CFOtech US

Klarna has applied for a U.S. banking licence to establish a proposed industrial bank in Utah. It has submitted applications to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to establish Klarna Bank USA, which, if approved, would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Klarna Inc. The move would expand Klarna's regulated banking footprint in the United States, where it currently serves customers through partner banks.

Smallpdf has published a study on the workplace impact of oversized PDF files, based on a survey of 1,001 full-time employees in the United States. The research found that 78% of employees had experienced at least one work-related problem caused by large files. Reported issues included rejected emails, documents that could not be shared, slow uploads and downloads, disrupted workflows, and missed or delayed deadlines.

Ondo Finance has launched tokenised versions of two US-listed securities in the United States, with Broadridge providing proxy voting and shareholder communications for token holders. The launch covers BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and Micron shares. Ondo said the securities have been tokenised on the Ethereum blockchain under a custodial structure that keeps the underlying assets within the existing US custody system.

Queue has emerged from stealth with an autonomous robotic pharmacy and USD $12.6 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to USD $18.6 million. The seed round was led by AlleyCorp and follows a USD $6 million pre-seed round led by Riot Ventures less than a year earlier. House Capital, Ubiquity Ventures, Grep Ventures and Banter Capital also participated in the latest financing.

Assets under management in Binance's stock trading service passed USD $1 billion within 30 days of launch, while total trading volume exceeded USD $3 billion over the same period. The figures mark an early benchmark in Binance's move beyond digital assets into listed equities. Users can trade more than 7,000 US stocks and exchange-traded funds through the Binance app. The service settles trades in stablecoins and sits alongside customers' crypto holdings.

Standard Chartered has executed its first digital asset prime brokerage trades with LMAX Group, becoming one of the first global systemically important banks to test a bank-led prime brokerage model for digital assets. The pilot covered spot bitcoin and ether trades against the US dollar with T+1 settlement through the bank's UK branch. The trades were executed on LMAX Digital, with Standard Chartered Prime Brokerage acting as the credit intermediary between counterparties.

Sage has published research suggesting finance leaders are losing expected AI productivity gains to the work of explaining and checking AI outputs. The study surveyed more than 2,000 senior finance decision-makers and influencers across North America and EMEA. According to the findings, 26% of finance leaders said time saved by AI is being absorbed by the effort required to explain results to stakeholders.

Authologic has added support for identity credentials stored in Google Wallet to its OmniID verification platform, giving businesses a way to use those credentials in Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering checks. Businesses using OmniID can now accept credentials held in Google Wallet, including Google ID Pass, a digital passport available in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Singapore and Taiwan.

Datasite has published research showing that most dealmakers no longer see human-only decision-making as defensible in complex mergers and acquisitions. The survey found that 62% of respondents held that view. The findings suggest a shift in how artificial intelligence is used in high-stakes corporate transactions, while also showing that many executives still want people to retain control over the final decision to commit to a deal.

SAS has worked with South African micro-farmers on a data analysis project aimed at improving crop decisions. The work focused on small farms near the Cradle of Humankind. The project was carried out with dataDecisions.ai and The Dream, using seasonal crop, growth-cycle and market pricing data from micro-farms in an area where many growers work small plots near homes and informal settlements.