Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Klarna has been fined $50mn and given a reprimand by Sweden’s financial regulator for breaking anti-money laundering rules as the buy now, pay later pioneer gears up for a stock market listing.The Swedish regulator said on Wednesday that Klarna had “significant deficiencies” such as not having any assessments of how it could be used for money laundering or terrorist financing or due diligence processes for all customers in its investigation from 2021-22.“The anti-money laundering regulations must be followed. It is important to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Japan’s Nippon Life has agreed to buy Resolution Life, the UK insurance group founded by entrepreneur Sir Clive Cowdery, in a $10.6bn deal. Bermuda-based Resolution Life, established by Cowdery in 2003, specialises in buying up books of life insurance business from other insurers. Nippon Life already owns a stake in Resolution Life and will pay $8.2bn for the remaining shares, valuing the group at $10.6bn. US private equity group Blackstone, which is also a shareholder in Resolution, will stay on as investment…

Writing a 10,000-word children’s book about money was personal for Mellody Hobson. Even if she is now one of the most powerful women in finance, money was once something that made her feel powerless. She is the youngest of six children, brought up by a single mother in Chicago, and her childhood was marked by financial insecurity: the family was occasionally evicted and the lights would turn off when the electricity bill couldn’t be paid. Hobson credits her mother with giving her a practical understanding of money and how much things cost by talking to her about bills and rent,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.BlackRock is launching a new suite of funds for wealthy individuals to access its private markets products, the latest sign that the world’s largest money manager is betting on the central importance of alternative assets to its future.The new service will give people in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, investing at least €10,000, access to BlackRock’s private equity, private debt, infrastructure, real estate and other private market products. The launch comes as the giant of passive investing is spending billions…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the US equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Wall Street banks are betting that the blockbuster rally in US stocks will cool next year as investors turn cautious on technology companies’ ability to profit from their big investments in artificial intelligence.Ten major banks, including Morgan Stanley, HSBC and Goldman Sachs, expect the S&P 500 index, the main US equities barometer, to rise roughly 8 per cent on average to around 6,550 between now and the end of next year, taking it to fresh highs.That would be below the index’s historic…

Latest news on ETFsVisit our ETF Hub to find out more and to explore our in-depth data and comparison toolsAll roads led to Wall Street in November as the US equity market dominated a record month for the global exchange traded fund industry.Net flows into ETFs globally hit $205bn in last month, according to BlackRock, outstripping the previous record of $199bn set in July.Yet US equity ETFs accounted for a record $149bn of this — well ahead of the previous peak of $98.5bn in December 2023 — as virtually every other corner of the investment universe was ground into the…

When California lawyer Christopher Pitet became a victim of payment fraud earlier this year, the email, as the classic horror movie trope goes, came from inside the house.A client of Pitet’s had recently settled a legal dispute and the lawyer received an email, seemingly from the opposing attorney, with instructions of where to send the $59,517.50 agreed in the settlement. He promptly wired the full amount over, as requested.Neither the email nor the instructions were what they seemed. In fact, the message had been sent by a hacker who had installed a monitoring bot on the server of Pitet’s law…

One scoop to start: Blackstone has cooled on taking part in the takeover of eyecare company Bausch + Lomb, jeopardising one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in healthcare this year, according to people familiar with talks.And a big win for Lina Khan: The largest supermarket merger in US history has been blocked by a federal judge, handing a victory to federal antitrust regulators who argued Kroger’s $24.6bn purchase of Albertsons would harm consumers and workers.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…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.BlackRock has bought a bonanza of billionaires. Now comes the challenge of keeping them in line. The world’s largest asset manager has been on a $28bn acquisition tear, snapping up two of the best known firms that specialise in the complex and rapidly growing fields of infrastructure, private credit and other alternative assets. To gain a stronger foothold, the $11.5tn money manager has opted to pay dearly for outside talent and take steps to ensure that it sticks around long enough to…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump’s election as US president brings “clear dangers” of a global race to the bottom on financial regulation, the chair of the UK Financial Conduct Authority told MPs.“You can see the apparent direction of travel in the US,” said Ashley Alder at a hearing of parliament’s Treasury select committee on Tuesday, warning against the UK pursuing “any sort of deregulation agenda”.“The UK has seen the advantages that can arise from influencing and embedding international standards . . . and that is not something…