Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Barclays has struck a deal with Brookfield Asset Management that could see the private equity firm become the majority owner of the bank’s payments business, ending a fraught process to offload the unit. The UK-based lender announced the transaction on Thursday, setting out a seven-year timeline over which the Canadian firm could buy an 80 per cent stake in the business.Barclays and Brookfield will aim to set the payments business up as a standalone unit over time with the bank set to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A Lloyd’s of London insurance broker has been charged by the Serious Fraud Office over alleged bribes paid to officials in Ecuador via US intermediaries to land contracts from state-owned companies in the Andean nation.United Insurance Brokers Limited, a reinsurance broker that operates in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, was on Wednesday charged with failing to prevent bribes paid to Ecuadorean officials between 2013 and 2016.Representatives of UIB, created in 1987 through a management buyout of Marsh McLennan’s Middle East operations,…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial & markets regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The Prudential Regulation Authority doesn’t do clickbait, so you’d be forgiven for skipping a rulebook update from the UK banks regulator based on its headline alone:Modification by consent of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio part of the PRA Rulebook — Third Country Covered BondsIt’s now a dead link, but if you’d clicked through yesterday you’d have been served a paragraph of legalese about how the modification allows “a firm that has incorrectly applied a rule regarding third country covered bonds’ inclusion…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, which in 2023 pleaded guilty to US criminal charges, is advising several countries on creating their own digital assets regulations and establishing national strategic bitcoin reserves.Richard Teng, the firm’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that the US’s more crypto-friendly approach under President Donald Trump, including plans to set up a regulatory framework for digital assets and a national stockpile, was spurring other countries into taking similar action.“Compared to many other jurisdictions, [the US] are way…

A friend messaged me recently. After more than a decade in mergers and acquisitions at a top-tier US investment bank, he had finally quit. Attached was a screenshot: “Legendary Pacific Sailings” it read, advertising three superyacht itineraries. He was trying to put together a group for the trip. Now, I’ve never sailed, I don’t know if I’d enjoy it, but I’m sorely tempted.When I retired, aged 55, from investment banking three years ago, it felt like slamming the brakes on a race car. I suddenly found myself standing still while the world whizzed past. For decades, my life had been…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the European banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Santander has overtaken UBS as continental Europe’s most valuable bank after Donald Trump’s tariff-induced market rout hit the Swiss lender harder than peers. UBS’s shares have slumped nearly 15 per cent since the US president announced a raft of “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, triggering a market sell-off. Shares in the Spanish lender have only dropped about 5 per cent in that period. The moves have left Santander with a market capitalisation of €91.3bn as of market close on Wednesday, overtaking UBS…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is chief executive of Banco SabadellThe first months of 2025 have been profoundly disconcerting. Old certainties have crumbled to dust and decisions have been taken that would have been unthinkable a short time ago. However, there is some cause for optimism. European governments are being forced to reorient their economies at pace.With public finances stretched, the private sector will be crucial in helping countries strengthen their economies. Banks, investment funds and insurance companies will play a critical role in financing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When Donald Trump won the US election in November, many bankers and money managers predicted that his presidency would create a bonanza for American finance. Now he could be Wall Street’s Achilles heel. For the past 15 years, the big US banks and money managers have been on the march. The banks recovered more quickly from the 2008 financial crisis than their European rivals and have been snapping up market share ever since. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK accounting regulator is investigating EY over its audits of the Post Office in the latest fallout from the scandal over the wrongful conviction of hundreds of postmasters on the basis of information from faulty software. The Financial Reporting Council said on Wednesday it would focus on the Big Four firm’s work on audits of the Post Office’s accounts for the years ended between 2015 to 2018. The opening of the probe follows the conclusion of public hearings conducted as part…

One thing to start: JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon sat down with the FT for an exclusive interview on the trade war, Washington’s relations with Beijing and the future of America’s economic pre-eminence. And another thing: Nvidia has said it expects to take a $5.5bn blow after the US clamped down on the Silicon Valley group’s ability to export artificial intelligence chips to China.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.…