The writer is an FT contributing editor There is a clickbait argument that because the Federal Reserve has raised US interest rates so far and so fast, small banks — which provide almost 70 per cent of commercial real estate lending — are likely to see significant defaults, and when those loans go bad they
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We’re a curious bunch, us Brits. We boast two of the most revered and envied universities in the world, Oxford and Cambridge, which have educated huge numbers of global leaders, scientists and cultural figures, and produced all sorts of historically significant discoveries, theories and inventions. And yet calling someone “Oxbridge-educated”, in this country, is often seen
EY’s UK bosses have told partners to prepare for a fresh cost-cutting plan and a stream of staff departures as they admitted to embarrassment at the collapse of the firm’s long-running attempt to split its global business in two. On a call with partners on Wednesday, Anna Anthony, UK managing partner for financial services, said:
The writer of this essay is an investor and co-author of the annual “State of AI” report On a cold evening in February I attended a dinner party at the home of an artificial intelligence researcher in London, along with a small group of experts in the field. He lives in a penthouse apartment at
Getting our heads around large numbers can be hard. Few of us can comprehend the true scale of difference between a million, a billion and a trillion. But the events of recent months in the US may give us an incentive us to try. President Joe Biden has succeeded in passing three important acts that
In October 2020, Zambia, struggling from an economic and financial crisis compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, first missed an interest payment on its international bonds. Two and a half years later it remains in limbo, unable to resolve the default on most of its $31.6bn debts. That an impoverished and vulnerable country has for so
JPMorgan Chase was aware that Jeffrey Epstein had been accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home seven years before the bank dropped him as a client, legal filings alleged on Wednesday in New York. Mary Erdoes, who is now the head of asset management at the US
SoftBank has moved to sell almost all of its remaining shareholding in Alibaba, limiting its exposure to China and raising cash as the market downturn pummels the value of its technology investments. The Japanese group, led by billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, has sold about $7.2bn worth of Alibaba shares this year through prepaid forward contracts,
Brussels is set to unveil plans to better shield taxpayers from bank failure by strengthening its rules for struggling lenders. The European Commission is in the process of finalising draft legislation that makes it easier to transfer depositors’ cash to healthy institutions from troubled lenders, or to wind down a problem bank without drawing on
Andrew Bailey has said the Bank of England is working on reform of Britain’s bank deposit insurance guarantee scheme, raising the prospect of increased protection for customers. Speaking in response to high-profile bank failures on both sides of the Atlantic, the BoE governor suggested the UK might need to increase its limit for guaranteed deposits
Carmine Di Sibio was derided by some colleagues as a mere “caretaker” when he was appointed as global boss of EY in 2019. The Italy-born executive confounded expectations by attempting a once-in-a-generation break-up of the Big Four firm. But after months of internal arguments and delays, the deal’s collapse has pitched the firm into fresh
China’s luxury market has begun to rebound from the downturn it experienced during the country’s draconian zero-Covid policies, but the pace of sales growth in the US — luxury’s biggest market — has plateaued, according to LVMH. The world’s biggest luxury group, which is controlled by billionaire Bernard Arnault, reported global sales for the first
For a group that specialises in corporate restructuring, EY might have done a better job of executing its own. The global accountancy partnership could not scale its Project Everest — a plan to split its audit and consultancy activities. The exertion has left its leaders red-faced, and a tad lost strategically. EY’s ambition was sound.
Joe Biden vowed the US would be a “partner for peace” in Northern Ireland, as he called on political leaders in the region to restore power-sharing at Stormont at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Speaking at Ulster University in Belfast on Wednesday afternoon, the US president celebrated the 1998
US inflation eased last month to its lowest level in nearly two years but an uptick in core prices will keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to press ahead with another interest rate increase in May. The consumer price index for March rose by 5 per cent year on year, according to data published by
Local elections are routinely heralded for their broader political significance, though they are often a poor predictor of general elections. Next month’s English council contests will be pored over by pundits seeking to divine the next prime minister in the entrails of the electoral data. The future will be seen in the portents from Swindon.
The US president’s favourite word is “malarkey” — an Irish-Americanism that means nonsense. His top poet is Ireland’s late Seamus Heaney. The holiday he most relishes is St Patrick’s Day. It should thus be no surprise — even to Britain’s King Charles III, whose coronation Biden will miss next month — that Biden is spending
China made a rare backtrack on Wednesday over plans to block some of the world’s busiest airspace near Taiwan for three days, causing confusion over Beijing’s priorities in handling its stand-off with Taipei and Washington. The Chinese government had notified Taiwan and several other countries on Tuesday that it would impose the no-flight zone between
EY’s US business will embark on a $500mn cost-saving programme after its opposition torpedoed plans for a historic split of the Big Four firm. US leaders outlined a new strategy in a memo to partners sent shortly after EY’s global executive committee said on Tuesday it was abandoning ambitions to spin off its consulting and
European stocks inched higher and Wall Street futures were steady on Wednesday ahead of closely watched US inflation data that will heavily influence the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision. The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 opened 0.1 per cent higher. Germany’s Dax and London’s FTSE 100 both gained 0.2 per cent. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s
British banknote printer De La Rue has warned that its profits will miss full-year forecasts as demand for fresh cash fell to its weakest level in 20-years, pushing shares to record lows on Wednesday. In its third profit warning since January 2022, the currency and passport maker cautioned that it faced “significant uncertainty” and low