HSBC’s pre-tax profit for the first half of 2026 rose 23 percent year-on-year to $19.5 billion. After-tax profit increased by the same rate, reaching $15.3 billion. Growth was more pronounced in the second quarter, with pre-tax profit up 60 percent and after-tax profit up 63 percent.

The bank’s revenue rose 11 percent to $37.7 billion, driven by growth in interest income as well as wealth management and corporate transaction banking. Net interest margin increased 4 basis points to 1.61 percent.

Credit losses rose by $400 million to $2.4 billion, driven by a provision related to a fraud case in the UK and a provision set aside for the Hong Kong commercial real estate sector. The bank’s CET1 capital ratio fell 0.8 percentage points to 14.1 percent, partly due to the full acquisition of Hang Seng Bank.

HSBC’s board decided to declare a second interim dividend of 10 cents per share, alongside a share buyback of up to $1 billion. The bank also raised its 2026 net interest income guidance.

Private equity firm KKR (KKR.N), opens new tab said on Monday it had closed a record $19.2 billion infrastructure fund focused on investing in ​assets primarily in North America and Western Europe.

Infrastructure fundraising ‌has surged in recent years, fueled by growing investor demand for assets linked to the energy transition and digital infrastructure, especially data centers ​benefiting from the rise of artificial intelligence. The company’s infrastructure ​business has grown into one of the biggest globally, ⁠with KKR managing about $120 billion in infrastructure equity.

It saw inflows ​of $34 billion in the second quarter, driven by the real ​assets business which houses KKR’s infrastructure strategies.

Through its global infrastructure strategy, KKR has invested more than $70 billion of equity in infrastructure assets across North ​America and Europe, the company said.

KKR said the fund, Global ​Infrastructure Investors V, contributes to the roughly $45 billion raised across its latest infrastructure ‌fund ⁠vintages globally. Fund V will focus on infrastructure investments that provide critical services, benefit from high barriers to entry and are expected to generate stable cash flows over the long term, KKR ​said. The fund ​has already ⁠committed more than $9 billion to investments.

“Europe is entering a period where investment in critical infrastructure will ​play an increasingly important role in supporting competitiveness, ​energy ⁠security and economic resilience,” said Vincent Policard, Co-Head of European Infrastructure at KKR.

The company beat expectations for second-quarter profit last week, ⁠as it ​collected higher fees from managing a ​growing pool of client money and cashed in on a strong run of ​asset sales.

A newly minted venture fund run by Robinhood (HOOD.O), opens new tab for investing in early-stage companies is aiming to raise as much ​as $200 million in its U.S. initial public offering, ‌according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

The vehicle, Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII) (RVII.N), opens new tab, is offering up to 8 million shares in the IPO, including ​400,000 shares owned by Robinhood. The IPO is being ​marketed at $25 apiece.

Here are some other details:

• The move ⁠comes as the Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood looks to broaden retail ​investors’ access to private-company investments long dominated by Silicon ​Valley’s largest venture capital firms.
• The venture fund, RVII, plans to invest in early- and growth-stage private companies, with a focus on those ​that are current or previous participants in the Y ​Combinator startup accelerator program.
• Robinhood debuted its first venture fund, Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI.N), opens new tab, in ‌March. ⁠That vehicle largely invests in late-stage companies and added OpenAI to its portfolio earlier this year.
• Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev earlier this year said the firm’s customers were seeking access to emerging ​AI companies at ​an earlier stage.
• Goldman Sachs ⁠is the lead bookrunner for the offering. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, and ​Wells Fargo Securities are joint bookrunners.
• The window to ​request IPO ⁠shares is expected to close on August 12.
• The roadshow for RVII was expected to kick off on Monday at ⁠12 ​p.m. ET (1600 GMT). Shares are expected ​to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RVII.”

A new Binance Research report finds that Generation Z is entering investment markets at a younger age, with greater awareness, and with a notably disciplined approach compared to previous generations — contrary to conventional perceptions. The findings challenge long-held assumptions about young investors and speculation.

According to the research, 30 percent of Gen Z investors began investing during their university years or early adulthood, compared to just 15 percent of Millennials who started investing at the same life stage. Gen Z’s markedly higher level of financial literacy is also reflected in the finding that 77 percent of investors in this generation report having received some form of formal or structured financial education before they began investing.

A Binance Research spokesperson commented on the findings: “This data shows that, contrary to popular perception, Gen Z has a far more informed and long-term-oriented investor profile. The fact that young users, particularly in emerging markets, are able to access global markets this early and this well-prepared marks an important milestone for financial inclusion.”

A generation starting to invest earlier

The data points to a structural shift in when and how young people are entering the markets. Gen Z currently accounts for 44 percent of users of direct equity products, 44 percent of tokenized equity product users, and 45 percent of users of TradFi-linked perpetual products. Among investors who use all three product types, nearly half — 48 percent — belong to Gen Z.

Emerging markets as the driving force behind the shift

Perhaps the report’s most striking finding is geographic in nature: while more than 90 percent of investors using traditional-finance-linked products examined in the report, across all generations, are based in emerging markets, that share rises to 95 percent among Gen Z investors.

The research also identifies a distinct user group described as the “new generation”: young users based in emerging markets, holding equity assets under $2,000, and typically accessing US equity markets for the first time. Notably, 13 percent of direct equity product users fit this exact profile — Gen Z, based in emerging markets, and newly accessing global equities.

Discipline, not speculation

Contrary to the perception that young investors gravitate toward high-risk trades, the report shows the opposite. Gen Z holds the lowest share of leveraged ETF trading volume among all generations, at just 5.9 percent. This new generation of investors also trades less frequently than the overall user base, averaging 2.6 trades per day compared to 3.0 among the general user base.

In their first trades, young investors tend to gravitate toward more established assets such as NVIDIA, Micron, Tesla, and Apple shares, along with the Nasdaq-100 ETF — a pattern that points to a tendency to build portfolios around durable themes such as artificial intelligence and global technology.

Small balances, fast growth

While individual portfolio sizes remain modest, the collective momentum is significant. Gen Z’s share of new users joining traditional-finance-linked products rose from 41 percent in January 2026 to 47 percent in July 2026. Over the same period, this generation contributed approximately $80 billion in trading volume, with a monthly compound growth rate of around 24 percent.

Taken together, the findings point to a generational shift: young investors, most of whom live in emerging economies, are accessing global markets for the first time with a more structured approach — and doing so more cautiously and with greater preparation than members of previous generations did at the same life stage.