Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK property myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Mortgage brokers have welcomed an “innovative” home loan aimed at first-time buyers, which requires a deposit of just £5,000 for homes worth up to £500,000. The mortgage, launched this week by Accord, an arm of
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. French inflation has fallen faster than forecast to its lowest level since July 2021, while price growth also undershot expectations in Italy to boost hopes that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates soon.
Thames Water is in trouble: cash-strapped, struggling to control sewage outflows and water leakage, and without the storage capacity to deal with shortfalls during hot weather. Concerns over the future of Britain’s biggest water provider reached a peak this week when investors refused to inject £3bn of much-needed equity, despite nearly a year of negotiations
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK property sector has a proud tradition of being the gloomiest corner of the European market in every crash. Not this time. Global real estate, squeezed by rising interest rates, is in the midst
When BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink warned of a looming “retirement crisis” this week, he not only drew attention to a long-rumbling societal problem but also highlighted a business opportunity that his money manager, its rivals and insurers are all hoping to cultivate. Countries around the world are struggling to fund old age benefits as
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Between 1980 and 2019, the world’s most developed countries roughly tripled their real-terms per capita spending on child benefits, subsided childcare, parental leave and other family-friendly policies. They also saw their birth rates decline from
Dozens of people are packed into the corner of the lobby of a Moscow concert hall, squeezed against a wall and unable to escape as four gunmen fire automatic weapons into the group. Dmitry Saraev, a concert promoter and journalist, was among the people trapped in the corner that night as bullets flew around him
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UN’s International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to ensure that more food and humanitarian assistance reach Palestinians in Gaza, warning that famine is “setting in” there as the Israel-Hamas war enters its sixth
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s supreme court dealt a blow to Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition on Thursday by ordering it to suspend state subsidies for many ultraorthodox Jews who attend religious schools instead of doing military service. The interim
By the age of 30, Sam Bankman-Fried had convinced a million people that he was a safe custodian of their hard-earned cash. But stood in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, head of curly hair bowed, the one-time master of persuasion failed to win over the person who, in that moment, mattered most: a federal judge
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Global stock markets have recorded their best first-quarter performance in five years, buoyed by hopes of a soft economic landing in the US and enthusiasm about artificial intelligence. An MSCI index of worldwide stocks has gained
Sarah Wolfe As Tiffany Mane read a personal finance book during her train ride to work, a woman sitting near her acknowledged that she, too, knew of the author. Shortly after, several bystanders began inquiring into its contents. Mane was reading “Financial Feminist” by Tori Dunlap. The late-2022 release is one piece of the Her
Municipals were steady to weaker in spots Thursday ahead of a smaller new-issue calendar while municipal bond mutual funds saw more inflows. U.S. Treasury yields rose 10 years and in and equities ended mixed. LSEG Lipper reported fund inflows of $447 million for the week ending Wednesday following $63.8 million of inflows the prior week.
The Purdue University Trustees priced $72.43 million of student fee bonds Tuesday, joining other issuers in refunding some of the university’s outstanding Build America Bonds. Lead managers Jefferies and Ramirez & Co. priced the deal Wednesday, with Wells Fargo Securities serving as co-manager. The municipal advisor is Blue Rose Capital Advisors. Bond counsel is Ice
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green claims the state is making headway toward reducing recovery costs by getting people displaced by fires out of hotels and into permanent housing. Green has faced criticism from lawmakers for not having a cogent housing plan or coherent budget for the costs associated with the August 8 Lahaina wildfires. Lawmakers are
A proposed $2 billion public private partnership that would have moved two major league sports teams out of Washington D.C. and into a bond-financed, built-from-scratch arena in Northern Virginia is officially off, following an announcement that the District has come to terms on a deal to keep the teams in their current home. On Wednesday,
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. At the big coming-out event for Nvidia’s latest artificial intelligence chip this month, chief executive Jensen Huang shared the spotlight with only one other tech boss — and even then, only momentarily. Michael Dell was
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The chief executive of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market has said insurers should “just get on with it” and pay out for the Baltimore bridge collapse, rather than waiting for years of wrangling over
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Cryptocurrencies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. If a Martian landed on Wall Street or in Washington this Easter, they might think that crypto was in retreat. On Thursday, a New York court gave a 25-year prison sentence to Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison over his role in the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, after being convicted of stealing billions of dollars in customer funds to make risky
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Organisers of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race insist the event will go ahead as planned this weekend, despite warnings over high levels of “dangerous” pollution caused by sewage in the river Thames. Campaign group River Action