Corporate results, analyst action and a surprising embrace of digital assets by legacy banks are combining to redraw investor expectations as third-quarter reports roll in. This week’s flow of earnings and strategic announcements offers several clear data points: banks and regional lenders that reported third-quarter numbers largely delivered stronger-than-expected operating performance; asset managers and private-equity players continued to deploy capital into large-scale energy and infrastructure projects; and big banks are moving further into crypto, opening a new line of competition with fintech platforms.

Quarterly momentum: loans, margins and shareholder returns

Q3 results from regional lenders and specialty financial firms showed meaningful profit improvements and, in several cases, sizeable upside versus consensus. First Hawaiian reported third-quarter net income of $73.8 million and earnings of $0.59 per share on revenue of $226.4 million; the company posted an earnings surprise of +13.46% and a revenue surprise of +3.71%. Associated Banc-Corp delivered a headline that management will welcome — a 43% profit surge driven by lower provisions, loan growth and higher fee income. Customers Bancorp’s sales rose 38.5% year over year to $232.1 million, with non-GAAP earnings of $2.20 per share that beat estimates by roughly 14%.

Those pockets of strength were echoed elsewhere. WSFS Financial highlighted a 30% increase in core EPS, while BNY Mellon reported net income of $1.45 billion and diluted EPS of $1.88, both higher than the prior year. Arbor Realty Trust set an investor call date to discuss third-quarter results, underlining that capital markets and real-estate finance sponsors remain in dialogue about funding and portfolio performance.

Across the quarter, credit trends and expense control mattered as much as topline growth. Several companies noted improved asset quality and reserve positions, while others flagged one-off charges that subtracted from headline earnings. Atlantic Union Bankshares, for example, posted revenue growth tied to an acquisition but recorded a one-off $126.5 million loss that weighed on reported profit margins. Bread Financial’s report stood out for the balance of results and capital return: management beat expectations, raised the quarterly dividend by 10%, increased its repurchase authorization by $200 million and secured a Moody’s upgrade — a combination that underpinned an immediate 11.0% stock rally after the news.

Crypto and payments: incumbent banks push into new territory

Two threads this week signaled a greater integration between traditional finance and digital assets. JPMorgan’s announcements were front and center: the bank said it will allow institutional clients to use Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for loans, and reports indicated the firm would permit clients to borrow against BTC and ETH holdings by the end of the year. Those moves were coupled with a report that Bitcoin prices were trading well above six figures in some coverage, with one snapshot showing BTC at roughly $112,426. The market reaction to the bank’s crypto pivot was immediate: commentary described JPMorgan as accepting BTC and ETH as collateral and positioned the firm to compete with crypto-native lenders.

Coinbase, the large exchange and custody provider, benefitted directly from that change in perception. After an upgrade and a boosted price target from a major bank, the stock jumped in aftermarket trading — reporting moves as high as +8.7% in an afternoon session tied to fresh analyst optimism. JPMorgan’s analysis also placed a theoretical valuation on a potential Base token that could reach as much as $34 billion, reinforcing a narrative that tokenization and stablecoin monetization present sizable revenue opportunities for exchanges and payment platforms.

Fintechs remain under the spotlight as well. SoFi’s headline figures are striking: the firm has produced a 156.9% gain over the last year and a 424.9% gain over three years, with a year-to-date surge described as nearly 99%. Robinhood’s rally — which analysts noted has seen the stock triple this year — has prompted conversations about whether newly public fintech platforms can sustain both growth and margins as competition intensifies. These price moves are not just noise; they reflect evolving expectations for transaction volume, subscription monetization and potential new revenue lines such as token issuance and tokenized rewards.

At the same time, established payments companies are gearing up for their own earnings tests. Visa and Mastercard are both set to report, and investors will parse metrics such as cross-border volume growth, transaction revenues and margin trends. For payments platforms, small percentage changes in processed volume translate into material differences in revenue and free cash flow.

Big-ticket deals and strategy: private capital, energy and positioning for growth

Meanwhile, asset managers and private-equity firms continued to make large strategic commitments. Blackstone agreed to invest approximately $705 million in India’s Federal Bank for a near-9.9% stake, a capital deployment that underscores private capital’s appetite for strategic footholds in growing banking markets. Ares Management participated on the buy-side as well: Ares Alternative Credit funds were part of a transaction to acquire Plymouth Industrial REIT for $22.00 per share in a deal value of about $2.1 billion, illustrating how alternative-credit strategies are being used to aggregate assets and generate yield.

Brookfield’s activity showed how infrastructure and energy are again center stage. The firm was selected to proceed with exclusive negotiations to restart a partially built nuclear project in South Carolina, part of a chain of stories that placed a private firm at the center of a $9 billion redevelopment discussion — an example of large-scale, long-duration capital commitments that private managers now consider core to their product offerings. Brookfield also announced partnerships and fund activity in clean energy and AI data center power, including reference to a potential US$5 billion collaboration with Bloom Energy and a US$20 billion clean energy transition fund close, highlighting the intersection between real assets and fast-growing technology demand.

Analyst actions and price-target moves rounded out the picture. Some maintain cautious or neutral stances while others raised targets: Blackstone’s consensus target edged down slightly from $181.68 to $178.79, while Phillip Securities raised Bank of America’s target from $50 to $56. Those incremental changes reflect the market’s two-part task this quarter — to price in macro catalysts such as changes to Fed expectations and to re-weight company-specific drivers including credit costs, buybacks and token-related revenue opportunities.

What investors should take away from this sequence is practical: Q3 delivered concrete proof points — revenue beats, margin expansion in targeted franchises, and meaningful capital returns in some names — while large institutions moved decisively into token-based finance. Between the reported numbers and strategic shifts, markets now carry a more detailed set of assumptions about interest-rate paths, credit trends and the monetization of digital assets. That combination will guide positioning as companies report remaining results and as analysts refine models ahead of year-end.

As always, earnings season is less about single headlines and more about how those headlines change expectations. This quarter’s batch of figures and strategic announcements gave investors fresh numerics to update their forecasts: from First Hawaiian’s $226.4 million in revenue to Ares’ participation in a $2.1 billion transaction, to the industry-wide implications of major banks accepting crypto as collateral, the data points are now part of the baseline for 2026 assumptions.