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PacWest shares plummeted 50 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday as the teetering California lender became the latest US midsized bank to seek a financial life line amid the worst industry turmoil since 2008. The bank has instructed boutique investment bank Piper Sandler to help it explore strategic options including a sale, two people

A former regulator credited with stabilising the US banking system during the 1980s crisis has hit out at the decision to sell First Republic to JPMorgan Chase as he warned of “more problems” to come for regional lenders. After San Francisco-based First Republic suffered a $100bn deposit run, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation solicited bids

From the rundown Neptune Magnet Mall in Mumbai, a giant of international oil shipping has emerged over the past 18 months, seemingly from nowhere. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the company has bought more oil tankers than anyone else, elevating itself from an unknown Indian shipping business into one of the world’s largest vessel owners. Gatik

I think I might have let out an audible groan in November when I saw Elon Musk proclaiming that his mission was to make Twitter “by far the most accurate source of information about the world”.  This is a man, after all, who has not in the past shown a particularly ardent commitment to the

Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell made no promise to pause a forceful campaign to rein in inflation after the US central bank lifted its benchmark interest rate above 5 per cent for the first time since 2007. But for anyone listening to his nearly hour-long press conference on Wednesday, it was abundantly clear which way

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer go head to head on Thursday in a big test at the ballot box, as voters across much of England go to the polls with more than 8,000 seats on 230 local councils up for grabs. The contest will be a barometer of public opinion ahead of an expected

The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology. The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 and under, including

The UK competition watchdog is launching a review of the artificial intelligence market, including the models behind popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, as the industry comes increasingly into global regulators’ crosshairs. Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, said the watchdog would examine so-called foundation models — such as the software

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology. The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 or younger, including via

The second-biggest bank failure in the history of the United States presented a rare opportunity for JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon to claw back some ground in a business long ceded to rivals — wealth management. Already a dominant player in investment, retail and private banking for rich clients, JPMorgan has lagged behind in the

The Treasury department on Wednesday said it would repurchase US government debt next year for the first time in decades, in an effort to boost liquidity in the $23tn government bond market. The programme would allow the Treasury to buy back older bonds, that are typically harder to trade, from primary dealers — banks that

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a late-night drone attack on the Kremlin, vowing to take retaliatory action. According to a statement from Putin’s press service, two Ukrainian drones attacked and crashed into the Kremlin overnight but were shot down by Russia’s military and secret services, which it

UK executives should be paid more if the country wants to retain talent and deter companies from leaving the City of London, the head of the London Stock Exchange has said. Julia Hoggett said the UK needed a “constructive discussion” on the UK’s approach to executive pay as part of broader efforts to boost the

That sound is a “dirty great hoover . . . on full suction mode”. Lord Jonathan Hill, who two years ago began the process of reforming London’s listing regime with his eponymous review, was referring to the US Inflation Reduction Act sucking investment out of Europe. He may as well have been talking about London’s capital markets. The risk,

Dozens of explosions were reported in Ukraine and near Russian-occupied Crimea early on Wednesday, as both sides stepped up air attacks ahead of an expected counter-offensive by Kyiv to recapture lost territory. Much is riding on Ukraine’s long-anticipated counter-offensive more than a year into Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. Military analysts say that it

Not one of Boris Johnson’s key team agreed on what Brexit was for. This is just the most glaring failure of an administration that may become the seminal case study on why governments fail. The scale of dysfunction is laid bare in Johnson at 10, a history which might alternatively be titled “How not to

A Russian spy network has acquired sensitive technology from EU companies to fuel Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine even after a US-led crackdown on the covert smuggling ring. The network — set up to procure goods ranging from microchips to ammunition — has managed to obtain machine tools from Germany and Finland despite US sanctions

The writer is a science commentator Whale poo is like environmental gold dust. It is rich in iron, phosphorus and nitrogen, among the nutrients that phytoplankton, the algae at the bottom of the marine food chain, need to grow. Phytoplankton produces more than half of the world’s oxygen and sucks as much carbon dioxide out

Three weeks after taking the reins of Carlyle Group, Harvey Schwartz was holding court on the unfolding banking turmoil during an appearance in front of the private equity firm’s top dealmakers. It was four days after Silicon Valley Bank had collapsed and the former Goldman Sachs president predicted the financial system was nowhere near a

The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector. Questions over the quality of its work and independence have mounted in recent days, following the release of a Federal Reserve report into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the

The Federal Reserve is set to deliver a quarter-point rate rise on Wednesday in what will be its 10th consecutive increase in just over a year, as pressure builds on the US central bank to call time on its aggressive monetary tightening campaign. At the end of its two-day gathering, the Federal Open Market Committee