Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The biggest US banks have all passed the Federal Reserve’s annual tests of whether they can withstand a future economic and market crisis, opening the door for them to raise dividends and share buybacks.The Fed said on Friday that under its “severely adverse” scenario, in which unemployment surges to 10 per cent, the 22 banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, would lose more than $500bn. However, they would suffer a much smaller hit to capital than in recent…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Meta is looking to raise $29bn to fund its all-in push into artificial intelligence, turning to private capital firms to finance its build out of data centres in the US.Talks between the Instagram-owner and private credit investors have advanced, with several large players including Apollo Global Management, KKR, Brookfield, Carlyle and Pimco involved in the discussions, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta is hoping to raise $3bn of equity from them and then a further $26bn of debt. But it…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Former Barclays chief Jes Staley has failed to persuade a California court to throw out an investor lawsuit over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, in the same week that he lost a separate UK court battle over his ties to the late sex offender. Staley, Barclays and its chair Nigel Higgins had asked the California court to dismiss a claim by a group of investors in Barclays’ US securities, which alleges that they misrepresented Staley’s relationship with Epstein and therefore inflated the…

Jes Staley conceded that it would have been easier not to have been friends with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. At no other time was that sentiment, expressed during the former Barclays boss’s cross-examination in a London courtroom in March, more true than on Thursday. The 68-year-old American found out that he had failed in his bid to overturn a lifetime ban imposed on him by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority over his ties to Epstein, the dead financier and prolific sex offender. “The loss of his long-standing career is an inevitable consequence”, read the judgment of the Upper Tribunal, which heard…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK companies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Wood Group, the UK energy engineering company, said it was under investigation by financial regulators over the withholding of information from its auditors. The company, which is the subject of a £242mn bid from the United Arab Emirates-based Sidara, said in March that it would restate its financial results and suspend its shares, after an independent review found it had either withheld or supplied unreliable information to its auditors KPMG. On Friday, the company said the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority would investigate the period…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the European banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Europe’s top banking regulator has raised concerns about the “circles of risk” being created by banks providing financing to investors that are taking on credit risk from other lenders.The European Banking Authority said in a report on Friday that it was “paramount to understand” whether loan exposures transferred out of the banking system through a fast-growing credit-transfer market were looping back through financing from other lenders.The EBA’s concern stems from the rapidly growing market for significant risk transfers — also known as…

This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Donald Trump is reportedly considering naming a shadow chair of the Federal Reserve, in a bid to undermine Jay Powell and push him and the Fed to cut interest rates. That would be a dumb thing to do. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail. Email us: unhedged@ft.com.Friday Interview: Enrico Letta Enrico Letta is the dean of IE School of Politics and president of the Jacques…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The number of UK investment trusts has fallen by nearly a fifth over the past four years as the industry comes under pressure from cheap index-tracking funds, higher interest rates and takeovers.Investment trusts are companies whose shares trade on the London Stock Exchange. They pool investors’ money into one pot to buy and sell stakes in assets ranging from equities to infrastructure. However, the number of trusts has fallen from 337 in 2021 to 275, according to the Association of Investment Companies,…

Asset managers have it easy. The parties, the access, the spreadsheets. And the money isn’t bad. However, to keep the show on the road, there is the minor detail of winning and retaining clients. But what if you just bought them?While this isn’t exactly what private equity firms have done, neither is it completely not what they’ve done. As the Bank of England wrote in its latest Financial Stability Report:Historically, PE business models have relied on PE firms or financial sponsors (general partners) raising funding at arm’s length from investors (limited partners) such as insurers, pension schemes, and family offices.…

One thing to start: The US Treasury department has called on Congress to scrap a provision in Donald Trump’s flagship budget bill that would allow Washington to raise taxes on foreign investments, reversing a plan that had spooked Wall Street.And a scoop: The private equity owner of the former KPMG restructuring and advisory business Interpath is poised to appoint bankers to manage a sale of the company at a target valuation of about £800mn.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up…