional funding deals closed in Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
01Policy
SEC Introduces Innovation Exemption for Tokenized Securities
Conditioning regulatory relief on full voting and dividend rights while barring synthetics anchors tokenized assets to actual corporate equity rather than parallel derivative markets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a five-year innovation exemption allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on venues. Chairman Paul Atkins announced the temporary framework on Thursday to give tokenized securities a regulated path without immediate formal rule changes. The policy applies only to tokens representing actual shares with full shareholder rights, such as voting and . Synthetic products that only offer price exposure fall outside the exemption and may require restructuring to enter U.S. markets. Qualified platforms must also implement KYC checks, trading limits, and volume caps while allowing corporate issuers to veto unauthorized tokenization of their shares.
S&P Global Acquires OpenZeppelin to Expand Tokenized Finance Risk Capabilities
Integrating smart-contract code auditing into traditional ratings frameworks establishes software security as a baseline prerequisite for institutional underwriting of tokenized financial assets.
Global agreed to acquire smart contract security firm OpenZeppelin for an undisclosed sum, bringing code auditing into the institutional ratings business. The transaction places OpenZeppelin as an independent unit inside S&P Global Ratings under co-founder and chief executive Demian Brener, who will report to ratings president Yann Le Pallec. S&P stated that the deal will not materially affect its financial results. OpenZeppelin's code libraries have underpinned more than $37 trillion in cumulative value transfers across , tokenized funds, and protocols since 2015. The firm has completed more than 900 security engagements and surfaced over 10,000 vulnerabilities before code deployment. S&P is buying the audit record and monitoring engine to establish a formal risk standard as traditional banks and managers migrate financial products onto networks. OpenZeppelin will maintain its brand, team, and open-source commitment, while its core libraries will remain permanently free and publicly available. Jefferies acted as financial advisor and Clifford Chance served as legal counsel to S&P Global, while FT Partners advised OpenZeppelin with Cooley as legal counsel.
Grab Acquires Majority Stake in Buy-Now Pay-Later Platform Atome for $1.49 Billion
Phased earnouts tied to loan performance allow superapps to absorb high-yield consumer credit balance sheets without taking immediate upfront write-downs if default rates spike.
Grab Holdings Ltd. is acquiring an initial 60 percent controlling stake in Singapore-based buy-now-pay-later platform Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash. The transaction includes $260 million in primary growth and combines Atome's digital lending products with Grab's financial services business. Grab agreed to purchase the remaining 40 percent stake roughly two years after the first transaction closes, using a performance-linked framework tied to and with a floor of $2 billion and a cap of $4.5 billion. The two-stage structure is designed to de-risk capital allocation while allowing Grab to leapfrog the timeline for expanding consumer credit across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Grab plans to use its three digital banks to lower the cost of funding for Atome , targeting a combined gross loan of more than $6 billion by 2028. Following the announcement, Grab raised its broader 2028 targets to forecast $1.7 billion in group adjusted EBITDA and annual revenue growth of more than 30 percent between 2025 and 2028. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of 2027.
SBI Group Backs dtcpay in $25 Million Funding Round
Securing traditional bank-backed venture capital allows Singapore-licensed payment providers to bridge stablecoin settlement directly into mainstream merchant acquiring networks.
coindesk.com reports that dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A funding round backed by Japan's SBI Group. The Singapore-licensed payments company secured the strategic investment through SBI Ventures and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India anchored the raise earlier this year, alongside returning participants Genedant and Kwee Liong Tek. Dtcpay holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and provides digital-asset conversion, custody, and Visa-linked card services. The firm will deploy the capital to build an enterprise portal, upgrade its application, and grow its merchant network. Management withheld the company and details.
Monsha’at and STC Bank Sign SAR 5 Billion SME Financing Deal
Pairing Saudi Arabia's SME authority with a telecom-backed digital bank anchors long-tenor credit expansion directly inside fintech balance sheets rather than traditional commercial branch networks.
The General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, known as Monsha’at, signed a cooperation agreement with STC Bank to establish a financing of up to SAR 5 billion ($1.33 billion). Signed on the sidelines of the Money20/20 conference in Riyadh, the deal targets micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises across various economic sectors with Shariah-compliant digital financing products. The program offers short-, medium-, and long-term facilities with tenors of up to 10 years, covering working , purchases, project financing, and trade services. Cumulative credit facilities extended to MSMEs in Saudi Arabia reached about SR467 billion by the end of 2025, marking a 33 percent year-on-year increase.
Ares Management and PSP Investments Form $2.4B U.S. Logistics Venture
Structuring the venture around an operational platform with a pre-seeded asset base accelerates the deployment of institutional pension capital directly into established supply chain corridors.
Ares Management and PSP Investments formed a $2.4 billion joint venture to acquire and develop logistics real estate across the United States. The partnership pairs from the Canadian pension investor with the real estate platform of Ares to target high-growth industrial markets. Marq Logistics will manage the and handle deal sourcing for the venture. The venture launches with a 5.2 million-square-foot seed comprising 14 properties located in New Jersey, Texas, and California. The alliance relies on Marq Logistics to oversee day-to-day property management while both firms deploy capital into industrial spaces driven by expansion and onshoring trends. Eastdil Secured Savills and Kirkland & Ellis advised Ares on the transaction. Cushman & Wakefield and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson advised PSP Investments.
Aon Pursues $17 Billion USI Deal Supported by Private Equity Backers
Financing a mid-market broker roll-up entirely with debt forces Aon to trade immediate share repurchases for distant synergy targets, increasing balance sheet risk for scale.
Aon Plc confirmed on August 31 that it will buy USI Insurance Services from KKR for $17.0 billion in an all-cash deal funded entirely by new . Aon expects the to deliver $395 million in annual run-rate synergies and prove accretive to adjusted in 2028. Aon shares fell in premarket trading on the news. The transaction builds directly on Aon's 2024 purchase of NFP, expanding an existing middle-market strategy rather than entering an unfamiliar sector. At the same time, Aon plans to pause near-term share to prioritize debt repayment, leaving investors to shoulder heavier and integration demands while waiting for the promised 2028 EPS benefit.
Institutional capital is flowing heavily into digital asset infrastructure, consumer lending, and direct insurance distribution. What remains unresolved is how traditional risk models will adapt as tokenized stock trading and automated smart contract audits enter mainstream financial workflows.
This, every morning.
SuMarket writes Investment Banking and Insurance Sector every morning, along with every other section of the market and the companies and topics you follow. Free to read.