Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Credit Suisse agreed to pay $511mn and plead guilty to helping American taxpayers hide more than $4bn from authorities under an agreement with the US Department of Justice, admitting it violated a deal struck a decade ago for similar reasons.UBS, which acquired its rival as part of an emergency rescue in 2023, said on Monday that Credit Suisse Services would pay two fines totalling just over half a billion dollars.That includes $372mn for helping to prepare false income tax returns and almost…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The European Court of Justice has ruled Malta’s “golden passport” scheme violates EU law, in a landmark decision set to force the island to scrap the commercialisation of EU citizenship.“A member state cannot grant its nationality — and indeed European citizenship — in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments, as this essentially amounts to rendering the acquisition of nationality a mere commercial transaction,” the court said.“By establishing and operating an institutionalised citizenship investment scheme,” Malta had “failed to fulfil its obligations” under…

Private acquisitions have stripped more than $1tn from European equity markets in the past decade, according to a new report underlining how stock markets are losing out in the private capital boom. The trend poses a “much bigger threat” for European capital markets than defections of listed companies to Wall Street, according to a new report by HSBC Global Research and think-tank New Financial. The report identified 1,013 European listed companies that have been acquired by private equity or unlisted companies in the past decade, compared with 130 that had moved to the US stock market.“The inability of public markets adequately to…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Cryptocurrencies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Brandon Lutnick, son of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, is partnering with SoftBank, Tether and Bitfinex to capitalise on a cryptocurrency revival under US President Donald Trump. The consortium is creating a multibillion-dollar bitcoin acquisition vehicle that will absorb billions in cryptocurrency from the other partners and use the funds in an attempt to replicate the success of MicroStrategy, a one-time software company that surged after pivoting to cryptocurrency investing, according to three people briefed on the matter. The vehicle is an attempt…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nomura has agreed to buy Macquarie’s US and European public asset management business as part of its strategy to take advantage of a generational shift in Japanese investment habits.The $1.8bn all-cash deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will entail Nomura buying a business with about $180bn in assets under management across equities, fixed income and multi-asset strategies.The acquisition will expand Nomura’s existing investment management division to roughly $770bn, with more than 35 per cent being managed…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK financial regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The UK government plans to water down rules for private equity and hedge funds by introducing a lighter regulatory regime for smaller groups to encourage more investment.The Treasury is expected to announce on Monday that it is lifting the size threshold for which alternative asset managers are subjected to the main rules for the sector, from £100mn of funds under management to £5bn.A new, less onerous regime will be introduced for groups with less than £5bn of assets, which the Treasury…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Large institutional investors are studying options to shed stakes in illiquid private equity funds after the rout in global financial markets pummelled their portfolios, according to top private capital advisers.The calls by pensions and endowments seeking ways to exit their investments, probably at discounts to their stated value, is a bad sign for the $4tn buyout industry. Industry giants such as Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle all saw their stocks plunge by about a fifth in value last week.The race to find liquidity…

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 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…