Daily Update — August 05, 2025
Carbon Registries in Climate Finance; AI in Lending; and Fintech Funding Rebound
Today is Tuesday, August 5, 2025, and here’s your curated selection of Essential Intelligence on global markets from S&P Global. Subscribe to be notified of each new Daily Update.
Energy Transition & Sustainability
Listen: Carbon registries key to unlocking Article 6 climate finance
In this episode of the “Energy Evolution” podcast, we delve into the latest developments around Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on climate change and explore how governments and companies are building critical infrastructure for carbon trading and global climate cooperation.
Host Eklavya Gupte spoke with Gurvinder Bains, director of business development of environmental solutions at S&P Global Commodity Insights, who highlighted the pivotal role of carbon registries in securing financing and scaling project development under Article 6. Hugh Salway, senior director of market development and partnerships at Gold Standard, also joined the podcast to share how countries are increasingly viewing carbon credits as national assets and establishing domestic programs.
Artificial Intelligence
AI in lending: Reshaping the user experience
AI is transforming the loans industry by accelerating workflows and supporting new capabilities and insights across the lending life cycle. The first wave of AI drove a 20% productivity gain in lending. The next wave promises to deliver even greater returns.
This blog series explores the areas where AI is having the greatest impact in lending: automation, data extraction, user experience and reconciliation. Loan issuance and administration are complex and nuanced processes that first-generation technology has struggled to automate fully. With the advent of AI, this asset class finally has a solution capable of tackling the challenge, changing the user experience for agents, borrowers and lenders.
Private Markets
Venture capitalists drive Q2 2025 fintech funding above $10B with mega rounds
Fintech funding rebounded sharply in the second quarter of 2025, reaching $11 billion globally across 390 funding rounds, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data and analysis. It was the first time fintech funding surpassed $10 billion since the start of the venture capital downturn in the third quarter of 2022.
While deal volume continued to decline, investor appetite for high-quality opportunities grew, with average deal sizes hitting a two-year high of $28.2 million. Mega rounds, or those over $100 million, surged to 23 deals, the highest in three years, signaling renewed confidence in growth-to-mature-stage fintechs.
In case you missed it
- All ships berthed at JERA's LNG terminal along the Pacific Coast have departed following a July 30 tsunami warning.
- Oil product inventories at the United Arab Emirates' Port of Fujairah dropped 17% week over week in the week ended July 28, with declines across all product categories.
- Kenya has allowed 500,000 metric tons of duty-free rice imports until Dec. 31, boosting demand primarily for Indian and Pakistani rice.
Upcoming events
- Datacenters and energy — truths and myths two years into the Gen AI revolution | August 6 (Webinar)
- Tariffs, Trade & Turbulence | August 12 (Webinar)
- Breakfast Briefing: Unlocking the Future of Sustainability in Mexico | August 14 (Mexico City)