Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Charlie Nunn said the UK faces an “investability problem” after a court ruled it was unlawful for car dealers to receive commissions from motor finance providers.The motor finance industry has been reeling since the Court of Appeal ruled in October that commissions were illegal unless the payments had been properly disclosed to the customer and consent had been given.Industry executives and lawyers said the ruling upends the regulation that has governed the sector for years. Lloyds Banking…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing has said that German businesses need relief on regulation and a more competitive corporate tax regime to reboot growth in its flagging economy. “We clearly need certain structural reforms,” Sewing told the Financial Times global banking summit in London on Wednesday. “We need to have absolutely some relief on the regulation and red tape. That is important.”He added that Germany also needed to “rethink” its corporate tax regime, which he said was “not competitive”. The comments…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the EU business regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.If there is one thing that bankers like, it’s giving themselves titles that make them sound more of a baller than they actually are.  So Goldman Sachs has “Partners” who aren’t members of any partnership, while every other investment bank has “Managing Directors” who aren’t on the board of a company and in many cases don’t manage anything.  A bank’s “Vice Presidents” are considerably further than a heartbeat from the presidency.  I once worked for a brokerage where the highest rank…

One scoop to start: Activist investor Palliser Capital has stepped up its campaign to get Rio Tinto to abandon its primary London listing, demanding an independent review of whether the world’s second-largest mining company should unify its corporate structure in Australia.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 here to get the newsletter delivered every Tuesday to Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters. Get in touch with us anytime: Due.Diligence@ft.comIn today’s newsletter:Who got the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.An activist investor, which successfully campaigned to overhaul the management of the Hipgnosis Song Fund last year, has taken aim at a FTSE 250 investment trust, claiming it is not delivering value for its shareholders.  London-based Metage Capital has written to the board of HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited (HVPE), demanding it revamp its strategy to close the share price’s wide 45 per cent discount to net asset value (NAV) at the end of October.Metage argued that since chair Ed Warner took…

I’m 65 years old and worried about the new pension rules that say my pension pot will now be subject to inheritance tax when I die. This will take me well over the tax-free thresholds. How can I plan to ensure my family aren’t subject to a large inheritance tax bill when I die?Laura Bywater, partner in the private client team at JMW Solicitors, says the Autumn Budget contained a surprise announcement that most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of an individual’s estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes from April 6 2027. This…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Mastercard has reached an agreement in principle worth about £200mn to settle a legal claim brought on behalf of millions of UK consumers that the payments company imposed unfairly high fees on card transactions.The groundbreaking case, brought by consumer champion and former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, has been one of the country’s largest mass lawsuits and among the first of its kind to proceed under legislation that allows collective legal action over alleged breaches of competition law.People with knowledge of the matter…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Alex Mashinsky, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a criminal case alleging that he misled investors about the company’s financial condition and used customer funds to manipulate the value of a digital token it issued. “I know what I did was wrong and I want to do what I can to make it right,” Mashinsky, 59, told Judge John Koeltl during the hearing in Manhattan federal court. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.” In…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.From passive to highly aggressive. BlackRock has built a dominant platform in the basic, low-cost ETFs and index funds that track public debt and equity markets. That success has been enough to create a company with a $150bn equity value and apparently a substantial war chest.BlackRock on Tuesday said it would acquire the private credit manager HPS for $12bn to be paid in shares. Earlier this year, it acquired Global Infrastructure Partners for almost $13bn, mostly in BlackRock equity as well. It…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Utah regulators have ordered three insurers to stop accepting new money, after losses on loans to Miami private equity firm 777 Partners left Sentinel Security Life Insurance and its reinsurers in a “hazardous financial condition”. An emergency order published late on Monday by the Utah Insurance Department said the companies, part of New York’s A-Cap group, had insufficient capital to meet liabilities, in the latest fallout from a 777 investment spree in sports teams and airlines that culminated in a failed attempt to…