Vistra: Helping Companies Expand Across Borders with Less Friction

Vistra helps companies manage the legal, regulatory, and operational demands of international growth. By combining local expertise, global scale, digital infrastructure, and human judgement, it aims to make cross-border expansion more consistent and manageable.

International expansion creates opportunity, but it also introduces complexity.

Every new market brings different tax rules, governance standards, reporting duties, and ownership requirements. These obligations can become difficult to manage across multiple jurisdictions.

Vistra’s role is to reduce that friction.

The company supports corporate, fund, and private capital clients across more than 50 markets. Its services combine local expertise with a unified global operating model.

The objective is not simply to establish entities. It is to help clients maintain compliant, efficient, and well-governed structures as they grow.

What Are the Main Compliance Challenges of Cross-Border Growth?

Regulatory complexity is one of the largest barriers to international expansion.

Tax, anti-money laundering rules, economic substance requirements, ESG disclosures, and beneficial ownership registers vary widely. They also change frequently.

These obligations now extend beyond routine filing. Many require accurate entity-level data and local interpretation.

The risk increases when companies use multiple local providers. Each may have different systems, processes, and service standards.

Knowledge can also become concentrated in one individual. This creates key-person dependency and weakens continuity.

Fragmented data presents another problem.

Companies may hold documents, ownership records, and compliance information across several systems. Without a unified view, complexity grows faster than the business.

Time zones add further pressure. Compliance deadlines and operational decisions do not always align with office hours.

These issues can distract management from core strategy.

Administrative structures may not determine whether a product succeeds. However, poor governance can undermine an otherwise successful expansion.

How Vistra Supports Global Expansion

Vistra provides one operating framework across multiple markets.

This gives clients access to local expertise without managing a separate network of advisers in each country.

The model can improve speed to market.

When the required governance, compliance, and entity structures are already available, clients can move from decision to operation more quickly.

The same advantage applies during acquisitions.

A transaction may add hundreds of entities to a corporate portfolio. A consolidated provider can integrate those entities more efficiently than a fragmented network.

Vistra also supports clients after the initial expansion.

Regulations change, business strategies evolve, and structures become outdated. Entity health checks and portfolio reviews can help keep operations aligned.

This turns compliance from a static obligation into a more adaptable operating framework.

How Regulatory Complexity Can Create Strategic Value

Complexity is not only a burden. It can also create an advantage for well-prepared companies.

Businesses with accurate records and established governance can respond faster when rules change.

They can also complete acquisitions, divestments, and funding rounds with fewer delays.

Deal readiness becomes increasingly important as due diligence standards rise.

Companies with clean registers, current filings, and clear ownership structures can move through transactions more efficiently.

Vistra’s global presence also supports regulatory horizon scanning.

Changes in one jurisdiction can indicate what may follow elsewhere. This allows clients to prepare before new requirements become urgent.

The value lies in connected compliance intelligence.

A beneficial ownership rule in one country may interact with tax or ESG obligations in another. These issues should be assessed as part of one global structure.

How Vistra Uses Technology in Corporate Services

Vistra’s digital strategy focuses on unification.

Clients often manage separate tools for entity records, documents, reporting, onboarding, and compliance. Vistra Digital brings these functions into one environment.

The platform provides a unified view of an organisation’s entity estate.

Clients can review structures, access documents, monitor deadlines, and track service requests across markets.

This creates what Vistra describes as a digital twin of the entity portfolio.

Document workflows are also central to the platform.

Files stored across inboxes and disconnected systems create risk. A secure central system makes documents easier to upload, retrieve, and track.

Compliance monitoring becomes more proactive.

Instead of waiting for deadlines or chasing updates, clients can identify issues earlier.

Onboarding can also be accelerated through AI-assisted workflows. This supports faster turnaround, greater accuracy, and more consistent processes.

Reliable data remains essential.

A real-time platform cannot create value if ownership records and entity information are incomplete. Data cleansing and governance are therefore part of the service.

How Vistra Uses AI in Professional Services

AI supports both client service and internal operations.

Geni, Vistra’s AI assistant, helps users access information and accelerate service requests. Clients can use it directly or work with a specialist.

AI also supports regulatory research, onboarding, compliance workflows, and document processing.

These tools can reduce time spent on administrative work. They also help improve consistency across markets.

Vistra’s aim is not to replace professional expertise.

AI can identify information, prepare analysis, and improve speed. It cannot assume responsibility for complex governance decisions.

Human judgement remains central where regulatory interpretation, accountability, and client assurance are required.

The company’s model combines technology with professional credentials.

This approach is intended to reduce both risk and inefficiency.

How Vistra Maintains Consistent Service Across Markets

Consistency at global scale requires a clear operating structure.

Vistra has organised its business around market leaders with responsibility for sales, account management, and delivery.

This creates one accountable leader for the client relationship.

A unified operating model supports those leaders.

Common systems and service standards help ensure that work is handled consistently across markets.

Vistra is also consolidating its legal, document management, ticketing, finance, and client-facing platforms.

Rollout takes place market by market. Dedicated teams remain on the ground to support adoption.

This reduces disruption and allows local context to be considered.

Local expertise is preserved through empowered market teams.

Global delivery hubs provide capacity and process consistency. Client-facing relationships remain with professionals who understand local regulation and business culture.

What Is Driving Vistra’s Future Growth?

Vistra’s next phase rests on four connected priorities: digital transformation, geographic expansion, fund services, and consolidation.

Digital transformation is the foundation.

A unified platform supports AI adoption, workflow improvement, and a more consistent client experience.

Geographic expansion remains important.

The acquisition of BLH added 16 Latin American countries to Vistra’s direct footprint. This gives clients broader support across the region.

Fund services are another growth priority, particularly as private capital continues to expand.

Consolidation will also remain part of Vistra’s strategy.

The company has completed 18 acquisitions in 15 years, including six since the Tricor merger.

Acquisitions add reach and expertise. They can also create complexity if systems and service models remain fragmented.

The digital backbone is intended to convert that scale into a more coherent client experience.

Making International Business More Manageable

Vistra’s strategy is built around one central objective: reducing friction for clients.

Geographic expansion provides access to more markets. Digital tools improve visibility and access. Local professionals provide judgement and assurance.

Each element supports the same goal.

For companies operating internationally, the challenge is not only entering new jurisdictions. It is maintaining control as the organisation grows.

Vistra aims to provide that control through a combination of global consistency, local expertise, and integrated technology.

The result is a model designed to make cross-border business more transparent, connected, and manageable.


The Gilded Sanctuary: Inside the Last Bastion of the British Gentleman

From the smoky coffee houses of St James’s to the modern, inclusive hubs of the twenty-first century, the London club has evolved from a symbol of exclusivity into a dynamic institution shaped by tradition, adaptation, and enduring social appeal.

To walk down Pall Mall is to navigate a canyon of Portland stone and quiet prestige. To the casual observer, the heavy mahogany doors and tall curtained windows of St James’s suggest a world frozen in time. This is the heart of London’s Clubland, a geographical and social ecosystem that has, for more than three centuries, served as the private living room of the British establishment. Yet behind the hushed libraries and the scent of polished wood and leather, these institutions have undergone a transformation as profound as the city surrounding them.

The Caffeine-Fuelled Genesis

The story of the gentlemen’s club begins not with silk waistcoats and vintage port, but with the lively, democratic energy of the seventeenth-century coffee house. Following the Restoration in 1660, London experienced a social awakening. Coffee houses such as White’s and Brooks’s were initially far from exclusive; they were vibrant, egalitarian spaces where, for the price of a penny, any man could enter to debate politics, trade, and the news of the day.

By the late seventeenth century, however, the upper classes began to seek greater privacy. The so-called “penny universities” became too crowded and unpredictable for aristocratic tastes. By the mid-eighteenth century, many of these establishments had evolved into private members’ clubs. White’s, founded in 1693, became a bastion of Tory politics, while Brooks’s, established in 1764, aligned itself with the Whigs. This political divide shaped the early identity of Clubland.

The Golden Age of the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century marked the true zenith of the club. As the British Empire expanded, so too did the demand for spaces where its administrators, officers, and intellectuals could gather. Following the Napoleonic Wars, returning officers sought the camaraderie of the mess hall within the capital, leading to the emergence of service clubs such as the United Service Club and the Athenaeum.

Founded in 1824, the Athenaeum represented a shift in purpose. It was not merely a social space for soldiers or politicians, but a sanctuary for thinkers, scientists, and writers. Its membership included figures such as Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens, and its library became one of the finest in Europe. Architecturally, this period defined Clubland’s grandeur, with designers such as Decimus Burton and Charles Barry creating buildings that echoed aristocratic residences—palaces in all but name.

The Art of the Blackball

Exclusivity was enforced through a now-legendary system of admission: the ballot. Candidates required nomination and support from existing members. During voting, white balls signified approval, while a single black ball could result in rejection. To be “blackballed” was more than a denial of entry; it was a public social rebuke.

This process cultivated homogeneity. Clubs were designed as refuges—places where members could retreat from public life. Silence became a defining feature. In libraries such as those at the Reform Club or the Travellers Club, the only sounds permitted were the turning of pages or the soft crackle of a fire.

Mid-Century Decline

The twentieth century brought disruption. Two World Wars depleted membership and altered the social fabric of Britain. The post-war era’s push toward equality rendered the concept of exclusive, male-only spaces increasingly outdated. By the 1950s and 1960s, many clubs faced financial strain, burdened by the cost of maintaining vast historic properties.

The 1970s and 1980s proved particularly challenging. The image of the clubman became a caricature—anachronistic and detached. Mergers became a survival strategy, as institutions consolidated resources to remain viable. For many observers, the club appeared destined for quiet extinction.

The Modern Renaissance

The revival of the club did not originate in St James’s but in Soho. In 1995, Nick Jones founded Soho House, redefining the model for a new generation. Instead of privileging pedigree and tradition, Soho House embraced creativity, youth, and cultural capital. Formal dress codes were abandoned in favour of a more relaxed aesthetic aligned with the media and creative industries.

The success of Soho House, along with venues such as the Groucho Club and 5 Hertford Street, demonstrated that the desire for curated private spaces remained strong. What had changed was the nature of belonging. Membership was no longer solely about status; it was about identity.

The Question of Inclusion

One of the most significant shifts has been the admission of women. For centuries, these institutions were exclusively male domains. Women, if admitted at all, were restricted to certain rooms or occasions. Resistance to change was strong; the Carlton Club, for example, delayed granting full membership to Margaret Thatcher until long after her premiership.

By the late twentieth century, change became unavoidable. The Reform Club admitted women in 1998, and many others followed. Even long-standing holdouts have begun to evolve. This shift has been driven not only by social progress but by economic necessity. Expanding membership criteria has ensured both relevance and sustainability.

Life Inside the Modern Club

Today’s clubs balance tradition with modernity. A single space may host a morning of remote work, an afternoon lecture, and an evening social gathering. Dining, once criticised for its conservatism, has evolved significantly, with many clubs now offering high-quality, contemporary cuisine.

Certain traditions endure. The communal “club table” remains a fixture, allowing members to dine among peers and fostering spontaneous interaction. This blend of continuity and adaptation defines the modern experience.

The Architecture of Belonging

The physical environment remains central to the club’s appeal. In contrast to transient co-working spaces, club interiors offer permanence and character. Grand staircases, oil portraits, and expansive rooms create a sense of continuity that resonates in a rapidly changing world.

Modernisation has not been ignored. Many clubs now feature gyms, spas, and advanced facilities, transforming them into comprehensive lifestyle destinations. Accommodation has also become a key offering, providing members with a private base in central London.

Why the Club Endures

In 2026, the London club is not a relic but a resilient institution. In an age defined by digital connectivity and public exposure, it offers something increasingly rare: privacy. It is a space where conversation remains discreet and relationships are built away from the glare of constant visibility.

The enduring appeal lies in a fundamental human desire—for both community and distinction. Membership offers access to a curated network, whether defined by profession, culture, or shared interests.

The modern private members’ club has survived by embracing change while preserving its core identity. It has shed its rigidity without losing its sense of ceremony. It has opened its doors without abandoning its atmosphere of quiet exclusivity.

As long as there are individuals who value thoughtful conversation, refined surroundings, and a sense of belonging, the doors of Pall Mall and St James’s will continue to open. The club is no longer simply a vestige of the past; it is an evolving feature of London’s social and cultural future. In an age defined by speed and visibility, its greatest luxury may be the quiet preservation of time, discretion, and human connection.


Boards and AI: From Oversight to Insight

How AI can improve the effectiveness of boards

THE SHORT VERSION

AI is now supporting boards to do their work. Used well, it helps directors digest dense board packs, ask sharper questions, benchmark against peers and assess their own performance, freeing up valuable time for judgement based decision-making. This piece argues that the next phase of governance is not the governance of AI but governance with AI: AI should inform board decisions, not make them.

The purpose of boards has remained largely unchanged. Boards exist as oversight bodies: to ensure fair practices, protect shareholders and prevent malfeasance. What is changing is the means. Artificial intelligence (AI) now offers a better platform for the work boards have always done.

[caption id="attachment_28566" align="alignright" width="240"] Author: Sunil (Sunny) A. Misser[/caption]

For as long as boards have existed, they have operated at a structural disadvantage. Directors answer for a company they do not run, and most of what they learn reaches them through a single channel: the management team they are meant to oversee. Few teams set out to mislead, but the board pack is assembled by management, the framing is theirs, and it is often long enough that absorbing it fully before a meeting is a challenge in itself.

In practice, this means the board can end up seeing the company largely as management has chosen to present it, and that matters more than it once did. A director’s remit has stretched from financial performance, audit, legal and compliance to take in cybersecurity, geopolitical risk, climate-related financial risk, supply-chain integrity, human capital, regulatory divergence and reputational risk, all under a level of public scrutiny and personal liability that an earlier generation of directors never faced.

Used thoughtfully, AI can serve as a means of oversight in its own right. It allows directors to absorb more of the information they are given, frame sharper questions, and spend their time on judgement rather than on reading and retention. In other words, AI can support the board’s work, not merely sit on its agenda as a governance concern.

AI will not make the decisions. It leaves those who do better prepared and more capable of doing so. AI should inform, not decide.

How AI closes the board information gap

The clearest gain is the board pack. AI can work through a document running to several hundred pages, distil each section, point to what deserves attention and flag what is missing. It can also propose pointed questions against each agenda item, so directors arrive ready to get the answers they need.

It also supports independence. Rather than relying solely on management’s account, a director can ask AI to compare the company’s disclosures against peers, test the numbers against outside market data, and read across the board’s own back catalogue of materials for trends. PwC reports that 35% of directors say their boards have begun using AI and generative AI in their oversight work, from preparing for meetings to pressure-testing strategy. The result is a board that arrives with an informed view of its own.

Sharper preparation, better questions

AI can also take on administrative work: drafting minutes, carrying forward action items, logging attendance and keeping a record of which commitments were made and met. With less time lost to administration, directors can focus on what matters. The same tools can test a company’s performance measures against outside data, letting a board pressure-test a capital-allocation decision before the vote rather than explain it afterwards.

A mirror for the board: assessing its own performance

Boards have never found it easy to judge their own performance objectively. Working from agendas, committee charters and skills matrices, set against a wide body of peer disclosures and governance codes, AI can show directors where their time actually goes and how that compares with good practice elsewhere. That puts evidence behind the decisions most closely tied to long-term performance: how a board evaluates itself, its capacity and composition, and its current and future capabilities.

Can AI evaluate directors and management?

Today, directors are assessed largely by hand. That is beginning to change. A director’s record, including voting decisions, attendance and committee contributions, can increasingly be reviewed, analysed and benchmarked with the help of AI. The same approach can extend to management: CEO and executive decision-making can increasingly be assessed on a more continuous basis, and compared against peers, rather than only at quarterly intervals. Compensation and succession planning, today shaped heavily by judgement and relationships, can likewise be informed by more comprehensive analysis. None of this replaces the board’s judgement; it gives that judgement a firmer evidential base.

The evidence: AI-savvy boards and return on equity

[caption id="attachment_28564" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Figure 1: Companies with digital and AI expertise on their boards averaged a return on equity 10.9 percentage points above their industry, while those without averaged 3.8 points below. Chart: AccountAbility, derived from MIT Center for Information Systems Research, “Digitally Savvy Boards: AI Update,” 2025.[/caption]

MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research reports that companies whose boards have digital and AI expertise sit 10.9 percentage points above their industry’s average return on equity, while those without it sit 3.8 percentage points below.

The figure measures the directors that comprise the board rather than how the board works: directors with digital and AI expertise, not the use of AI tools in its processes. While it is adjacent evidence rather than direct proof, nonetheless, it points in the same direction. Fluency with AI at board level travels with stronger performance, and boards with that fluency are best placed to put the tools described here to work.

Adoption, though, remains slow. McKinsey finds that only 39% of Fortune 100 companies disclose any form of board oversight of AI, and Deloitte’s global survey of directors finds that 66% say their boards have “limited to no knowledge or experience” with AI. The gap between the performance associated with AI-fluent boards and the readiness on the ground is precisely the opportunity.

The trade-offs are real

Using AI in the boardroom carries real responsibilities that need to be designed in from the start:

AI outputs should always pass through human review before a board acts on them.

Board materials are sensitive, so only company-approved tools and standardised systems should be used.

Directors’ prompts and AI outputs can become part of the discoverable record, so retention rules should be agreed in advance.

The boards that are ahead of this will work to an agreed framework that sets out how and when AI tools are used, and phase their adoption over time. Used with sound, balanced judgement, AI is a valuable addition to the boardroom.

In the final analysis, AI will not make the decisions; it leaves those who do better prepared and more capable of doing so. That, in the end, is what board effectiveness has always meant.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI make board decisions?

No. The case here is for AI as a support tool, not a substitute: it should inform the board’s judgement, not replace it. AI helps directors prepare, question, and benchmark; the decisions remain theirs.

How can AI improve board effectiveness?

By closing the information gap. AI can summarise dense board packs, surface what is missing, draft pointed questions, compare a company against its peers, handle routine administrative tasks, and help a board assess its own performance, so directors can spend more time on judgement based decision-making.

Do AI-savvy boards perform better?

The data suggests so. MIT CISR found that companies with digitally and AI-savvy boards sat 10.9 percentage points above their industry’s average return on equity, while those without sat 3.8 points below (MIT CISR, 2025). The measure is expertise on the board rather than the board's use of AI tools, so it shows fluency and performance moving together rather than proving cause.

How widely do boards use AI today?

AI adoption is in its early stages. PwC found 35% of directors say their boards have started using AI in their oversight work, while McKinsey found only 39% of Fortune 100 companies disclose any board oversight of AI, and Deloitte found 66% of boards report limited or no AI experience.

What are the risks of using AI in the boardroom?

Three core risks stand out: AI outputs need human review before they are relied on; sensitive board materials require company-approved, standardised tools; and because prompts and outputs may be discoverable, boards should agree on information retention rules, in advance.

Sources

PwC, “Using AI in the Boardroom: New Opportunities and Challenges,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2025 (PwC 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey).

MIT Center for Information Systems Research, “Digitally Savvy Boards: AI Update,” 2025.

McKinsey & Company, “The AI Reckoning: How Boards Can Evolve,” 2025.

Deloitte, “Governance of AI: A Critical Imperative for Today’s Boards” (2nd edition), Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2025.

By Sunil (Sunny) A. Misser Chief Executive Officer, AccountAbility

About AccountAbility

AccountAbility is an expert international sustainability advisory and standards firm that works with businesses, investors, governments and multilateral organisations to advance the global sustainability agenda by improving the practices, performance and impact of organisations. It operates globally from offices in New York, London, Riyadh and Dubai, supported by a highly qualified team recognised by the Financial Times, Forbes and Capital Finance International.


The Bioforge Prophecy: How Houston’s Enzyme Engineers are Decarbonising the Periodic Table

While the venture capital world remains captivated by the digital abstractions of generative artificial intelligence, a quieter revolution in carbon and enzymes is unfolding in the heart of Texas. Solugen is not merely building a business; it is challenging the chemical industry’s centuries-old reliance on fossil fuels, demonstrating that the future of heavy industry may be biological.

By the time you finish reading this sentence, the global chemical industry will have emitted several thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide. For more than a century, the recipe for everything from household bleach to smartphone plastics has remained remarkably consistent: take a fossil fuel, apply immense heat and pressure, and accept toxic by-products as the cost of production. This thermochemical era built the modern world, but it is now confronting the limits imposed by environmental regulation and resource constraints.

Enter Solugen. Based in Houston—a city historically defined by the steady rhythm of oil extraction—the company operates what it calls a “Bioforge.” The facility resembles a conventional chemical plant but functions more like a living system. By deploying engineered enzymes to convert simple plant sugars into high-value industrial chemicals, Solugen is doing more than “greening” supply chains; it is demonstrating that biology may be the most sophisticated manufacturing platform available.

The End of the Smokestack

To understand Solugen’s significance, one must first recognise the inherent inefficiencies of traditional chemistry. Processes such as Haber-Bosch require temperatures exceeding 500 degrees Celsius and pressures of extraordinary intensity. These conditions are costly, energy-intensive, and inherently hazardous.

Solugen’s founders, Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt, identified a radically different approach while studying biological systems. They realised that enzymatic processes—similar to those regulating sugar metabolism in the human body—could be scaled for industrial production at ambient temperatures. The Bioforge eliminates the need for furnaces and flare stacks. Instead, it relies on controlled environments, engineered enzymes, and feedstocks derived from dextrose and other biomass.

The result is a process that can be carbon-negative. While traditional chemical plants emit carbon dioxide, Solugen’s method incorporates carbon into the final product. In a global market valued at over five trillion dollars, this is not merely an environmental advantage—it is a structural one. As carbon pricing becomes increasingly embedded in regulatory frameworks across Europe and North America, carbon-negative production offers a powerful hedge against future liabilities.

Economics Over Ideology

For decades, “green” chemistry was viewed as a niche pursuit, often associated with higher costs and limited scalability. Solugen has challenged this perception by focusing on unit economics rather than sustainability narratives alone.

Its competitive edge lies not only in environmental performance but in cost efficiency. By eliminating high-heat infrastructure and simplifying synthesis processes, Solugen can produce key molecules—such as glucaric acid, widely used in water treatment and construction—at costs below those of petroleum-based alternatives.

This represents the long-sought “green parity.” When sustainable solutions are also economically superior, adoption becomes inevitable. It shifts from a question of corporate responsibility to one of financial logic. This dynamic is reflected in Solugen’s funding trajectory, with significant backing from global investors including GIC and Temasek. The company has moved beyond start-up status to become a defining player in Houston’s evolving industrial landscape.

The Scale-Up Challenge

The central criticism of bio-manufacturing has always been scale. Producing small quantities in a laboratory is fundamentally different from delivering industrial volumes to global markets.

Solugen’s response has been modularity. Its initial Bioforge facility served as proof of concept, but subsequent expansion has focused on distributed manufacturing. Rather than building a single, capital-intensive refinery, the company develops smaller, high-efficiency plants located close to feedstock sources or end markets.

This approach aligns with the resilience demands of the current business environment. By reducing transport distances, Solugen lowers both emissions and exposure to supply chain volatility. In an era defined by geopolitical fragmentation, a modular system powered by local biomass rather than imported fossil fuels represents a strategic advantage.

Beyond the Corn Field

Critics of bio-based production often point to land-use constraints. If the chemical industry were to rely entirely on agricultural feedstocks, would it compete with food production?

Solugen’s long-term strategy suggests a broader feedstock base. The company is exploring inputs such as waste wood, agricultural residues, and even captured carbon dioxide. The objective is a circular system in which industrial waste becomes a resource for chemical production.

This adaptability distinguishes Solugen from earlier biofuel ventures that struggled with commodity economics. By focusing on high-value chemicals rather than low-margin fuels, the company maintains flexibility and supports ongoing innovation. It is not simply producing chemicals; it is developing a programmable platform capable of adapting to changing market demands.

The Human Element

Solugen’s rise also reflects a shift in the industrial workforce. The engineers behind the Bioforge represent a new hybrid skill set, combining molecular biology, chemical engineering, and data science.

This convergence highlights the “Human Premium.” While artificial intelligence can model biological processes, the industrial application of these systems requires deep, experience-based understanding. Solugen has become a magnet for this talent, fostering a high-skill ecosystem that is redefining modern manufacturing in the United States.

A New Industrial Paradigm

Solugen embodies a broader transition from digital innovation to physical transformation. For much of the past decade, innovation has been associated with software and platforms. Yet the defining challenges of the present—climate change, resource scarcity, and supply chain resilience—are inherently physical.

The company has successfully navigated the “valley of death” that undermines many hardware ventures. It operates a functional production facility, serves a growing customer base, and demonstrates a clear path to profitability. More importantly, it has shown that biology is not confined to pharmaceuticals; it can underpin industrial production at scale.

For corporate leaders, the question is no longer whether bio-manufacturing matters, but how rapidly it can be integrated into existing operations. Solugen has established a viable model. The broader industry must now determine whether it is prepared to follow.

The Bioforge is more than a facility in Houston. It represents a shift towards an industrial future in which prosperity and sustainability are no longer competing objectives. The carbon era is entering its final phase; the enzymatic era is beginning.


JPMorgan Signals Caution: Tightening Private Credit Amid Software Loan Repricing

JPMorgan Chase’s decision to tighten lending to private credit funds marks a notable inflection point for one of the fastest-growing segments of global finance. As the world’s largest bank by assets reins in exposure, particularly to software-linked loans, the move reflects rising concerns around valuation, credit quality, and the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on key sectors.

The bank has marked down the value of selected loans used as collateral by private credit funds, reducing the borrowing capacity available to those clients. These adjustments are precautionary rather than reactive, driven by forward-looking risk assessments rather than realised losses. The focus has been on software companies, where concerns about AI-driven disruption are prompting a reassessment of long-term revenue stability and competitive positioning.

Private credit has expanded rapidly over the past decade, growing into a market approaching $2 trillion. Non-bank lenders have stepped in to provide financing to companies considered too complex or risky for traditional bank balance sheets. The sector has attracted significant inflows from investors seeking yield in a higher interest rate environment, with direct lending, distressed strategies, and asset-backed finance gaining particular traction.

However, the speed of this expansion has introduced structural vulnerabilities. Unlike public credit markets, private loans lack continuous price discovery. Valuations can remain static even as underlying borrower fundamentals weaken, creating a lag between risk accumulation and market recognition. Recent stress events, including redemption pressures in certain vehicles and renewed scrutiny of underwriting standards, have sharpened focus on these risks.

JPMorgan’s latest actions stem from a detailed review of collateral backing financing arrangements with private credit funds. By lowering the assessed value of these loan portfolios, the bank has effectively reduced the leverage available to borrowers. In some cases, clients may be required to post additional collateral to maintain existing facilities. While the adjustments are targeted rather than systemic, they signal a shift in risk appetite.

Chief executive Jamie Dimon reinforced this cautious stance during the bank’s leveraged finance conference in February 2026, highlighting a more conservative approach to lending against software-related assets. The emphasis has been on maintaining flexibility to reprice risk in response to evolving market conditions.

The timing is significant. The private credit industry is navigating a more challenging environment, with outflows from retail-focused funds and renewed debate around underwriting discipline during the recent boom years. Comparisons to pre-2007 credit excesses have re-emerged, although most analysts point to structural differences, including stronger covenant frameworks and lower systemic leverage.

Software lending has become a particular focus. The rapid advancement of generative AI has introduced uncertainty around the durability of certain SaaS business models. Investors are increasingly questioning whether recurring revenues, once considered highly predictable, may face compression as new technologies alter competitive dynamics. JPMorgan’s markdowns reflect this evolving risk profile.

The move also underscores the interconnectedness between banks and private credit. Institutions such as JPMorgan provide essential leverage facilities secured against loan portfolios. US banks are estimated to support roughly $300bn of private credit exposure, making them critical enablers of the sector’s growth. Any tightening in this channel has the potential to constrain expansion and trigger selective deleveraging.

For private credit managers, the implications are immediate. Firms reliant on bank financing may encounter higher costs or reduced access to leverage, prompting a reassessment of capital structures and investment pace. Larger, well-capitalised managers with diversified funding sources are likely to be more resilient, and may benefit from consolidation dynamics as weaker players retrench.

Despite these pressures, the asset class retains strong underlying appeal. Private credit continues to offer a yield premium over public markets, with senior secured direct lending transactions delivering returns of around 10 percent in recent deals. Advocates argue that disciplined managers, particularly those focused on covenant protection and downside mitigation, remain well positioned in a more selective environment.

Macroeconomic conditions add further complexity. As central banks begin to ease policy, financing conditions may improve for higher-quality borrowers. At the same time, inflation persistence and geopolitical fragmentation continue to inject volatility into credit markets, reinforcing the need for rigorous risk assessment.

JPMorgan’s actions may prove indicative of a broader trend. As a bellwether institution, its shift towards caution could prompt other lenders to reassess exposures, particularly in sectors facing technological disruption. Should valuation pressures persist, the private credit market may enter a phase defined by consolidation, tighter standards, and greater differentiation between managers.

For investors, the episode highlights the importance of selectivity. The illiquidity premium that has driven capital into private credit remains attractive, but returns are increasingly contingent on manager quality and portfolio resilience. Institutional investors with access to top-tier platforms may continue to find compelling opportunities, while retail exposure to semi-liquid structures warrants closer scrutiny.

JPMorgan is not retreating from private credit. It is recalibrating its risk framework in line with a maturing market. As the sector evolves from niche to mainstream, such adjustments are likely to become more frequent, reinforcing discipline while preserving the long-term viability of the asset class.


The Safety of the System: Why the Restaurant Franchise is Hospitality’s 2026 Safe Haven

In an era of volatile supply chains and discerning diners, the lone wolf restaurateur is an endangered species. As 2026 unfolds, we examine why the franchise model has transformed from a corporate “cookie-cutter” cliché into a structured defence against industry instability.

The British high street in 2026 is a battlefield of high expectations and razor-thin margins. While the post-pandemic “revenge dining” boom has long since faded into a more sober, value-conscious reality, the hospitality sector remains one of the UK’s most vibrant—yet treacherous—arenas. For the independent operator, the risks are manifold: fluctuating energy costs, a precarious labour market, and a consumer base that prioritises consistency above all else.

Enter the franchise. Once dismissed by culinary purists as the “death of soul,” the model has re-emerged as a high-spec operational framework. From the global reach of the Gordon Ramsay brand to the neighbourhood strength of Gail’s Bakery, the evidence suggests that in 2026, scale provides stability.

The De-Risking of the Dinner Plate

The core appeal of franchising lies in the reduction of operational uncertainty. An independent restaurant must construct its own systems from scratch: supply chains, marketing strategies, training protocols, and cost controls. In a high-inflation environment, these foundations are often fragile.

Franchising offers a pre-built ecosystem. The advantage extends beyond brand recognition to procurement leverage. Multi-site operators can secure favourable supplier agreements and stabilise input costs. In 2026, where key ingredients and utilities remain volatile, this purchasing power can determine whether a business remains viable.

The Survival Statistics

While the failure rate for independent restaurants within three years remains close to 60 percent, franchise outlets continue to outperform. Recent data from 2025 and early 2026 indicates survival rates approximately 12 percent higher than standalone operators. This resilience is largely attributed to centralised oversight, operational benchmarking, and access to real-time performance data.

The Rise of the Multi-Brand Portfolio

A defining trend of 2026 is the professionalisation of the franchisee. The sector has moved beyond single-unit ownership toward portfolio strategies.

Operators are increasingly diversifying across formats and customer segments. A single investor may operate a Wingstop for evening trade, a Gail’s Bakery for morning footfall, and a Gordon Ramsay Street concept for premium casual dining. This approach balances revenue streams across different day-parts and consumer behaviours.

“In 2026, capital is allocated across categories, not concepts. Diversification within hospitality mirrors portfolio theory in finance, reducing exposure to any single demand cycle.”

The Financial Reality: What it Costs to Play

Entry into franchising now requires greater capital and operational sophistication. Brands are selective, prioritising partners who can execute consistently at scale.

The 2026 “A-List”: Top Franchise Opportunities

For investors and operators looking to enter the sector in 2026, several brands have emerged as the “blue chips” of the hospitality landscape, combining strong unit economics with scalable concepts.

1. The Ramsay “Street” Suite
Gordon Ramsay’s expansion into casual dining represents a highly effective brand extension. Concepts such as Street Pizza and Street Burger are built for high-volume, operational simplicity. The transition from fine dining to the high street has broadened the brand’s reach, offering franchisees immediate recognition and consistent customer demand.

2. Gail’s Bakery: The Neighbourhood Anchor
Gail’s continues to define the premium casual bakery segment. With a target of 300 locations and strong revenue growth reported in 2025, the brand has demonstrated resilience across both urban and commuter markets. Its emphasis on quality and community positioning creates a loyal customer base, making it an attractive long-term franchise model.

3. Wingstop: A Digital-First Growth Story
Operated in the UK by Lemon Pepper Holdings, Wingstop has successfully repositioned the fast-food category through branding and digital integration. Its strong presence across social platforms and focus on delivery-first operations have driven rapid expansion. Backed by significant recent investment, the brand remains one of the fastest-growing in the sector.

4. Marugame Udon: Efficiency at Scale
Marugame Udon exemplifies the evolution of quick service dining. Its open-kitchen, cafeteria-style format delivers both speed and transparency, aligning with demand for fresh, affordable meals. For franchisees, the model offers operational efficiency, with a favourable labour-to-output ratio supporting strong margins.

Is the “Soul” Sacrificed for Safety?

The enduring critique of franchising centres on creativity. Yet in 2026, the model has evolved. Many franchisors now allow measured localisation, enabling operators to adapt offerings to regional preferences while maintaining brand standards.

Market behaviour suggests that consistency often outweighs originality. In an environment shaped by online reviews and instant feedback, reliability has become a critical competitive advantage. Consumers increasingly favour brands that consistently meet expectations over those that deliver occasional brilliance but lack dependability. As a result, a predictable experience, executed well, is more valuable than sporadic excellence.

The Verdict: A Necessary Evolution

If measured by durability and financial performance, the franchise model has established itself as a dominant force in mid-2020s hospitality.

Risk has not disappeared; it has been redistributed. Franchisors absorb the burden of brand development and innovation, while franchisees focus on execution and local performance. For operators entering the market, this structure provides a level of support and predictability that independent ventures rarely achieve.

In 2026, the most effective hospitality strategies recognise a simple truth: success lies not only in the quality of the product, but in the strength of the system behind it.

The Indestructible Giants: Why There’s Still Life in the ‘Old Dogs’

In the hyper-competitive 2026 landscape, the “Golden Oldies” of fast food—McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King—are proving that age is an asset, not a liability. Far from being legacy brands in decline, these titans are outperforming the mid-market by leveraging scale, data, and operational precision.

McDonald’s: The Data-Driven Juggernaut
As of February 2026, McDonald’s UK & Ireland has reported record-breaking figures, with like-for-like sales up 8.5 percent in the final quarter of 2025. Its advantage extends far beyond the menu. With more than 175 million loyalty users globally, the business has shifted from mass marketing to highly personalised engagement.

AI-driven demand forecasting, particularly in drive-thru operations, and features such as “Ready on Arrival” have significantly reduced service times. The result is a level of consistency and throughput that independent operators struggle to replicate at scale.

KFC: The £1.5 Billion Flight
KFC is midway through a £1.5 billion investment programme designed to expand and modernise its footprint. The “500 in 10” strategy, targeting 500 additional sites by 2035, prioritises drive-thru formats and compact urban delivery hubs.

The brand has also capitalised on shifting consumer habits. Late-night trading has become a major growth driver, with a reported 44 percent increase in late-night sales in late 2025. This positions KFC to capture demand within the expanding 24-hour economy.

Burger King: The Premium-Casual Bridge
Burger King UK has adopted a differentiated positioning strategy, leaning into a premium offering. The 2025 introduction of the Wagyu burger accounted for approximately 15 percent of annual sales.

With plans to open 30 new locations annually from 2026, the brand is focusing on high-footfall retail park environments, where longer dwell times support higher spend per visit.

The 2026 Advantage

The strength of these operators lies in their ability to absorb structural and sustained cost pressures. Rising labour expenses are offset through automation, including self-service kiosks and mobile ordering.

This model redeploys staff to customer-facing roles while maintaining efficiency. Scale also supports procurement and pricing resilience, reinforcing margins in a volatile environment.

In a market defined by constant change, familiarity remains a powerful asset. The consistency of a Big Mac or a Zinger Tower Burger offers reassurance to consumers navigating rising prices and shifting expectations. These brands are not merely surviving; they continue to define the structural backbone of the 2026 hospitality economy.


Heat on Contract: Industrial Storage Turns Cheap Hours into a Bankable Asset

Brick, carbon and molten-salt stores are moving industrial heat from the fuel bill to the balance sheet. The interesting part is not the hardware. It is the contracts now being written on it.

In May, the American biofuels producer POET and the Californian storage firm Antora Energy commissioned a 5 gigawatt-hour thermal storage plant beside POET's bioprocessing facility at Big Stone City, South Dakota. More than 200 modular batteries store cheap electricity as heat in blocks of solid carbon; the plant was built in about a year and is due to be fully operational later in 2026. The scale drew the headlines. The finance deserves them. POET buys the output, 50 megawatts of round-the-clock energy, under a long-term heat offtake agreement, and the plant carries project-level financing from Grok Ventures, the investment firm of Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. Process heat, the industrial cost that has resisted electrification longest, is being sold the way generators sell power: on contract, against an asset a lender can value.

From cheap hours to firm heat

None of the physics is new. Rondo Energy's installation at a Holmes Western oil facility in California charges a firebrick store from 20 megawatts of off-grid solar and discharges continuous high-pressure steam; it entered daily automatic operation in October 2025. The bricks hold heat at over 1,000 degrees Celsius, and the system charges, the company says, using only the six lowest-cost hours of electricity per day. Antora's carbon blocks work on the same logic at Big Stone City. Malta Inc takes a third route: a steam-cycle heat pump that lifts industrial waste heat of 120 degrees Celsius or more into process heat at 300 to 550 degrees, with molten salt as the store, now heading for its first commercial deployment at Proman's methanol plant in Pampa, Texas.

When CFI.co examined industrial heat pumps in January, the argument was that waste heat was turning into an unexpected asset. Storage extends that thesis in time. Heat recovered or bought cheaply no longer has to be used the hour it exists; it keeps, at industrial temperatures, until the plant wants it.

The price of a stored degree

The cost base separates this from most electrification stories. The most cited engineering estimate, from Stack and colleagues, put a 250 megawatt-hour alumina firebrick system at roughly $10.75 per kilowatt-hour of thermal storage in 2018. Mark Jacobson's group at Stanford, writing in PNAS Nexus in July 2024, notes that this is less than one tenth of what a battery system costs per kilowatt-hour of electricity, and estimates that firebricks could serve up to 90 per cent of industrial process heat applications. In their modelling of a 149-country transition to fully renewable energy, adding firebricks cut the total capital bill by $1.27 trillion, or 2.2 per cent.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) finds that industries dependent primarily on low-temperature heat and steam represent roughly 70 per cent of global industrial energy consumption. That is not a niche.

The balance-sheet translation

For a chief financial officer, the appeal starts with the fuel line. Fuel spend, an operating cost hostage to gas markets, becomes either owned plant (depreciable, financeable, hedged by design) or contracted heat under an offtake, which is how POET has structured it. Exposure to carbon pricing shrinks with every megawatt-hour shifted; European Union allowances traded at €81.52 a tonne on 20 July, per Trading Economics.

The offtake is the quiet innovation. A lender that can underwrite the spread between the day's cheapest power hours and delivered industrial heat can finance the store the way it finances a power purchase agreement, off the industrial's own balance sheet where that is preferred. Buying the commodity only at its floor, then selling firmness, is a business model banks recognise.

Reasons for scepticism

A thermal kilowatt-hour is not an electric one. The one-tenth cost comparison holds for electricity stored and delivered as heat; converting stored heat back to power surrenders most of the value, and Malta's claimed 85 to 95 per cent round-trip efficiency is a combined heat-and-power figure, on the company's own accounting. Rondo's claimed round-trip efficiency above 97 per cent has not yet been independently audited, and none of these plants has an operating history longer than a few months at commercial scale. The $10.75 figure is a 2018 engineering estimate; actual project costs remain private.

The caveat that matters most is the spread. The whole economics rides on hours of genuinely cheap power, and network congestion, levy design or simple competition for those hours can all erode it.

Where it holds, and where it doesn't

The case is strongest at sites with steam or process-heat demand below roughly 550 degrees Celsius and access to cheap intermittent power: the American Midwest, Iberia, Australia. It is weakest where policy keeps industrial electricity dear relative to gas; in Britain, as with heat pumps in January, the arithmetic still hinges on rebalancing levies.

Signals to watch

Two operational tests come first: whether the POET plant reaches full operation on schedule later this year, and whether Proman's Pampa deployment commissions cleanly. The signal that matters most is a second offtake-financed deal closing on comparable terms. One contract is a novelty. Two are a template, the thing that turns hardware into an asset class. The direction of EU Emissions Trading System reform sets the carbon side of the spread.

The bottom line

Cheap hours used to be a trading anecdote. With a store big enough and a contract long enough, they become plant. The missing middle of industrial decarbonisation, too hot for conventional electrification and too cold to justify exotic solutions, is acquiring what it always lacked: not a subsidy, but a price.

Sources

Antora Energy and POET, commissioning announcement, 19 May 2026 (Business Wire); see also Antora's own release.

Rondo Energy, Holmes Western project announcement, October 2025.

Malta Inc, technology and deployment pages (Proman, Pampa, Texas).

Jacobson, Sambor, Fan and Mühlbauer, "Effects of firebricks for industrial process heat on the cost of matching all-sector energy demand with 100% wind-water-solar supply in 149 countries", PNAS Nexus, July 2024.

Stack, Stack and Forsberg, firebrick resistance-heated energy storage engineering study (2018 cost basis, as cited in PNAS Nexus).

IEA, Renewables for Industry: electrification of low-temperature heat and steam.

Trading Economics, EU carbon permits, reading of 20 July 2026.

CFI.co, "Heat Pumps That Pay: How Industrial Process Heat Is Becoming a Cost-Saving Asset", 14 January 2026.


Alejandro Valenzuela: Turning Financial Access into Lasting Capability

[caption id="attachment_28602" align="alignright" width="207"] Dr Alejandro Valenzuela[/caption]

Banco Azteca CEO Alejandro Valenzuela believes financial inclusion must extend far beyond access to accounts and credit. His leadership agenda combines education, responsible lending, digital innovation, and human support to help more Mexicans build resilience and participate fully in the economy.

For Alejandro Valenzuela, financial inclusion is only the starting point. Opening an account or extending credit has limited value if customers do not also gain the knowledge, habits, and confidence required to use those tools effectively.

As CEO of Banco Azteca, Valenzuela is focused on turning access into long-term financial capability. That means supporting customers throughout their financial journey, from opening a first account and using credit responsibly to saving, investing, planning for retirement, and developing an entrepreneurial venture.

Financial education is therefore not treated as a separate social initiative, but as a core part of the bank’s operating model. Through its Aprende y Crece programme, Banco Azteca has reached more than 39 million people and generated over 138 million educational interactions through workshops, digital content, and outreach initiatives over almost 25 years.

The objective, Valenzuela explains, is to make financial services both accessible and practical. Banco Azteca serves customers through more than 2,000 branches, the largest private banking network in Mexico, while also supporting approximately 28 million active digital users. Its branches open from 9am to 9pm every day of the year, including Sundays and national holidays, reflecting the working patterns of the communities it serves.

The bank’s principal audience has long been Mexico’s dynamic middle class, including customers who may be entering the formal financial system for the first time. For Valenzuela, success is therefore measured not by the number of accounts opened, but by the number of people who become more resilient, capable, and confident about their financial future.

Inclusion Built Around Real Life

Meaningful inclusion, in Valenzuela’s view, occurs when people can participate more fully in the economy through services that improve their daily lives. A bank account should do more than hold money. It should help a family manage an emergency, receive remittances, establish a credit history, grow a business, or build long-term security.

Trust is especially important for first-time users of formal financial services. Products must be simple, understandable, and relevant to real needs. Banco Azteca has therefore developed offerings for underserved groups, including women, migrants, and customers with limited previous banking experience.

Products such as Guardadito Sin Fronteras and Cuenta SOMOS reflect this emphasis on practical inclusion. Their purpose is not simply to expand access statistics, but to address the circumstances of customers whose needs may not fit conventional banking models.

Valenzuela considers inclusion successful when customers move from financial uncertainty towards greater confidence. That progression may begin with regular saving, followed by more disciplined use of credit and greater access to opportunities that improve quality of life.

Scale and responsibility are not treated as competing objectives. Banco Azteca’s national reach allows it to serve more people efficiently, while disciplined risk management and customer education support sustainable growth.

Over more than two decades, the bank has established a presence across hundreds of municipalities, including many communities far from major urban centres. In some locations, it is the only financial institution with a physical presence. That reach is complemented by one of Mexico’s most active digital banking ecosystems.

For Valenzuela, the commercial opportunity of scale must always remain connected to customer outcomes. Long-term institutional success depends on creating long-term value for the people the bank serves.

Financial Education That Changes Behaviour

One of the most important lessons from Aprende y Crece is that information alone rarely changes behaviour. Financial capability develops when education is practical, relevant, and closely connected to everyday decisions.

Customers tend to build better habits through small, consistent actions rather than dramatic changes. Regular saving, disciplined credit management, and long-term planning emerge through repetition and positive experience.

Education is often most effective when delivered at the point of decision. A customer opening an account, requesting credit, receiving a remittance, or planning for a future goal is more likely to act on relevant guidance than someone encountering financial education in isolation.

For entrepreneurs, access to finance must also be accompanied by an understanding of cash flow, budgeting, business planning, and reinvestment. Credit can provide an important foundation, but education helps transform that capital into sustainable growth.

Valenzuela believes trust remains the most valuable asset in banking. It takes years to establish and can be lost quickly. Transparency therefore begins with simplicity: customers should understand how a product works, what it costs, what benefits it offers, and what responsibilities it creates.

Responsible product design must place customer outcomes at the centre of decision-making. Products should support progress towards financial goals rather than introduce unnecessary complexity.

Technology can also strengthen confidence. Banco Azteca was the first Mexican bank to introduce biometrics and has continued to integrate technology across its operations. Yet innovation must remain grounded in reliability, clarity, and consistent delivery.

A Phygital Model for a Changing Market

Banco Azteca’s operating strategy combines physical reach with digital convenience through a phygital model.

Many customers continue to value personal guidance, particularly when making important financial decisions. At the same time, digital users increasingly expect immediate access and round-the-clock service.

The bank is positioned to provide both. Alongside its national branch network, Banco Azteca serves around 28 million active digital users. Its mobile application has earned ratings of 4.7 stars on Google Play, based on more than 1.11 million reviews, and 4.8 stars on the App Store, based on more than 765,000 ratings.

The aim is not to replace one channel with another, but to allow customers to move between them seamlessly. Technology should improve speed, access, and service quality, while physical locations preserve the human connection that remains central to trust.

This combination is particularly important in a market where digital adoption is accelerating, but confidence and familiarity vary widely across customer groups.

Responsible Credit and Economic Mobility

Valenzuela regards credit as one of the most powerful instruments for economic mobility, but only when extended responsibly.

The bank’s approach begins with understanding customers’ circumstances, repayment capacity, and objectives. Credit should support productive opportunities, help households meet important needs, and enable entrepreneurs to develop their businesses.

Responsible inclusion does not mean extending the maximum possible amount. It means providing the right level of credit under appropriate conditions.

That requires disciplined underwriting, continuous portfolio monitoring, and clear customer education. Sustainable growth is achieved when opportunity and prudence advance together.

The same balance applies to the bank’s organisational culture. Serving millions of customers across diverse economic circumstances requires empathy, professionalism, accountability, and operational discipline.

Valenzuela places particular emphasis on listening. Understanding customers’ realities allows the bank to design better products, improve service, and strengthen relationships. For many clients, Banco Azteca represents their first experience of formal banking, making every interaction important.

Empathy must nevertheless be supported by execution. Managing more than 2,000 branches, millions of digital users, and consistently high service standards requires strong governance, technological capability, and disciplined operations.

The strongest culture, in Valenzuela’s view, combines purpose with performance. When employees understand that their work can improve people’s lives, commercial results and social impact can reinforce one another.

A Shared Agenda for Mexico

Mexico has made progress in financial access, but important gaps remain in banking penetration, credit depth, and financial education.

Valenzuela believes the next stage of inclusion must focus not only on access, but on participation and capability. Achieving that objective will require a more integrated ecosystem involving banks, regulators, employers, educational institutions, and technology providers.

Digital onboarding, efficient payment systems, and secure identity verification can continue to reduce barriers to entry. Financial education should also be treated as a national priority, supported by the experience of programmes such as Aprende y Crece.

There is further scope to expand productive credit for entrepreneurs and households that have historically operated outside the formal system. Responsible lending, digital innovation, and education can together support mobility without compromising stability.

The ultimate opportunity is to build a more resilient and financially capable society.

A Legacy of Inclusive Prosperity

Looking ahead, Valenzuela hopes Banco Azteca will be remembered for helping democratise opportunity.

Access, education, innovation, and resilience are not separate ambitions. They are different expressions of a broader purpose: enabling more people to participate in the economy and improve their quality of life.

Banco Azteca’s contribution has been built through its branch network, digital platform, and educational programmes. Its resilience has also been tested during periods of disruption.

Throughout the pandemic, the bank maintained operations across its branch network. Following Hurricane Otis, it became the first financial institution to restore services in affected communities, reopening six branches within nine days despite difficult conditions.

Valenzuela also points to the bank’s financial performance and liquidity as evidence of institutional resilience during periods of public scrutiny. Banco Azteca describes 2024 and 2025 as the strongest years in its history, supported by record results and international recognition.

Yet Valenzuela does not want the bank’s legacy to be measured by financial indicators alone. Its core mission is the creation of inclusive prosperity.

If Banco Azteca is remembered for helping millions of Mexicans build resilience, pursue their ambitions, and gain access to greater opportunity, he believes it will have fulfilled its purpose.


Banco Azteca: Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Access, Education, and Trust

Banco Azteca has built a distinctive position in Mexico by serving working- and middle-class customers who have historically been overlooked by traditional banking. Its model combines an extensive physical network, digital access, responsible credit, insurance, and large-scale financial education.

Banco Azteca occupies a distinctive position within Mexico’s banking sector. Its focus has long been on working- and middle-class customers, including many who were historically underserved by traditional financial institutions. Rather than operating solely as a provider of deposits or credit, the bank seeks to act as a broader financial partner, supporting customers through savings, lending, insurance, remittances, and financial education.

This integrated approach is reinforced by an operating model designed around the realities of customers’ working lives. Banco Azteca branches are open from 9am to 9pm, 365 days a year, ensuring that access to financial services is not restricted to conventional banking hours. Its ecosystem includes products such as the Guardadito savings account, consumer credit, Seguros Azteca insurance services, and omnichannel remittance distribution.

The bank’s underlying proposition is that financial inclusion requires more than the availability of products. Customers must also have the knowledge, confidence, and support needed to use those products effectively. In this sense, access and education are treated as complementary elements of the same strategy.

Inclusion Beyond Access

Banco Azteca’s recognition as Champion of Financial Literacy and Inclusion, Mexico 2026 reflects a corporate philosophy that has been developed at significant scale. The bank approaches financial inclusion on two fronts. The first is to bring formal financial services to millions of Mexicans whom traditional banking has struggled to reach. The second is to provide practical knowledge that can help customers make more informed decisions about saving, borrowing, investment, and household protection.

Its free financial education programme, Aprende y Crece, has reached more than 39 million Mexicans through physical activities and digital learning. The programme covers personal and family finance, responsible credit, investment, savings, and fraud prevention. Its aim is to provide customers with tools that support greater independence and help them progress towards long-term financial goals.

Over time, Aprende y Crece has evolved from a conventional education and awareness campaign into a more practical, behaviour-led platform. The bank recognised that theoretical knowledge does not always translate into better financial habits. It has therefore increasingly adopted experiential and gamified learning methods intended to support everyday decision-making.

Digital simulators, interactive applications, and behavioural prompts allow users to practise budgeting, compare borrowing costs, and establish small savings targets in a controlled environment. This moves the programme beyond passive awareness, encouraging customers to apply what they have learned to their own financial circumstances.

Banco Azteca’s philosophy is that inclusion is not simply about opening a door to the financial system. It is also about giving customers the confidence and knowledge required to progress once they have entered it.

Reaching Underserved Communities

Despite the expansion of financial technology and digital banking, significant gaps remain across Mexico. Informal traders, rural agricultural entrepreneurs, and women operating independent microbusinesses are among the groups that continue to face barriers to formal financial services.

Many of these customers lack conventional proof of income or an established credit history. Traditional underwriting systems may therefore struggle to recognise their financial capacity, even when they operate viable businesses or manage regular household cash flows.

Banco Azteca seeks to address this gap through alternative data and behavioural underwriting. Rather than treating the informal economy purely as a source of risk, the bank aims to understand the patterns and realities that shape it. Products can then be structured around the less predictable cash flows of entrepreneurial households and small businesses.

Communication also plays an important role. Financial products are explained through direct, visual, and jargon-free language, helping customers understand the commitments they are making. This is particularly important when serving people who may be entering the formal financial system for the first time.

The scale of Banco Azteca’s physical presence gives it an additional advantage. The bank operates more than 2,000 branches, including locations in 177 municipalities where no other private bank has a footprint. This enables it to serve communities that might otherwise remain dependent on cash or informal financial arrangements.

A Phygital Model Built on Trust

Banco Azteca combines its extensive branch network with mobile and digital banking through what it describes as a phygital model. Its application provides 24-hour transactional convenience, while its branches remain important centres of trust, education, and human guidance.

For more digitally confident customers, the app offers speed and accessibility. For those who are less familiar with formal banking, face-to-face support can remain essential. Branch advisers therefore do more than execute transactions. They also assist customers with digital onboarding and explain how to use mobile tools securely.

This approach ensures that digitalisation does not alienate customers who require additional guidance. Physical branches act as a bridge into digital banking, allowing customers to develop confidence gradually while maintaining access to personal support.

The model reflects the realities of a market still moving from cash towards digital transactions. Technology provides convenience and scale, but physical presence offers the reassurance that supports long-term relationships. Banco Azteca believes that both will remain important as Mexico’s financial system continues to evolve.

Responsible Credit and Sustainable Borrowing

Credit can provide a path towards economic mobility, but it can also create financial distress when products are poorly structured or customers do not fully understand their obligations. Banco Azteca therefore seeks to combine access with responsible underwriting, transparent communication, and customer education.

Its assessment frameworks consider behavioural variables and local economic conditions alongside traditional credit bureau information. This can help the bank evaluate customers whose financial circumstances do not fit conventional lending models.

Repayment structures are also designed to reflect the frequent cash inflows common among mass-market customers. Weekly payments may align more closely with the income patterns of informal traders and entrepreneurial households than traditional monthly schedules.

The bank emphasises clear communication regarding total borrowing costs and repayment obligations. Credit approval is accompanied by upfront visibility of what customers will be expected to pay, while proactive limits are used to reduce the risk of excessive indebtedness.

In this model, risk management is closely linked to financial education. Responsible lending requires sound underwriting, but it also depends on customers understanding how credit works and how repayments fit within their household budgets.

Supporting Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses

Informal merchants and family enterprises represent a significant part of the Mexican economy. Banco Azteca seeks to support their transition towards greater financial formalisation through microcredit, digital payment tools, and transaction services.

Affordable QR-code acceptance and instant digital transfers allow small businesses to receive electronic payments securely. This can reduce reliance on cash while creating an auditable record of commercial activity.

Over time, a documented transaction history can help a business qualify for larger and more structured forms of credit. This creates a potential pathway from informal trading towards increased financial visibility, investment, and scale.

For small entrepreneurs, formalisation can deliver benefits beyond access to finance. It can strengthen resilience, support business planning, and create opportunities to invest in equipment, inventory, or expansion. Banco Azteca’s role is to provide the financial infrastructure through which this progression can take place.

Measuring Real-World Impact

Banco Azteca argues that customer numbers, loans disbursed, and course participation reveal only part of the impact of financial inclusion. The more important question is whether access to banking improves resilience and creates opportunities for social mobility.

A customer may begin by opening an account after operating entirely within the informal economy. That account can provide a safer place to hold funds and help reduce the volatility associated with cash-based income. A modest insurance product may then protect the household against an unexpected shock, while regular savings can support retirement or another long-term objective.

Over time, the same customer may become eligible for credit to acquire a lasting asset, purchase a home, or expand a business. Banco Azteca views this progression as the practical measure of inclusion: a gradual reduction in vulnerability supported by greater financial capability.

Trust is central to this process. In a market where scepticism towards financial institutions remains significant, confidence must be earned through transparency, plain language, and consistent service. Financial education delivered at the point of transaction can further strengthen that relationship by helping customers understand the consequences of their decisions.

Governance as the Foundation of Inclusion

Banco Azteca maintains that a social mission cannot be sustained without strong governance and financial resilience. Its inclusion agenda is therefore supported by regulatory compliance, prudent balance-sheet management, liquidity, provisioning, and cybersecurity.

The bank operates within the regulatory framework established by Mexico’s Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores. Its approach combines innovative credit deployment with conservative provisioning strategies and risk controls intended to preserve stability.

Cybersecurity has also become increasingly important as customers adopt digital channels. Protecting personal information, transactions, and account access is essential to maintaining trust, particularly among customers who may already be cautious about entering the formal financial system.

The principle is straightforward: rapid growth and social impact must rest on a secure, well-capitalised foundation. Without that resilience, financial inclusion cannot be sustained over the long term.

The Next Phase of Financial Inclusion

Mexico’s financial landscape is likely to be reshaped over the coming years by deeper smartphone penetration, continued fintech expansion, and a gradual shift from cash towards digital transactions. Yet persistent gaps in banking access and credit depth remain systemic challenges that no single institution can resolve alone.

Banco Azteca sees considerable potential in collaboration between regulators, traditional banks, fintech companies, and educational institutions. Priorities could include stronger digital identity frameworks, interoperable payment systems, and the integration of financial literacy into the national education curriculum.

The bank regards fintech development as an opportunity to extend its reach and improve the customer experience. Its ambition is to build a world-class digital banking platform while preserving the extensive physical network that anchors trust and accessibility.

This hybrid model is likely to remain central to its strategy. The app can provide speed, convenience, and continuous access, while branches offer personal guidance and reassurance. Together, they allow Banco Azteca to serve customers at different stages of financial confidence and digital adoption.

By combining access, education, responsible credit, and human support, Banco Azteca aims to help more Mexican families move beyond basic participation in the financial system. The longer-term objective is greater resilience, economic opportunity, and the ability to build lasting financial security.


AI and the US Workforce: The Beige Book Tells a Productivity Story

The Federal Reserve's July Beige Book catches AI arriving in the American labour market as investment: firms buying the tools, reallocating the tasks and holding the headcount. Jamie Dimon's 30 to 40 per cent is the counterweight that reading must carry, and so far it can.

On 14 July, on JPMorgan's second-quarter earnings call, Jamie Dimon gave the AI-and-jobs debate its bluntest data point of the year. "We have had discrete areas where we did reduce jobs by 30% or 40%," the chief executive told analysts, in a quarter for which the bank reported net income of $21.2 billion. The Federal Reserve's Beige Book appeared the following afternoon. Its material comes from business contacts across all twelve districts, collected on or before 6 July. Anyone expecting the two documents to argue with each other finds something stranger: they describe the same economy, and in that economy AI is not yet a layoff story. It is a capital-spending story.

[caption id="attachment_28619" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels[/caption]

Twelve Districts, One Theme

Economic activity increased at a slight to moderate pace in eleven of the twelve districts in late May and June, the national summary reports, and employment rose on balance, with seven districts seeing little to no change. Where AI enters the record, it enters on the investment side of the ledger. A few districts noted firms increasing their use of AI "either in the hiring and screening of potential employees or to boost worker productivity"; the screening half of that sentence extends a shift CFI.co examined in June in The Ghost in the Hiring Machine. The summary's most telling line is its flattest: "Employers held head counts steady and invested further in AI."

The district detail sharpens the theme. San Francisco, the district that houses most of the builders, reported employment levels "largely unchanged", fewer announced or planned layoffs than in prior reporting periods, and firms continuing to invest in AI technologies "seeking to drive productivity improvements". Some employers there now assess "employees' ability and willingness to integrate AI agents into the workflow", a test of who can work alongside the new capital. Atlanta described AI use broadening across its contacts, who are deploying tools and automation "to boost employee productivity and efficiency"; most of those contacts, the district added, "do not expect these efforts to lead to significant workforce reductions in the near term".

And the scarce worker of mid-2026 is not the prompt engineer. Skilled workers were "difficult to find in a range of fields, notably technicians and tradespeople", the summary noted, with some wage increases attributed to competition for them; San Francisco contacts described paying "a premium" for specialised, hard-to-fill roles in financial services.

Capital Deepening, in Real Time

At this stage of diffusion, AI spending behaves like earlier rounds of capital deepening: more capital per worker, output per hour rising before any position disappears. That is precisely what the anecdotes describe. Firms buy the tools, reorganise tasks around them and test which employees can supervise them. Headcount waits. The wage premium for technicians and tradespeople is the signature detail, because capital deepening pays the people who install, integrate and maintain the new capital before it pays anyone else. Displacement, where the Beige Book flags it at all, sits in the future tense: Atlanta's contacts expect no significant AI-driven reductions "in the near term". That describes intentions. Outcomes arrive later.

The reading has limits. It applies to large US employers at the current stage of adoption, while budgets are fresh and integration skills scarce; it says much less about entry-level white-collar hiring, outsourced back-office work, or the stage at which the agents stop needing supervisors.

The Dimon Counterweight

Any benign account of these anecdotes has to travel with what the country's most prominent banker said the day before the districts' reports appeared. Dimon's reductions of 30 or 40 per cent in "discrete areas" have already happened, and JPMorgan is the kind of early, deep adopter most Beige Book contacts have yet to become. Yet his own gloss pulls the remark back towards the districts' story. "Most of those people were offered jobs elsewhere," he said. On margins he was blunter still: "You don't uniquely benefit from AI," he argued, since every bank will deploy the same tools for its customers. His chief financial officer, Jeremy Barnum, added that the bank's generative-AI token expenses, "trivial" today, would see "some meaningful acceleration" in the second half. Heavy investment, tasks reorganised, people redeployed, benefits competed away: the most advanced adopter in American finance is describing capital deepening from further along the same curve.

What the Hard Series Say

The Beige Book is anecdote by design, so the benign reading has to survive contact with the aggregates. Job openings held at 7.6 million in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on 30 June, with layoffs and discharges unchanged at 1.7 million and hires subdued at 5.2 million: a low-hiring, low-firing labour market. Productivity is similarly undramatic. Nonfarm business output per hour grew at an annualised 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, per the BLS release of 4 June. Measured against the same quarter a year earlier, it was up 2.8 per cent. The asymmetry matters: the displacement story has no aggregate evidence at all, while the productivity story has a labour market that keeps absorbing AI investment without shedding workers. In the aggregate data, the layoff wave has not happened yet.

Reasons to Distrust the Comfort

Four cautions keep the reading provisional. First, contacts are telling their Reserve Bank what they intend, and forecasts of one's own restraint deserve the usual discount. Second, Atlanta's wording contains displacement's quiet form: employment "flat to slightly down" as firms hold headcounts even "or adjust downward through attrition and minimal backfilling of roles". A role never backfilled appears in no layoff count. Third, national openings are too coarse to exonerate anything; 7.6 million vacancies can conceal a collapse in the occupations most exposed to automation. And measured productivity moves for many reasons; crediting the 2.8 per cent to AI would be exactly the inference this piece argues against.

Which Indicator Breaks First

If the benign reading fails, the failure will arrive in a sequence. Occupation-level job postings move first, because attrition with no backfill never registers as a layoff yet shows up straight away in what firms stop advertising; entry-level white-collar postings are the place to stare. The wage distribution moves second: a technology that complements scarce technical skill while substituting for routine cognitive work should widen dispersion before it dents employment. Measured productivity moves last, and noisiest; a genuine boom should eventually hold that 2.8 per cent as hours flatten.

An institutional verdict is also scheduled. On 9 July the Federal Reserve named the leadership of its Productivity and Jobs task force: Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, the Stanford growth economist Charles I. Jones, currently on leave at Anthropic, and Microsoft's Asha Sharma, mandated to "assess the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve's policy judgments". Chair Kevin Warsh told his June press conference he hoped most of the task forces, if not all, would conclude "by year-end", with findings going to the Federal Open Market Committee.

Whether this boom broadens prosperity or concentrates it will be settled in decisions like the one Dimon described: reduce the team, then choose whether its people move elsewhere in the firm or simply out of it. That choice belongs to managements and boards, and the case for treating AI adoption as a governance capability rather than a cost line is one CFI.co made this month in Boards and AI: From Oversight to Insight. The Beige Book's contacts are, for now, choosing redeployment. Nothing in the document obliges them to keep choosing it.

Sources

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