Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the US equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Wall Street banks are turning more bullish on US stocks, despite President Donald Trump’s renewed threats of steep tariffs on major trading partners, with most big companies expected to shrug off the turmoil in the upcoming earnings season.Goldman Sachs strategists this week joined JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citigroup and Deutsche in lifting their end-of-year target for the S&P 500, believing the index will rally 11 per cent beyond the record high it hit last week. Goldman said the administration’s shifting tariff policy had generated…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is set to join Goldman Sachs as a senior adviser, in his first major role since he resigned as Conservative party leader last year following Labour’s landslide general election victory.The job marks a return to the Wall Street investment bank for Sunak who spent the first few years of his career there from 2001 to 2004, first as a summer intern then a junior analyst. “I am excited to welcome Rishi back to Goldman Sachs in his…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK financial regulator has fined Monzo £21mn for repeatedly breaching rules against opening accounts for “high-risk customers” after the digital bank took on clients with “obviously implausible information”.The Financial Conduct Authority started reviewing Monzo’s financial risk controls in 2020 and opened a formal investigation in 2021.Despite the watchdog imposing a block on Monzo opening new accounts for high-risk customers, the lender “repeatedly failed to comply with the terms of the requirement” and signed up more than 34,000 high-risk clients between August…

In France’s rural areas, one veteran Parisian dealmaker notes, politicians are grappling with shortages of doctors so acute they are termed “medical deserts”. Paris faces a different problem, he observes. “We have an overpopulation of bankers.” The French capital is among the most competitive marketplaces for dealmakers in the world, where the prestige houses of Lazard and Rothschild & Co with their centuries-old pedigrees vie against the institutional heft of Wall Street’s biggest banks and their domestic French counterparts.But in recent years, a new breed of competitor has swept into the city: American boutiques with a narrower focus on mergers…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldPrivate credit lenders have found a new batch of clients: US government contractors short-changed by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive and trying to stay afloat. Legalist, a private capital lender based in San Francisco, told the Financial Times that its “government receivables” business had extended more than $100mn in financing to dozens of contractors since the start of 2025, more than doubling the strategy’s previous total book of business. The group is looking to raise $250mn from investors to extend more…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Chinese investors are driving a sharp rally in mainland bank stocks listed in Hong Kong, as they hunt for alternatives to the near-record low yields offered by government debt.The Hong Kong shares of China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have risen 36 per cent, 33.7 per cent and 25.4 per cent respectively over the past six months, beating the Hang Seng index as mainland Chinese investors pour record amounts of money into…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The author is vice-chair at Oliver Wyman and former global head of banks and diversified financials research at Morgan StanleyOnce the domain of pension funds, insurers and the uber-wealthy, private credit is undergoing a quiet transformation. Product innovation and technological advances are rapidly opening the door to a new class of investor: individuals who are affluent but not in the top-tier of the ultra-rich. One blended fund that invests in public and private assets now has a minimum investment of just $1,000.The…

Two big weekend scoops: In case you missed it, over the weekend the FT published two explosive stories on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the controversial aid project that’s been blighted by the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.The stories show how Boston Consulting Group’s involvement in the project went far beyond what the strategy firm had publicly described. It’s the latest in a litany of scandals that have beset some of the world’s most elite management consultancies.Staff from Tony Blair’s non-profit also took part in a project with BCG to develop postwar plans for the enclave, sharing ideas that included a…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The biggest US private equity firms have abandoned a controversial practice of hiring promising graduates about to start work at investment banks for roles due to begin years later. No large buyout firm has launched its “on-cycle” recruitment process during the traditional June window since JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said last month that the bank would terminate junior analysts accepting future-dated jobs. The decision to halt on-cycle recruiting came after several firms had already started pre-screening “coffee chat” sessions with students…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UBS has made about 100 “goodwill payments” to Swiss customers after complaints about losses on foreign exchange derivatives that blew up in the wake of Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, as it seeks to draw a line under the episode at a time of heightened regulatory scrutiny. The Swiss bank set up an internal task force to examine the complaints after some of its clients suffered heavy losses when the US dollar fell sharply following Trump’s announcement of blanket tariffs on April…