Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Citigroup has cut bonuses for 250 top employees under a programme that tied their pay to a turnaround effort aimed at boosting shareholder returns and fixing compliance shortcomings at the US bank. Citi’s so-called transformation bonus programme was put in place three years ago to incentivise senior staff to boost the group’s financial performance and improve its risk and control systems following an order by regulators to take action after a high-profile blunder in which it accidentally wired $900mn to a group…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldSocial media site X’s valuation has soared back to $44bn, underscoring the sharp turnaround in the company’s fortunes since its owner Elon Musk assumed the role of staunch ally to President Donald Trump. Investors valued the platform at $44bn in a so-called secondary deal earlier this month, in which they exchange existing stakes in the company, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. X was also working on raising fresh capital in a primary round, which would aim…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldThe Trump administration is considering selling the Washington headquarters of the FBI and the Department of Justice as it presses ahead with its aggressive government cost-cutting agenda.The General Services Administration, which manages US federal buildings, on Tuesday published a list of more than 440 properties it deemed “not core to government operations”.In addition to the FBI and DoJ buildings, those of the departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Housing and Urban Development were also on the list.“GSA…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman took home more than $1bn in 2024 as the private equity titan saw his income rise due to a rebound in investment activity at the world’s largest alternative investment group, according to the company’s annual report released late Friday.Schwarzman’s income marked a 9 per cent increase from the prior year, fuelled entirely by rising dividend payments from his enormous Blackstone shareholding. The Blackstone co-founder owns 19 per cent of the New York-based investment group and has for…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ministers are examining proposals to grant banks access to all of the accounts of benefit claimants, as they try to crack down on fraud to fix a “gaping hole” in the UK welfare system.Officials in the Department for Work and Pensions have been asked to investigate the proposal as a possible means to ensure welfare recipients do not hold more funds than they claim to, according to people briefed on the matter.“We are looking at whether it would be possible to get…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the ESG investing myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.BlackRock has cancelled meetings with companies in the middle of shareholder battles because it fears that it could violate guidance on investor activism that the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued last week.BlackRock and other asset managers typically talk with companies about voting ahead of activism campaigns and also about routine proxy ballot issues at annual shareholder meetings. But that practice has been called into question by the SEC’s guidance, which has been widely interpreted as an attack on using environmental, social…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Oil & Gas industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Activist hedge fund Elliott Management has built a stake in struggling UK oil major BP, according to two people with knowledge of the move.The exact size of Elliott’s stake could not be learned but the $70bn assets under management hedge fund has adjusted its activist strategy in recent years to increase the size of its individual bets, while reducing the number of situations it focuses on. BP’s shares have fallen nearly 9 per cent over the past year, compared with…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump has told lawmakers he wants to end the special tax treatment of private equity and hedge fund profits known as “carried interest”, setting up a potential clash with America’s wealthiest financiers. The push by Trump — in a White House meeting on Thursday with Republican leaders from Capitol Hill — comes as the president intensifies talks over a broader tax cut bill he wants passed this year that is core to his domestic economic agenda. Karoline Leavitt, the…

A small Chinese artificial intelligence lab stunned the world this week by revealing the technical recipe for its cutting-edge model, turning its reclusive leader into a national hero who has defied US attempts to stop China’s high-tech ambitions. DeepSeek, founded by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, released its R1 model on Monday, explaining in a detailed paper how to build a large language model on a bootstrapped budget that can automatically learn and improve itself without human supervision. US companies including OpenAI and Google DeepMind pioneered developments in reasoning models, a relatively new field of AI research that is attempting to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.JPMorgan Chase boosted longtime chief executive Jamie Dimon’s pay 8 per cent to $39mn last year, his largest remuneration at the US bank.The pay rise for Dimon, the longest serving CEO among the biggest US banks, was roughly double the bump he received in 2023. JPMorgan notched up record annual profits last year, with the New York-based group’s trading and investment banking units posting a blockbuster performance in the fourth quarter. Shares of the bank rose 41 per cent last year, in…