At least three large banks have submitted bids to buy all or part of First Republic, the embattled California lender that US regulators have been racing to save this weekend. Among those that have put in offers are JPMorgan Chase, PNC and Citizens, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation. JPMorgan, which led
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Cutting ties with China would be “unthinkable for almost all of German industry”, the chief executive of automaker Mercedes-Benz has said, as Europe’s largest economy grapples with its deep reliance on Beijing. Ola Källenius said cutting ties with China was impossible and “not desirable”. “The major players in the global economy — Europe, the USA
The writer is head of the centre for financial crime and security studies at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank In February 2022, I compared the UK’s first round of sanctions against Russia and the Putin regime to taking a peashooter to a gunfight. The threat of sanctions failed to deter Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of
“Somehow, in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices [or] wages or passing the energy costs on to customers.” This comment by Huw Pill, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has set off a firestorm. Is he right? Yes,
Charlie Munger has warned of a brewing storm in the US commercial property market, with American banks “full of” what he said were “bad loans” as property prices fall. The comments from the 99-year-old investor and sidekick to billionaire Warren Buffett come as turmoil ripples through the country’s financial system, which is reckoning with a
Britain’s transport secretary has warned that the walkout by nurses in England that begins on Sunday evening could “put patients at risk”, as the dispute between the government and health unions over pay and working conditions intensifies. Nurses affiliated with the Royal College of Nursing are due to strike from 8pm on Sunday evening until
Change is afoot in South Cambridgeshire, the parliamentary constituency that wraps around the entire western side of the famed university city. In the past decade, the world-class research coming out of Cambridge’s colleges has driven a boom in industries such as pharmaceuticals and technology. Residents of places like Cambourne or Great Shelford are more likely
The woman in charge of preventing sexual misconduct at the World Health Organization has criticised a male-dominated culture in UN agencies and said the global health body was not a safe place for “all people” despite efforts to root out the problem. “It is the prevalent culture in the UN system . . . The culture in all our
Plans to pre-fund the UK’s deposit insurance scheme would be an “extra tax” on lenders, affecting their ability to extend loans to cash-strapped households and businesses, the building societies body has warned. The Bank of England is considering an overhaul of the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme that will probably involve pre-funding the system so
Households across Europe are facing a persistent pinch from one of the worst cost of living crises since the second world war, despite inflation falling almost as quickly as it rose. Even by late next year, real incomes will not have regained the levels they reached before the surge in price growth, according to analysis
A small number of tech companies are driving an ever-increasing share of the US stock market’s gains, prompting concerns among investors about the sustainability of the rally. The S&P 500 has risen 8 per cent so far in 2023, but 80 per cent of the increase has been driven by just seven companies, according to
Scotland’s governing Scottish National party is facing historic difficulties as it reels from a very public police investigation into its finances. Party president Michael Russell has called it the SNP’s worst crisis in 50 years, while Nicola Sturgeon has said events since she quit as leader last month surpassed her “worst nightmares”. “It’s a real
When Joe Biden this week announced plans to seek re-election in 2024, he immediately triggered speculation as to whether he could serve a full second term. Most political pundits agree that, at 80, age is one of Biden’s biggest political vulnerabilities. If re-elected, he would be 82 at the start of his next term and
A dispute over airline routes between the US and China has emerged as a further sticking point in efforts to improve relations between the countries after Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed stabilising ties was necessary in November. The US has offered to grant Chinese airlines the same number of weekly flights between both countries
Walking home last Monday afternoon through the picturesque and normally gore-free seaside city of Maizuru, a primary school student discovered a human fingertip lying on the road. This was a traumatising horror for a small child, but arguably a bigger jolt for Japan as a whole and for corporate Japan in particular. The incident not
The US government has asked JPMorgan, PNC and several other financial groups to bid for all or part of First Republic, as US regulators try to determine how much it would cost taxpayers to take over the embattled California lender. Over the past 24 hours, it has become clear to both First Republic and the
Silicon Valley Bank discussed selling a chunk of its bond portfolio at a loss as early as last November, according to newly released documents that show executives grappling with a liquidity crisis at the lender months before it succumbed to a historic bank run. In an internal presentation codenamed “Project Phoenix”, SVB executives debated selling
Elon Musk’s move to introduce a pricey paywall to access Twitter’s data is set to upend thousands of academic and developer projects, in his latest controversial attempt to generate new revenues to turn round the business. Twitter has laid out plans to this weekend push developers over to a new monthly pricing structure for its
Shoppers and retailers in Europe are less willing than their US counterparts to pay higher prices for a range of consumer goods, according to industry executives, analysts and economists. Figures from companies including Unilever, which makes products including Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Vaseline, and Procter & Gamble, whose brands include Ariel detergent and Pampers nappies, showed
The writer is senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an adviser to Gallos Technologies Since Russia invaded Ukraine, a new kind of fleet has been congregating in the Kerch Strait. Observers in this narrow channel — which connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea and thus the rest of the world
Hope can be hard to find on the seafront in Skegness, where the flatlands of Lincolnshire shelve imperceptibly into the grey North Sea, and an economic pall and a sense of broken promises hang over the town. In Britain’s “capital of Brexit”, the issue of migration continues to dominate, seven years after the town voted