Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK’s financial regulator has been accused of acting in an “irrational” and “unfair” manner when it excluded supposedly “sophisticated” victims of an interest-rate hedging mis-selling scandal from a redress scheme of more than £2.2bn.A crowd-funded legal challenge brought by MPs and peers against the Financial Conduct Authority began on Tuesday over claims the watchdog “shut out” some small businesses from compensation and “shut its ears” to the findings of an independent review.Nine banks agreed with the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Blackstone has pulled out of a roughly £300mn bid to acquire the ‘Can of Ham’ skyscraper in London, a move that suggests big ticket office sales remain stalled by disagreements over what buildings are worth. The US group, the world’s largest commercial real estate investor, had been in exclusive negotiations to acquire the building with an offer just above £300mn, according to people familiar with the process. But the seller, Nuveen, was unwilling to accept an offer below the £322mn asking price.The collapse…

Latest news on ETFsVisit our ETF Hub to find out more and to explore our in-depth data and comparison toolsUS investors have saved $250bn by investing in exchange traded funds rather than traditional mutual funds, since their creation in 1993, according to calculations by Bank of America.The sum is equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the $10tn US-listed ETF market.The savings stem in part from the lower fees typically levied by ETFs, but primarily from the tax advantages enjoyed by ETFs under America’s unusual tax system.The average total expense ratio for ETFs in the US is just 0.16 per cent…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nippon Life is in talks to buy global life insurance rival Resolution Life for about $8.2bn in the largest-ever overseas deal by a Japanese insurer, according to people close to the company.The planned all-cash acquisition of the Bermuda-based closed book consolidator, first reported by Nikkei, is an attempt by the Japanese insurer to diversify beyond its domestic market where growth is expected to fade because of a shrinking and ageing population.Nippon Life, which is Japan’s biggest life insurer by total assets, has…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US private capital group Apollo will lend Canary Wharf £610mn to pay off its bonds, in a deal that allows the London landlord to complete its refinancing race but will lock it into higher interest costs.The US group will provide a five-year loan in two tranches to refinance two of Canary Wharf Group’s bonds when they fall due in 2025 and 2026, secured against the east London financial centre’s underground shopping centres.The deal is the last of a series of high-stakes transactions…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Thames Water said on Tuesday that its efforts to raise new equity were progressing, after the UK’s biggest water utility secured a £3bn loan from creditors that will help it avoid a cash crunch this year.Chris Weston, chief executive, said the company had “reached key milestones in establishing a more stable financial platform, agreeing a liquidity extension transaction proposal and progressing our equity raise process”. The utility, which has been straining under a £19bn debt burden, is trying to avoid being renationalised…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US asset manager AllianceBernstein is preparing to sue Switzerland for $225mn over the decision to wipe out $17bn of debt when the country’s government orchestrated the takeover of Credit Suisse by rival UBS last year. The group, which manages about $800bn in assets, is set to be added next month as a plaintiff in a case brought by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan on behalf of Credit Suisse bondholders, according to people familiar with the details. AllianceBernstein will be the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Uber will hold talks with UK union bosses on Tuesday over restrictions imposed by the ride-hailing app that many drivers and industry experts say have forced them into paying higher insurance premiums. In January 2022, Uber introduced a panel of eight insurers for its tens of thousands of licensed drivers in London, and stopped allowing the cars to pick up passengers if they used policies from other companies providing cover. Twenty Uber drivers told the Financial Times their insurance costs had soared since…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Investors’ “relentless” appetite for juicy returns has triggered the biggest boom on Wall Street in complex financial products since the lead-up to the global financial crisis in 2007. The global volume of structured finance transactions has hit $380bn this year, according to data from LSEG, which excludes real estate and traditional corporate loans. The figure is up by more than a fifth from the same period a year ago and about $1bn more than all of 2021, which had been the previous…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Evergrande’s liquidators are trying to sell an Airbus private jet that belonged to the collapsed property developer’s founder, as they attempt to salvage some returns for the overseas investors that bought billions of dollars of the company’s bonds. Alvarez & Marsal specialists Edward Middleton and Tiffany Wong, who were appointed to liquidate Evergrande’s Hong Kong-listed holding company in January, have taken control of the offshore entity that bought Hui Ka Yan’s jet and have put the jet up for sale, three people with…