Goldman Sachs has a pitch for investors: It’s more than just a bank. It’s a leading alternative asset manager, and thus, its chiefs need to be paid like they’re at one. Shareholders are set to vote on Wednesday on whether to approve $160 million in special bonuses for Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and President John Waldron. Those bonus packages are Goldman’s way of keeping talent and warding off competition. “The board considered the unique competitive threats for talent that Goldman Sachs faces, including from alternative management firms and others beyond the traditional banking sector,” the bank said when it announced the bonus proposals in January. Goldman’s annual executive pay has lagged behind that of large alternatives firms, such as Apollo Global Management and Blackstone. And its annual pay for senior leaders lags behind them, too. Investors aren’t yet valuing Goldman Sachs as a private-markets, alternatives behemoth. Its shares are worth about 12 times earnings, which is roughly line with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. But KKR, for example, trades at about 30 times earnings, with Blackstone’s shares at around 37. The strong stock performance is a boon for alts CEOs like Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, who took in $1 billion in pay and dividends last year, my colleague Dawn Lim reported in February. He raked in about 11.5% more than he did the prior year because of his $916 million in dividends. Yale’s $41 billion endowment was among the first to pivot from investing in plain-vanilla stocks to more illiquid assets, such as private equity. In 2000, about 25% of its endowment was allocated to private equity, compared with the average university’s 2.2% allocation at the time. Now, the fund is exploring selling private equity fund stakes, as my colleagues Marion Halftermeyer and Janet Lorin reported this week. Evercore is advising the endowment on a process that has been in the works for months.
Goldman Sachs taps former Honeywell CEO to co-head new global portfolio operations group, to build upon the success of the Value Accelerator platform that has supported the firm’s private and growth equity investing
Goldman Sachs Group announced that Darius Adamczyk will join the firm as a Partner in the Asset and Wealth Management division and Co-Head of the Global Portfolio Operations Group, alongside Lou D’Ambrosio. The Global Portfolio Operations Group builds upon the success of the Value Accelerator platform that has supported the firm’s private and growth equity investing businesses. The Value Accelerator embeds operating expertise into investing processes and decision-making through a network of more than 100 executives who advise portfolio companies. The Global Portfolio Operations Group will partner with the firm’s Alternatives Chief Investment Officers to expand this capability to the entire Goldman Sachs Alternatives platform. Darius will join Lou to serve alongside key investing leaders on the firm’s Investment Committees and both will chair Portfolio Operating Committee reviews, partnering with investors in driving a disciplined, results-oriented approach to deliver exceptional outcomes.
Discover 1Q25 reports Payment Services pretax income was up 11% primarily due to volume growth in PULSE and Diners Club
Discover Financial Services reported net income of $1.1 billion or $4.25 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2025, as compared to a net income of $851 million or $3.25 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2024. “Discover’s solid first quarter financial performance benefited from a strong net interest margin and positive credit trends,” said Michael Shepherd, Discover’s Interim CEO and President. “These results reflect our good execution and the strength of our business model. We are pleased that Capital One has received all required approvals and look forward to completing our merger.” Digital Banking pretax income of $1.4 billion for the quarter was $316 million higher than the prior year period reflecting a lower provision for credit losses and increased revenue net of interest expense partially offset by increased operating expenses. Total loans ended the quarter at $117.4 billion, down 7% year-over-year as a result of the student loan sale, and down 3% sequentially due to seasonal trends. Adjusting for the sale, total loans were up 1% versus the prior year period. Credit card loans and Personal loans ended the quarter relatively flat compared to last year at $99.0 billion and $10.1 billion, respectively. Payment Services pretax income of $91 million was up $9 million year-over-year, or 11% primarily due to volume growth in PULSE and Diners Club as well as lower expenses. Payment Services volume was $96 billion, down 4% from the prior year period. PULSE dollar volume was up 3% driven by increased debit transaction volume. Diners Club volume was up 18% year-over-year reflecting strength in India and Israel, and Network Partners volume decreased 73% from the prior year reflecting the anticipated exit of a partner.
- Discover Network volume was down 1% reflecting a modest slowdown in Discover card sales
- PULSE volume was up 3% due to an increase in debit transaction volume
- Diners Club volume was up 18% YOY driven by growth in India and Israel
- Network Partners was down 73% YOY reflecting the anticipated exit of a partner
Revolut delivers first $1 Billion profit in 2024- customer base grew by 38% to 53m; Wealth boomed by 298% to $647m globally; targets 100 million daily active users across 100 countries
Revolut booked its first billion-dollar annual profit in 2024, underscoring how the London-based super-app’s widening menu of wealth, credit and subscription services is translating customer growth into bottom-line results. The privately held company said Thursday that group revenue soared 72% to $4.0 billion, driven by double-digit expansion in every major line, from card payments and foreign exchange to its fledgling wealth arm, where revenue leapt 298% to $647 million. Profit before tax rose 149% to $1.4 billion, while net profit more than doubled to $1.0 billion, lifting the net margin to 26% from 19% a year earlier. Revolut credited the gains to an expanding and increasingly engaged customer base. Total users climbed 38% to 52.5 million after the FinTech added nearly 15 million customers—the biggest annual increase in its nine-year history. Transaction volumes approached $1.3 trillion, up 52%, and total customer balances jumped 66% to $38 billion, providing low-cost funding that helped interest income rise 58% to $1.0 billion. Growth was broad-based. Card-payment income advanced 43% to $887 million as spending limits on its higher-tier accounts were raised. Subscription turnover climbed 74% to $541 million, aided by richer perks on its Premium, Metal and Ultra plans; paid-plan adoption overall increased 45%. In business banking, monthly active corporate users surged 56%, pushing revenue in that unit to $592 million — or about 15% of the group total — making Revolut one of Europe’s largest digital B2B banking providers. Chief Executive Nik Storonsky said the company is “just getting started,” outlining ambitions to reach 100 million daily users across 100 countries. Key milestones for 2025 include launching licensed banks in the U.K. and Mexico, rolling out mortgages, and entering India after securing a payments license. Even after its record year, Revolut estimates its penetration is only about 15% of adults in its core markets, leaving what it calls “substantial headroom” for further expansion.
HiddenLayer enhances explainability of AI models using Model Genealogy and AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM), that reveal lineage and pedigree to track how they were trained, fine-tuned, and modified
HiddenLayer released AISec Platform 2.0, the platform with the most context, intelligence, and data for securing AI systems across the entire development and deployment lifecycle. Tnew release includes Model Genealogy and AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM), expanding the platform’s observability and policy-driven threat management capabilities. With AISec Platform 2.0, HiddenLayer is establishing a new benchmark in AI security where rich context, actionable telemetry, and automation converge to enable continuous protection of AI assets from development to production. With AISec Platform 2.0, HiddenLayer empowers security teams to Accelerate model development, Gain full visibility, Automate model governance and enforcement and Deploy AI with confidence. AISec Platform 2.0 introduces: 1) Model Genealogy: Unveils the lineage and pedigree of AI models to track how they were trained, fine-tuned, and modified over time, enhancing explainability, compliance, and threat identification. 2) AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM): Automatically generated for every scanned model, AIBOM provides an auditable inventory of model components, datasets, and dependencies. Exported in an industry-standard format, it enables organizations to trace supply chain risk, enforce licensing policies, and meet regulatory compliance requirements. 3) Enhanced Threat Intelligence & Community Insights: Aggregates data from public sources like Hugging Face, enriched with expert analysis and community insights, to deliver actionable intelligence on emerging machine learning security risks. 4) Red Teaming & Telemetry Dashboards: Updated dashboards enable deeper runtime analysis and incident response across model environments, offering better visibility into prompt injection attempts, misuse patterns, and agentic behaviors.
TD Bank creates Consumer Index to track financial preparedness of Americans; 70% consider illness or an unwelcome visit to the Emergency Room as the most critical time to be financially prepared
Forty-four percent of Americans report they think about their financial preparedness every single day, yet 36% of Americans say they are not confident they have enough savings to cover unexpected bills. These significant findings are broken down in TD Bank’s inaugural Financial Preparedness Report, Consumer Index where more than 5,000 U.S. adults were surveyed to examine their financial challenges, saving habits, and the actions they are taking to improve their financial health. “With ongoing economic concerns top-of-mind for consumers, preparation is key to better ensure that you’re well-positioned in any climate,” said Allison Robinson, Head of Retail Distribution at TD Bank. “We aim to provide our customers with the guidance they need to help them achieve their financial goals, and the TD Consumer Index highlights some of the most pressing topics concerning consumers today.” Americans see illness or an unwelcome visit to the Emergency Room as the most critical time to be financially prepared, with seven in ten (70%) ranking it among their top three priorities for financial readiness. A majority (72%) of Americans have been impacted by unexpected bills, with 59% of these respondents having gone into debt as a result. Additionally, 33% had to reallocate part of their savings to cover costs. Despite acknowledging the significance of healthcare expenses, only half said they are prepared to cover those costs. Saving for retirement is important for an overwhelming majority of consumers (88% of respondents), yet almost half don’t feel ready for it (47%). That unease likely stems from respondents not setting aside monthly income for retirement (31%) or not using retirement accounts like a 401K or Roth IRA (56%), and shockingly, 15% do not have retirement savings at all. One-third of respondents who do not currently own a home have a negative outlook on their ability to purchase. Across all respondents, the top factors influencing homebuying decisions are affordability (55%), the cost of borrowing (32%), and concerns about economic uncertainty or job stability (29%).Eighty-one percent of Americans have taken steps to improve overall financial health, with the majority of respondents (55%) already reducing spending or creating a budget. Most (78%) indicated they use at least one resource to keep up with their budget, with banking and budgeting apps topping the list. Additionally, 41% of respondents either use or would consider using a financial planner or advisor to help with their financial preparedness. Those who currently work with an advisor are much more likely to feel prepared for unexpected car (72%) or home (69%) maintenance costs, as well as unforeseen medical expenses (66%). The Consumer Index covers a range of consumer behaviors including three standout categories: healthcare, retirement, and homeownership. In the coming weeks, the Financial Preparedness Report will release its Small Business Index.
No-code IAM platform offers developers a secure, scalable way to connect AI agents to external tools without having to manually manage and store tokens, scopes, and permissions
Descope, the drag & drop external IAM platform, launched the Agentic Identity Hub, an industry-first platform that helps organizations solve authentication and authorization challenges for AI agents, systems, and workflows. The Descope no / low code external IAM platform helps organizations easily create, modify, and manage journeys for their consumers, business customers, partners, and APIs / AI agents using visual workflows. Capabilities announced include: 1) Inbound Apps, which provide every application an easy way to become its own identity provider using the OAuth standard. This allows AI agents to securely authenticate, access authorized user data, and take scoped actions on behalf of users with their explicit consent. 2) Outbound Apps, which provide every AI agent builder a secure, scalable way to connect AI agents to external tools without having to manually manage and store tokens, scopes, and permissions. Developers can choose from over 50 out-of-the-box tool integration templates including Gmail, HubSpot, GitHub, Snowflake, Slack, Notion, and Shopify. 3) MCP Auth SDKs and APIs that help developers building and managing remote MCP servers secure their systems with robust authorization controls as well as extend the MCP servers’ functionality by connecting them with multiple OAuth-based services.
CX platform for banks WaveCX, adapts to each bank’s policies, user roles and app structure, and transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action, instantly linking user intent to right screen, step or solution
WaveCX, provider of personalized, digital product engagement solutions for financial institutions, launched Curator Command, a major advancement in digital banking user experience (UX) that transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action. Built as an extension of the Curator platform, Curator Command expands on its AI-driven, semantic search capabilities, moving beyond simply understanding user intent to acting on it. Digital banking users often face friction when trying to complete basic tasks, including navigating complex menus, disconnected flows and overloaded support teams. Curator Command eliminates this friction by instantly connecting user intent to the right screen, step or solution, streamlining task completion and reducing reliance on manual navigation. The system enables customers and employees to type requests in plain language, understands the intent, reads app structure and real-time context, and activates the appropriate response. Curator Command adapts to each financial institution’s policies, user roles and app structure, rather than relying on prebuilt workflows or manually tagged flows. The platform reads the interface, understands user context and delivers accurate results from day one. Key benefits for financial institutions include: Reduced support volume and faster resolution; Increased adoption of digital tools and services; Faster onboarding and lower training costs; and A more responsive and intuitive user experience
PayPal to offer users a 3.7% annual rewards rate on holdings of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin in their PayPal or Venmo wallets
PayPal Holdings will launch a rewards program this summer that will allow users to earn rewards on holdings of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin in their PayPal or Venmo wallets. The company expects to offer a 3.7% annual rewards rate upon the launch of the program, although it can change the rate at any time. Users will be able to immediately use the rewards to send to other PayPal or Venmo users, fund international transfers, exchange for fiat, convert to other cryptocurrencies or make purchases at merchants with PayPal Checkout. “Consumers and businesses use PYUSD today for commerce, crypto, peer-to-peer transfers and B2B payments,” PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss said. Michelle Gill, general manager of small business and financial services at PayPal, said the company expects to use the stablecoin to power a new B2B bill pay offering. “B2B bill pay is tapping into a $2 trillion market,” Gill said. “This is exciting not just for our merchants, but also for PayPal in that it opens up a brand-new network. … They now get to invite their vendors and their suppliers to join the PayPal ecosystem. … By the end of 2025, we hope to power all of this through PYUSD.”
Amazon Bedrock serverless endpoint system dynamically predicts the response quality of each model and efficiently routes it to the most appropriate model based on cost and response quality
Amazon Bedrock has announced the general availability of its Intelligent Prompt Routing, a serverless endpoint that efficiently routes requests between different foundation models within the same model family. The system dynamically predicts the response quality of each model for a request and routes the request to the model it determines is most appropriate based on cost and response quality. The system incorporates state-of-the-art methods for training routers for different sets of models, tasks, and prompts. Users can use the default prompt routers provided by Amazon Bedrock or configure their own prompt routers to adjust for performance linearly between the performance of two candidate LLMs. The system has reduced the overhead of added components by over 20% to approximately 85 ms (P90), resulting in an overall latency and cost benefit compared to always hitting the larger/more expensive model. Amazon Bedrock has conducted internal tests with proprietary and public data to evaluate the system’s performance metrics.