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Losing one finance director is an isolated misfortune. But when a quarter of FTSE 100 finance directors box up their desk contents in the space of a few months, it is clear something does not quite add up.  The level of churn is remarkable. Both Unilever and Prudential announced the departure of their finance directors this

Facebook’s parent company has unveiled its latest virtual reality device, signalling a continued commitment to building an avatar-filled “metaverse” while seeking to grab attention ahead of rival Apple’s anticipated headset launch next week.  In a video posted on his Instagram account on Thursday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg teased the new Quest 3 product, which

Next week, a veteran New York lawyer of 30 years’ standing will face a disciplinary hearing over a novel kind of misdemeanour: including bogus AI-generated content in a legal brief. Steven Schwartz, from the firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, had submitted a 10-page document to a New York court as part of a personal injury

Financial watchdogs must “significantly” increase their budgets in the wake of recent banking crises, said the head of the umbrella body for central banks, arguing that more intensive day-to-day oversight was critical to preventing failures. Global policymakers are weighing rule changes to better insulate banks from risks such as changing interest rates and a swifter

Labour has suspended veteran MP Geraint Davies pending an investigation into “incredibly serious allegations of completely unacceptable behaviour”. The decision on Thursday means the MP for Swansea West is, until further notice, barred from representing the UK opposition party in parliament. It followed claims, first reported by Politico, that he had subjected five women to

Eurozone inflation has fallen more than economists expected to hit its lowest level since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, bolstering hopes that monetary policymakers could stop raising interest rates this summer. Annual consumer prices in the 20-country single currency bloc rose 6.1 per cent in the year to May, a

UK house prices have fallen further as rising mortgage rates deterred home buyers and prompted owners to repay property loans at a near record rate. Figures from the Nationwide Building Society released on Thursday showed prices of the average property in May were 3.4 per cent lower than a year earlier, with the annual fall

Ukraine is ready to join Nato but is waiting for the alliance to reach an agreement on its entry, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, stepping up pressure on western governments as a debate over providing security guarantees to Kyiv intensifies. Ukraine has long seen membership of the US-led military alliance as the foundation of its future

The drive for diversification is pushing more innovation in the market. Since the first two US exchange traded funds offering exposure to collateralised loan obligations launched in 2020, seven more have come to market, Morningstar data shows. In all, the ETFs have about $2.8bn in assets under management. CLOs performed strongly during the Federal Reserve’s

France is stoking controversy again, with another one of its bans. But it’s not burkas this time, or Anglicisms, or even the use of meaty words to describe plant-based food. This time, it’s a holy tenet of modern life that the French have dared to wage war against: convenience. A new law came into force

The life sciences sector is that rarest of things: an area where the UK government has generally agreed with itself.  Reports have consistently espoused the importance of the sector and the UK’s strengths in terms of its leading universities, a strong research base, good skills and a centralised system in the NHS. The life sciences

Stocks edged higher in Asia and futures markets tipped European shares to rally on Thursday after the US House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling, sending the bill to the Senate where it is expected to be passed. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng stock index and Japan’s Topix both rose 0.8 per cent,

Kevin McCarthy was in celebration mode on Wednesday night after convincing lawmakers to pass his deal with President Joe Biden to avoid a US debt default. “We decided that you had to spend less, and we achieved that goal,” the Speaker of the House of Representatives told reporters in the US Capitol. “Is it everything

Inside a “clean room” within ASML’s sprawling campus in the Dutch town of Veldhoven, dozens of men and women in hazmat suits are breathing air that is 10,000-times more purified than in an operating theatre. They are working on the first prototype of the chip toolmaker’s newest product: the latest generation of extreme ultraviolet photolithography

Shares of petcare retailer Chewy surged as much as 13 per cent after it posted a surprise profit and a strong full-year outlook. The company earned $22.2mn in net income, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase and a shock to analysts, who expected a loss of $10.6mn. Its $2.78bn in sales was a 14 per

A future British government should adopt a “general policy” of aligning with EU regulations to improve post-Brexit trade, an independent cross-party business group said on Wednesday. The recommendation to align with EU standards across swaths of manufacturing and general goods trade was among 114 proposals made in a report published by the UK Trade and

A bill to raise the debt ceiling cleared a significant hurdle on Wednesday afternoon, after Democratic lawmakers supported Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and allowed the bipartisan deal to advance to a full vote. In order to see off a rebellion from members from his own party, McCarthy was forced to rely on

ExxonMobil and Chevron shareholders solidly rejected climate change proposals at the US oil majors’ annual meetings on Wednesday, scaling back support from last year and splitting with results at peers in Europe where resolutions related to global warming have won stronger support. Only 11 per cent of Exxon shareholders supported a petition calling for the

JPMorgan chair Jamie Dimon has warned of the risk for investor confidence of “uncertainty” about the Chinese government’s policies, as manufacturing data showed that the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is faltering. His comments came as a contraction in China’s factory activity cast doubt over the country’s growth prospects, shaking regional equity markets against

When the former US president Donald Trump was found liable of the sexual abuse of journalist E Jean Carroll last month, some observers might have hoped this would make him less appealing to American voters. Not so. If you look at a Quinnipiac poll released in late May, Trump now has the backing of 56