Biggest stock movers Wednesday: SYRE, INTU, SAP and more
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Private credit firms can still whiff if algorithms do the work, but the onus is on them.
Lenders are leaning on artificial intelligence to score borrowers, monitor portfolios, and automate workflows that once took analysts weeks. Momentum is only building: More than half of private credit portfolio managers—54%—plan to deploy AI in underwriting, according to a March PwC survey of 120 global firms.
But as AI takes on more of that analytical heavy lifting, firms face a tough question: When an algorithm makes a mistake, who bears the blame?
For credit risk expert Naeem Siddiqi, author of Intelligent Credit Scoring and senior risk advisor at SAS, the answer is clear: Don’t fault AI; it’s just a tool.
If the large language model, or LLM, miscalculates a number or uses a prohibited category like race or religion, “then the lender is liable,” he said in an email. The courts already tested that principle — that a company can’t hide behind its own algorithm. Guess what? The company lost.
Take Moffatt v. Air Canada for example. One of the airline’s customers used its chatbot in 2022 to ask about bereavement fares following a death in his family. The chatbot told him he could book a full-fare ticket and apply for a refund within 90 days, advice that contradicted Air Canada’s actual policy requiring passengers to submit such requests before travel.
When the customer tried to collect, Montreal-based Air Canada argued it shouldn’t be held liable, effectively treating the chatbot as a separate entity responsible for its own statements.
The British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal rejected that defense, found Air Canada liable for the error and ordered the airline to pay $812.02 Canadian dollars, including CA$650.88 in damages plus interest and fees.
Siddiqi said the ruling set a precedent: “Companies can’t argue that the AI is a separate independent entity that frees the firm from liability.”
He pointed to a broader wave of AI-related litigation in the U.S. where legal exposure extends far beyond chatbots and the airline industry. Currently, there are copyright suits against LLM developers, including Anthropic. However, in other scenarios, the company wielding the tech bore the brunt of scrutiny.
Last year, facial-recognition company Clearview AI faced privacy litigation while software firm Intuit and HR tech firm HireVue received a discrimination complaint alleging their AI hiring tools disadvantaged a deaf, Indigenous job applicant.
“This is an emerging discipline,” Siddiqi said, “but it’s safe to assume the lender is liable for discriminatory decisions made on its behalf, whether by a human or an AI.”
For private credit firms racing to deploy AI across underwriting and portfolio monitoring, the early case law sends a signal: The technology can do the work, but it doesn’t absorb the risk. That still sits with the lender.
“Legally and regulatory-wise, the buck stops entirely with the lender,” said Omar Abassi, founder of Newport Beach-based lending tech startup LoanFlo AI.
So far, regulators such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have made it clear: You can’t delegate your compliance obligations to a software vendor, Abassi said.
If an AI algorithm introduces algorithmic bias, violates the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, or fails to provide legally compliant adverse action notices, regulators sue or fine the lender—not the AI company.
Because of this legal exposure, some lenders require vendor platforms to provide audit trails showing exactly what the AI read, and regular back-testing to prove the AI model does not inadvertently produce discriminatory outcomes.
That gap between high market interest and actual operational risk is top-of-mind for technology leaders building loan administration tools.
“There’s a general enthusiasm in the market around AI … and firms are very excited about diverse capabilities,” said David Yahalomi, chief operating officer and co-founder of Tel Aviv-based loan-management platform Hypercore. “But this technology is a statistical-based technology … it can make mistakes, and we’ve all seen that.”
Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for decision-makers, Yahalomi suggested lenders treat AI like a new hire who requires guidance and thorough review.
“We should treat it like it’s an employee,” Yahalomi said. “Even if you feel like you’ve trained your best agent … think about it like you gave a deal to your best person five minutes ago. Would it give you the correct answers, or does it need proper time to actually go and research?”
Ultimately, Yahalomi cautioned against granting agents final authority over deals: “We should not treat it as a person that makes calls … you shouldn’t treat it as an executive.”
The balance between strict regulatory oversight and day-to-day workflow is where human teams feel the pressure most. As LLMs become more ubiquitous, too few humans are taking on too much work and leaning heavily on AI-driven underwriting.
“Underwriters are definitely taking on too much work in traditional setups and being overworked in many cases, which leaves more room for human error,” Abassi said. But don’t expect AI to replace credit risk assessment; instead, it’s closing the gap so that fewer underwriters can underwrite many more loans and be less stressed as a result.
“Eventually, the AI will be so good that human underwriters won’t be able to keep up,” he added. “AI agents will be the ones reviewing the other AI’s work. We aren’t there yet, but ultimately it’s on its way.”
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com.
Earnings Call Insights: QumulusAI, Inc. (QMLS) Q2 2026
“This is our first call as a public company,” Michael Maniscalco (Chairman & CEO) said, framing Q2 as a proof point for QumulusAI’s “hyper speed rather than hyperscale” strategy as it “turn[s] signed demand into deployed GPUs.”
Seeking Alpha’s Disclaimer: This article was automatically generated by an AI tool based on content available on the Seeking Alpha website, and has not been curated or reviewed by humans. Due to inherent limitations in using AI-based tools, the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such articles cannot be guaranteed. This article is intended for informational purposes only. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.
Earnings Call Insights: Semtech (SMTC) Q2 FY2027
Seeking Alpha’s Disclaimer: This article was automatically generated by an AI tool based on content available on the Seeking Alpha website, and has not been curated or reviewed by humans. Due to inherent limitations in using AI-based tools, the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such articles cannot be guaranteed. This article is intended for informational purposes only. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.
When LeBron James signed up to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to NBA glory with a $154 million contract in 2018, it wasn’t the biggest deal he did that year.
Just months before he joined, a limited liability company he controls borrowed almost $300 million from a pair of Midwestern life insurers advised by an arm of Guggenheim Partners, according to insurance industry records reviewed by Bloomberg.
The previously unreported bonds, which are due in 2049, were structured to provide immediate cash to James and backed by a stream of future revenue tied to his earnings outside basketball such as a lifetime Nike Inc. sponsorship, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The burst of lending began before Guggenheim leader Mark Walter started acquiring the storied basketball team. In an abrupt turn this month, the billionaire mogul agreed to sell the Lakers amid a federal probe into parts of his business empire. There’s no indication that the loans to James have anything to do with those inquiries.
Athletes and artists are increasingly using future earnings like royalties and licensing deals to structure deals that help them unlock immediate capital. David Bowie was famously the first recording artist to go to Wall Street to tap the future earnings of his music, paving the way for a thriving market for esoteric securities.
But James’ deal offers another look at how Walter and fellow Wall Street money managers have tectonically shifted the once-boring business of life insurance, steering policyholder premiums into more unusual investments. Guggenheim has moved insurers’ money deeper into private credit, sports franchises and — with James — financing for a star player. That’s far outside the industry’s traditional focus on plain-vanilla assets to reliably pay out future claims.
The two insurers — North American Company for Life and Health Insurance and Midland National Life Insurance Co. — are both owned by Sammons Financial Group. During a call with investors this week, Sammons said Guggenheim was the sole manager in charge of picking assets for the firm’s portfolios until 2021, according to people who heard the remarks and, like others in this story, asked not to be identified describing confidential dealings.
Sammons has been distancing itself from Guggenheim recently. Walter’s firm had long counted Sammons’ parent company among its biggest investors. During the call, though, Sammons’ representatives said it has been selling down that stake, the people said.
The “transactions were a securitization done by Mr. James with his personal, non-NBA salary, assets and income which is a very common financial structure for an individual with this level of earnings and assets,” a spokesperson for James said.
Spokespeople for Sammons and Guggenheim declined to comment.
The scrutiny of Walter’s empire by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission has turned up the spotlight on the intermingling of asset managers and insurers.
Wall Street power players have used insurance balance sheets to pursue their quest for higher returns, steering the savings of everyday Americans into more opaque and complex investments. The approach lets asset managers originate and structure deals, and then find uncomplaining buyers by parking such investments on the balance sheets of insurers they influence.
James’ borrowing from the two Midwestern insurers — structured as sales of asset-backed bonds — began when he was at the Cleveland Cavaliers and his career was poised for new heights.
The two companies bought almost $300 million bonds issued by an LLC he controlled called King James Funding, the records show. Within a few years, the LLC paid down some of that debt, then sold more bonds to the insurers, leaving them with about $245 million on their books by the end of last year, the records show.
The initial bonds from 2018 had a 4.8% interest rate and aren’t due until late 2049, the industry filings show. Terms are otherwise scant in the records reviewed by Bloomberg.
A few months after the deal, James started looking for another team as a free agent, ultimately picking the Lakers. In an oft-retold moment, he received a visit at home from Walter’s longtime business partner Magic Johnson, then a top executive for the Lakers. James ultimately signed a four-year contract.
Then in mid-August 2022, James signed a $97 million contract extension with the Lakers. Around that same time, the same Midwestern insurers provided his LLC with more cash, buying almost $60 million of 34-year bonds with a 5.75% interest rate, the insurers’ records show.
“Both transactions were independently credit rated by a third party and the 2022 transaction was fully approved by NBA,” James’ spokesperson said, noting the athlete had no affiliation with Guggenheim, Sammons, North American Co. or Midland National beyond their participation in the transactions.
Guggenheim also got involved in some of James’ other personal ventures. As the Covid pandemic took hold in 2020, he and his childhood friend and business partner, Maverick Carter, announced that they had raised $100 million for their media venture called SpringHill Co. Guggenheim was listed among investors in that company.
Leaving the Lakers
For more than a decade, Walter has mixed money from insurers with investments in sports. His 2012 acquisition of the Los Angeles Dodgers with business partners including Johnson relied heavily on the insurance industry.
Afterward, the new team’s owners ramped up spending on players to turn the franchise into a jewel of professional baseball, appearing in five of the past nine World Series. But that playbook isn’t as feasible in the NBA, which has stricter caps on team salaries.
Walter’s acquisition of the Lakers began in 2021 when he purchased a minority stake, granting him rights that paved the way for him to take a majority stake last year.
The sale of the team came as Walter has been reshaping his empire to unwind more than $20 billion of loans on his insurers’ books that should have been marked as funding affiliated businesses, but weren’t. While regulations allow insurers to lend money to such parties, they require that the dealings be disclosed.
James, meanwhile, announced that he’s leaving the Lakers and he signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. His new team is co-owned by Josh Harris, whose 26North Partners invests across middle-market private equity, credit and insurance.
Li, Sridhar Natarajan and Rajbhandari write for Bloomberg.
Walter Cicchetti
SpaceX (SPCX) was in focus on Tuesday as J.P. Morgan said it has become “increasingly positive” on the company’s Grok artificial intelligence models and chatbot, especially after the Cursor acquisition.
“Cursor brings ~$4B of ARR (as of June 2026), with ~75% coming from businesses, which should
Rocky Brands leads U.S. footwear stocks as sector faces retail pressure
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Canada plays tariff tit-for-tat with Trump
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Leidos (LDOS) on Tuesday highlighted a Navy contract worth as much as $56.7 million to study psychological health and operational readiness among U.S. military personnel.
The award isn’t new. The Department of Defense originally announced it on July 10, 2025, identifying it
Dynacor Group declares CAD 0.0133 dividend
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There’s a lot of cash, but fewer deals propelled global fintech to the best year since 2022.
When Global Payments completed its roughly $24.3 billion acquisition of London-based Worldpay in January, it would account for nearly a quarter of all global fintech investment in the five months that followed, according to Big Four auditor KPMG International’s latest Pulse of Fintech report released Monday.
That massive transaction captures the central paradox shaping current fintech funding: total capital is surging, yet it is concentrated in fewer hands.
KPMG crunched the numbers using data from PitchBook, which tracks M&A and venture capital activity. Overall fintech investment surged to $103.1 billion across the six-month period — up from $72.2 billion in the second half of last year — putting the sector on track for its strongest annual performance in four years. Overall deal count, however, dropped to a multi-year low.
The shift reflects a strong preference for mature fintechs with proven track records over higher-risk, early-stage startups.
As a result, global deal volume dropped to just 2,100 transactions in the first half of the year. That’s down from 2,501 in the prior six-month period (the last six months of 2025). Instead of spreading capital across early-stage ventures, investors funneled funds into late-stage blockbuster deals.
Ten deals worth $1 billion or more closed during the period. In addition to buying WorldPay, Global Payments Inc. found itself on the sell side. The Atlanta-based company sold its issuer solutions business, Total System Services (TSYS), to Fidelity National Information Services Inc. for $13.5 billion — also in January.
Among the other megadeals of 2026, thus far, are the $8.4 billion buyout of Clearwater Analytics and the $6.4 billion take-private of OneStream. In Europe, Denmark’s Saxo Bank was acquired for $1.2 billion, and Belgium’s Kpler Holding landed a private equity growth equity investment of over $1 billion from global investment firm Sixth Street Partners in June.
Regional Dominance & Slumps
Sub-Sector Winners
The Americas accounted for more than 80% of global fintech investment, drawing $86.9 billion across 1,120 deals. The U.S. alone attracted $80.8 billion across 933 deals — over 75% of worldwide investment and 92% of the region’s total. American merger and acquisition activity more than doubled, rising to $64.6 billion from $27.4 billion in the prior six months.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) saw $11.3 billion invested across 626 deals, down from $18 billion in the second half of 2025, putting the region on track for a decade-low in both deal count and value. The UK led Europe with $2.5 billion across 205 deals, followed by Germany ($1.6 billion), the Middle East ($1.4 billion), the Nordics ($1.4 billion), and France ($1.2 billion). KPMG cited geopolitical tension, tariff policy, and inflation concerns tied to the Iran conflict as headwinds.
Asia-Pacific investment slid to $4.6 billion across 350 deals, down from $7.1 billion across 426 deals, with weaker activity in China, Japan and Singapore. India held up better, drawing $2 billion, while South Korea hit a four-year high of $899 million.
Payments, for example, led all categories with $44.2 billion invested, already exceeding all of 2025’s total thanks to the Worldpay deal.
Digital assets, meanwhile, attracted $11.1 billion across 467 deals. Corporate venture arms of major crypto platforms drove much of the activity in that corner. AI-focused fintechs pulled in $21.4 billion combined across venture capital, private equity and M&A.
The dynamics shaping fintech mirror a macro trend sweeping the global dealmaking landscape: total dollars are surging, but transaction activity remains bottlenecked. Across all sectors, PitchBook reported that global M&A deal value posted massive year-over-year gains in H1 2026. It reached $1.6 trillion in Q1 (up 50.5%) and $1.3 trillion in Q2 (up 35.3%). Just as in fintech, capital is concentrating heavily at the top — driven almost entirely by megadeals while overall transaction volume stays flat.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
AI could put the pound on the spot
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Canada will unveil retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Tuesday as tensions escalated with President Donald Trump pressing the Canadian government to “fall in line,” while Prime Minister Mark Carney accused Washington of offering a bad deal.
Canadian officials, including Finance
RBA keeps rates unchanged on restrictive policy concerns despite persistent inflation
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European natural gas prices may need to jump above €100/MWh ($117) by December for the continent to rebuild enough inventory to last the winter if the Strait of Hormuz crisis persists and keeps spot liquefied natural gas prices in Asia elevated, Goldman
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Prices for U.S. ethanol blending credits plunged Monday to their lowest levels in more than four months, Reuters reported, after the Environmental Protection Agency extended a September 1 compliance deadline for refiners and ruled on long-pending small refinery exemption requests by
Strategic liquidity and the latest technology are fueling digital transformation.
Modern treasury management is undergoing a profound digital transformation. As corporate finance teams navigate increasing geopolitical complexity, volatility, and the need for instantaneous decision-making, the role of their banking and technology partners has shifted. No longer just providers of standard transaction services, these institutions are becoming architects of sophisticated, data-driven ecosystems that prioritize real-time visibility, automated governance, and seamless liquidity orchestration. The global winners of Global Finance’s Best Treasury & Cash Management Providers 2026 awards demonstrate a clear commitment to this new paradigm, offering tools that do more than just process payments; they empower treasurers to treat liquidity as a strategic, actively managed asset.
METHODOLOGY
Global Finance editors select the winners of the Best Treasury & Cash Management Awards with input from industry analysts, corporate executives, and technology experts. The editors also use entries submitted by financial services providers, as well as independent research, to evaluate a series of objective and subjective factors. It is not necessary to enter to win, but experience shows that the additional information supplied in an entry can increase the chances of success. In many cases, entrants can present details and insights that may not be readily available to the editors of Global Finance.
This year’s ratings are based on the period from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025.
Global Finance uses a proprietary algorithm with criteria—including knowledge of local conditions and corporate customer needs, quality of product and service offerings, financial strength and safety, market standing, compliance, and excellent customer service—weighted for relative importance. The algorithm incorporates multiple ratings into a single numerical score, with 100 equivalent to perfection. In cases where more than one institution earns the same score, we favor local providers over global institutions and privately owned banks over government-owned ones.
The winners are those financial services providers that best meet the specialized needs of corporations engaged in global business. These top-notch financial institutions are not always the biggest, but rather the best—those with qualities that companies should look for when choosing a provider.
MEET THE WINNERS
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Deutsche Bank (DB) said on Monday that its new €500M share buyback program will begin on August 25.
The largest German lender had announced the new stock repurchase program as part of its second-quarter earnings release.
The program will be
