By PYMNTS | October 23, 2026
Highlights
LSEG agreed to buy Octus for $3.535 billion. Octus sells specialized credit data to financial firms adding AI to their research. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Summit Partners led a $40 million investment in Cognitive Credit, which supplies verified credit models to asset managers and investment banks adding AI to their research.
PYMNTS Intelligence research found that 90% to 100% of large companies said they see some AI return, but only 5% to 10% reported a full return. Faster analysis does not automatically cut costs.
Artificial intelligence is reducing the time and cost of financial research, but the data behind that research is becoming more valuable.
Two investments announced Thursday (Oct. 22) illustrate the shift. London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced that it is acquiring credit intelligence provider Octus for $3.535 billion. Cognitive Credit, a provider of corporate debt-market intelligence, received an investment of $40 million led by Summit Partners.
Both transactions reflect growing demand for specialized financial information as banks, investment firms and asset managers add AI to research and investment decisions.
AI can summarize earnings reports, compare financial statements and produce preliminary credit assessments in seconds. However, these capabilities depend on accurate, timely and detailed information.
LSEG Says 80% of AI Agreements Add Datasets
LSEG’s acquisition of Octus expands its presence in private, illiquid and distressed credit intelligence, where investors rely on specialized information to evaluate borrowers and spot risks. Of the AI agreements LSEG has signed with customers, 80% involve purchases of additional datasets, the company said in a separate Thursday press release.
AI tools can only analyze the data they can reach. A system asked to assess a borrower needs the loan covenants, deal terms and financials behind it. Each new task can call for another dataset, and LSEG sells those datasets to customers already on its platform.
Octus has 750 customers and more than 40,000 users, according to LSEG’s first press release. Its teams obtain hard-to-access credit documents, including loan covenants and deal terms, and convert them into searchable data. Octus is expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue this year.
Proprietary financial datasets are hard to replicate, Morgan Stanley said in a November analysis of AI and financial information services, PYMNTS reported. Rebuilding decades of verified historical data with consistent identifiers is technically difficult and too costly for an outside player.
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The LSEG-Octus deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval, the first LSEG press release said. It should be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year and accretive after.
Cognitive Credit Supplies Verified Debt Models
Summit Partners’ investment in Cognitive Credit follows a similar thesis. It targets the financial models that corporate debt investors use.
The company provides verified credit models and financial information covering more than 3,500 corporate bond and loan issuers, according to a Thursday article written by Summit. Its customers include more than 80% of the world’s 25 largest asset managers and all 10 leading global debt underwriting banks.
Cognitive Credit gives analysts structured data so they do not have to pull figures from reports and rebuild spreadsheets, the article said. Analysts can use it in Excel, through APIs or through a native Claude connector. Credit analysts must trace calculations back to their sources, and the data is audit-grade. An AI summary can speed research, but a wrong debt figure or a missed loan covenant can change an investment decision.
The two deals could shift where financial research spending goes. Banks and asset managers could cut the hours analysts spend collecting data and summarizing disclosures. But they may spend more on licensed datasets and systems that make analysis auditable.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Enterprise AI Payback Curve: Adoption Accelerates as Returns Take Shape” found in August that between 90% and 100% of large companies in the United States in financial services, healthcare and media reported some return on new AI tools. Only 5% to 10% reported a full return. The report was based on a June survey of 60 senior technology executives at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue, so the figures are self-assessments.
An analyst completing more credit reviews does not necessarily mean a bank has reduced expenses. Savings depend on whether institutions can eliminate duplicated work, lower external research costs or handle more business without proportional staffing increases.
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