Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A Labour donor at the centre of an alleged cronyism scandal has been given the top role at Secure Trust Bank. Ian Corfield, who stepped down as a civil servant at the Treasury in November last year, will take up the role as chief executive designate at Secure Trust later this month before assuming the permanent role in August, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.Corfield’s exit from Whitehall followed intense criticism of the government over its close ties to big donors.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Legal & General is doubling down on its asset management business as it seeks to expand internationally and sell more private-market products to customers ranging from pension schemes to wealth managers.António Simões, chief executive of the FTSE 100 company, which oversees £1.1tn of assets, is planning to tell investors at its capital markets event on Tuesday that its investment unit is “the core engine for growth”.“I’ve tied the future of L&G into the future of asset management,” Simões told the Financial Times.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When UK asset manager Aberdeen Group renamed itself four years ago as Abrdn, the company said it had created “a highly differentiated brand”.While the new moniker stood out, it was arguably for the wrong reasons. The fund group, which had been called Standard Life Aberdeen following a merger, was widely ridiculed for removing most of the vowels from its name.Creating a “modern, agile, digitally enabled” brand was part of the stated rationale at the time, as was the lack of available internet…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Investment Banking myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Wall Street executives are counting on their traders to offset tepid deal fees this quarter, after Donald Trump’s trade war threats made markets gyrate.Senior bankers say the market swings prompted by the US president’s “liberation day” declaration of higher tariffs led to a flurry of buying and selling by investors, even as corporate boardrooms put deals on ice.“Trading continues to be helped by volatility, with equity trading likely to continue to outperform fixed-income trading,” said Mike Mayo, a banking industry analyst at…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ireland’s government has sold its last remaining stake in AIB, returning a second bank rescued during the financial crisis to full private ownership.The government’s exit from Ireland’s second-largest lender comes three years after the state completed the sale of its stake in market leader Bank of Ireland. PTSB, the third bank bailed out by taxpayers as the country reeled from the 2008 financial crisis and a property crash, remains 57 per cent publicly owned. The government stepped in to keep the banks…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A KKR-led takeover bid for NHS landlord Assura has been hit by opposition from some of the FTSE 250 group’s biggest shareholders, which favour an alternative offer from its UK-listed rival Primary Health Properties. The bidding war over Assura has been running since February, with a consortium formed of KKR and US infrastructure investor Stonepeak last week making a “best and final” cash offer of £1.7bn. But two of Assura’s top 10 shareholders — wealth manager Quilter Cheviot and investment firm Schroders…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Global banks led by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America boosted fossil fuel financing by more than one-fifth in 2024, in a major reversal of the trend of recent years, an annual report by climate campaigners found.Coal, oil and gas finance provided by the world’s 65 largest banks by assets rose by $162bn to $869bn, according to the 16th report produced by a coalition of groups co-ordinated by the Rainforest Action Network, based on lending and underwriting data from more than…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A London tribunal has ruled that Metro Bank’s former top two executives were responsible for a £900mn accounting error at the UK high street lender.Craig Donaldson, Metro’s ex-chief executive, and David Arden, former chief financial officer, had challenged fines handed to them by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2022 for allegedly misclassifying a large number of commercial loans.The Upper Tribunal, which deals with appeals against the UK financial regulator’s decisions, found the two men were “knowingly concerned” in Metro’s breach of FCA…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Millennium Management, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, is in talks about selling a minority stake to external investors at a $14bn valuation, as it presses ahead with plans to open up its ownership for the first time.People familiar with the discussions said that Millennium was working with Goldman Sachs’ Petershill Partners to identify potential buyers for a 10-15 per cent equity stake in Millennium’s management company. It is the first time a formal valuation has been put on the hedge…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sabadell is exploring a sale of its British bank TSB, as the Spanish lender seeks to fend off an €11bn hostile approach from its domestic rival BBVA. Sabadell is working with advisers to examine offloading the UK high street unit and has been in contact with potential bidders, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. Two of the people said that documents relating to a sale had been circulated to potential bidders in recent weeks, with one adding that interested…