Author: Lily Harper

The writer is a historian and public speaker“We once had seven castles,” says Jean Christophe, Baron von Pfetten. “All were sold — so I’ve bought one back!”The baron, a Frenchman with a Germanic title and a deep love of England, blames the loss of his family’s patrimony on the Code Napoleon, which prescribes a more equitable family inheritance and quickly disperses an ancestral fortune. So, when he first picked his way through Apethorpe House, the castle in question, and spotted a carved coat of arms resembling his own, he and his wife Nadia, a conservation architect from Venice, decided to buy it.The…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.South Korean policymakers are struggling to stimulate economic growth in the face of an escalating global trade war, as they fear cutting interest rates could boost property prices in some of the most desirable parts of Seoul and inflame an already overheated market.The Bank of Korea on Thursday held rates at 2.5 per cent, defying pressure to boost an economy that contracted in the first quarter as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs squeezed the country’s crucial exports of cars, steel and electronics.“The…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Revolut is in talks to raise new funding from investors at a $65bn valuation, according to people familiar with the matter, in a transaction that would fuel global expansion for Europe’s most valuable start-up.The UK-based financial technology group is in discussions to raise about $1bn of funding via newly issued shares and the sale of some existing stock, two of the people said.The US investment firm Greenoaks is in talks to lead the private funding round, one person said, cautioning that details…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldFor America’s private health insurers, President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is turning out to be not so pretty.Among the many provisions in the giant tax and spending package were the ones tightening eligibility for Medicare, which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid, a federal state programme for low-income and disabled people. The bill also affects another key insurance market — Obamacare marketplace plans. Federal tax credits that help people pay for these plans were not extended, meaning…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Bank of England has imposed an £11.9mn fine on Vocalink, an offshoot of Mastercard that operates a key part of UK payments infrastructure, over its “ineffective risk management framework” and weaknesses in internal controls and governance.The BoE said on Wednesday that the fine reflected Vocalink’s failure to comply with the central bank’s requirement for it to fix a number of weaknesses in its systems and controls identified by supervisors by February 2022.The penalty is a stinging rebuke for Vocalink, which operates…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial & markets regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Hedge funds and other non-bank groups could face limits on the amount of leverage they can use and may have to provide more disclosure to regulators about their borrowing, under plans put forward by the world’s financial stability watchdog.The Financial Stability Board (FSB) said on Wednesday that its recommended measures — which follow a consultation announced late last year — were designed to tackle the build-up of leverage in non-banks, which “can be an important amplifier of stress. If not…

India has been a money machine for Jane Street, netting the trading giant more than $4bn in profits in just over two years. But it is now the source of a scandal that is imperilling the Wall Street firm’s golden run.The Securities and Exchange Board of India last week accused Jane Street of a “sinister scheme” to manipulate Indian stocks and derivatives, temporarily banned its activities in the country and impounded more than $550mn of “illegal gains” — the most draconian penalty it has ever levied. It is now expanding its probe into the firm’s trades in other parts of India’s…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Travel & leisure industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Spanish casino operator Cirsa rose on its stock market debut in Barcelona after the Blackstone-owned company pressed ahead with its initial public offering in the face of heightened stock market turbulence. Cirsa’s shares rose as much as 6.7 per cent to €16 at the open, pushing its stock market value to €2.7bn, compared with an IPO valuation of €2.5bn. The shares subsequently pared some of those gains to trade at €15.2. It was Spain’s second-largest IPO this year — oversubscribed…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It would be a nice touch if Rachel Reeves were to stick some cotton wool in her mouth — à la Marlon Brando mumbling his way into the screen role of The Godfather — for next week’s Mansion House speech.But even if she does not, it will be clear she is making the pensions industry “an offer it can’t refuse”.Don Corleone underlined his point with a horse’s head in the bed of an unco-operative Hollywood producer. The chancellor is expected to demonstrate…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Singapore’s state investor Temasek has become more bearish on European companies over their exposure to a global trade downturn, just a year after opening a Paris office to great fanfare and promising to commit $19bn to the region.Rising trade tensions from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made Temasek fearful that the European companies it has previously targeted for investment will be among the worst affected.“There is a sense of elevated trade uncertainty, which could impact the growth trajectory” of Europe, said…