Financial stocks end week higher as tech selloff continues

Russia's Finance Ministry has begun paying staff salaries using the central bank digital currency known as the digital ruble. According to the ministry, some employees received their salaries in digital rubles for the first time on October 1, after opening digital ruble accounts on the Bank of Russia's platform. Whether to receive salaries in digital rubles is a voluntary choice made by each individual, and the ministry has not disclosed the number of employees involved or the total amount paid. In 2025, the Finance Ministry and the Federal Treasury piloted the use of the digital ruble for federal budget expenditures in Russia, making payments for salaries and scholarships and settling some government contracts, with total transactions amounting to just under 16 million rubles. From January 2026, digital ruble spending in the federal budget will no longer be limited to specific purposes, and the Bank of Russia and the Finance Ministry are jointly advancing its introduction into the budget process. The Bank of Russia positions the digital ruble as a "third form" of the national currency alongside cash and non-cash rubles. It began development in 2021, launched a pilot with real transactions in August 2023, and from September 1, 2026, broad use through major banks and retail companies got under way. Meanwhile, in April the European Union introduced measures as part of sanctions against Russia that prohibit involvement in transactions involving CBDCs such as the digital ruble and support for the development of related projects.

Grab Holdings Limited reported record second-quarter results, with revenue rising 22% year-over-year to $997 million and On-Demand gross merchandise volume up 21% to $6.5 billion. Monthly transacting users increased 17% to 53.9 million, adjusted EBITDA climbed 54% to $168 million with margin expanding to 16.9% from 13.3%, and operating profit rose to $19 million from $7 million. Management raised its full-year 2026 guidance to revenue of $4.1 billion to $4.15 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $720 million to $740 million, and authorized another $750 million share repurchase program, bringing cumulative repurchase authorization since 2024 to $1.75 billion. Financial Services revenue grew 59% to $134 million while its gross loan portfolio reached $2.3 billion, up 197%, though the segment posted negative adjusted EBITDA of $15 million, and total incentives reached $706 million in the quarter. On September 15, the company agreed to acquire a 60% controlling stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, with the deal expected to close by the third quarter of 2027, and it raised its 2028 targets to $1.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA and more than 30% annual revenue growth from 2025 to 2028.

The European Central Bank has set out three models for connecting central bank money to tokenized finance. ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel explained them on October 1 at "The Future of Money" conference in London, hosted by the Bank of England and others. The first model has the central bank directly issuing tokenized reserve deposits on a programmable ledger, making central bank money itself a native asset on a distributed ledger and using it to settle transactions in tokenized financial assets. The second model keeps existing central bank settlement systems in place while connecting to distributed ledger platforms through bridges or synchronization functions; the reserve deposits themselves are not tokenized, and funding and settlement of transactions on the ledger are carried out with conventional central bank money. In the third model, private intermediaries issue on-chain settlement tokens backed by reserve deposits held in an omnibus account at the central bank, and these tokens represent a claim on a private entity rather than a direct claim on the central bank. Schnabel outlined a vision in which tokenized finance preserves the current two-tier structure, keeping central bank money at the core of final settlement between financial institutions while commercial banks provide money and financial services to customers. On September 21, the ECB launched Pontes, which connects distributed ledger platforms with the existing TARGET Services to settle tokenized asset transactions in central bank money, and its long-term Appia project is examining future architectures for tokenized markets, including a unified ledger and multiple interconnected ledgers.