InMarketing Today

Staff at Barclays and HSBC have given more than $500,000 to US political candidates ahead of the midterm elections, City AM reports today, citing Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Donors naming Barclays as their employer gave just over $344,000 since the start of last year, led by $70,000 from banking chairman Alexander Lynch to the House Victory Project, a fund split across Democratic candidates. HSBC staff gave over $163,000, led by around $18,000 from Mark Schuermann, its US head of public affairs, to the bank's political action committee (PAC).

Both banks answered carefully. Barclays called itself "politically neutral" and said staff must keep personal political activity "entirely separate" from their jobs; HSBC said its PACs are run by eligible employees, use no bank funds and aim for "an even split between parties". Both statements may be accurate. Neither changes the headline. US campaign finance rules ask donors to state their employer, so every personal cheque is filed in the public record beside the bank's name, and reporters read those records in election week. HSBC's answer is the stronger because it describes a policy rather than a disclaimer. It is also a claim journalists can test against the same data.

If your firm has a US presence, pull the FEC records for your senior people and know what they show before a journalist does. Agree a holding statement with legal and public affairs in advance, not on polling day. And brief senior executives that a personal donation filed under your firm's name is, for headline purposes, a corporate one.

Societe Generale has used $10 million of tokenised US Treasuries as eligible collateral on the Canton Network through its Prime Services and Clearing division, Securities Finance Times reports today. The trade formed part of the soft launch of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) Tokenisation Service. It follows the bank's first US tokenised bond issuance on Canton a year ago and its appointment as a Super Validator of the network earlier this year.

Ten million dollars is a rounding error in prime brokerage; the language is what matters. Salim Nemouchi, global head of Prime Services, says the trade "moves tokenisation beyond issuance" and connects it to the financing markets "where clients can derive tangible value". Tokenisation has spent years being marketed through firsts: first issuance, first pilot, first token. Clients have rarely been told what they can now do that they could not do before. Using a tokenised asset as collateral answers that question, and it is a claim a treasurer would recognise as useful.

If you run a digital assets programme, count how many of your announcements describe a first and how many describe something a client can now do, then write the next one around the client action. UK firms have a reason to move: the Bank of England opened a consultation on tokenised collateral last week. Ask your collateral and treasury teams which tokenised assets they would accept today, because clients are about to ask you the same question.

Business-to-business (B2B) brands are now paying creators to reach specialist buyers, Ruth Stevens writes in MarTech today. Research from Ascend2 and TopRank Marketing finds 83% of B2B marketers are actively pursuing influencer programmes, and 43% of the most effective programmes partner with entertaining creators, nearly double the rate for traditional analysts and executives. Patrick Zielinski of The Drive Agency, a B2B talent firm, says some companies now write influencing into job descriptions and hire staff for their followings.

Two findings matter more to a regulated firm than the headline growth. Marketers rate "always on" programmes nearly twice as desirable as one-off campaigns, 42% against 24%, and they value trust and credibility above reach. That is a case against the sponsored burst and for steady expertise. It also cuts both ways for employee influencers: an expert who builds an audience in your name builds an asset that can leave with them, and in financial services a paid post can be a financial promotion under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules.

Start with the experts you already employ, not hired names, and give them a standing slot rather than a campaign. Put disclosure, compliance sign-off and ownership of content into the agreement before the first post. And decide now what happens when an employee's audience outgrows their job, because agencies like Zielinski's are in the business of finding out.