Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The EU’s plan to raise more money for Ukraine by putting frozen Russian state funds into riskier investments would amount to “expropriation”, the institution holding the bulk of the assets has warned. Euroclear chief executive Valérie Urbain told the Financial Times that plans to reinvest cash generated by the assets to yield higher profits could risk further retaliation from Moscow, and undermine the central securities depository’s key position in the financial system. “If you increase the revenues, you increase the risks.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wall Street bank earnings, which kicked off on Tuesday, reveal a truth about volatility. Fluctuating asset prices are great for Wall Street trading desks but less so for businesses that need to make investment decisions, or consumers looking to make big-ticket purchases.JPMorgan and Citigroup both reaped bumper gains from their bond and stock-flipping businesses during the second quarter. But Wells Fargo, the country’s fourth-biggest bank by deposits, relies more on traditional kinds of banking. It lowered its full-year interest income target, as…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the US banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup struck an upbeat tone on the strength of US consumers, underscoring how the world’s biggest economy has remained resilient despite the effects of Donald Trump’s tariffs. The duo of Wall Street banks said there were signs that Americans’ financial footing was solid even as they contend with persistently elevated prices, high interest rates and broader economic uncertainty. “The strength of the US economy, driven by the American entrepreneur and a healthy consumer, has certainly been exceeding expectations of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Austria’s public prosecutor has filed criminal charges against René Benko, the tycoon who founded collapsed real estate group Signa, accusing him of insolvency-related fraud. The charges, filed in Vienna on Tuesday, accuse Benko of concealing and misusing assets worth €660,000 to the detriment of creditors in his personal insolvency case. Prosecutors allege that Benko, who has been in detention since January, made an unjustified €360,000 advance rental payment and donated €300,000 to relatives while his financial collapse loomed. The charges carry a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.BlackRock’s client inflows fell to their lowest level in more than a year during the second quarter as one of the company’s big clients pulled tens of billions of dollars from the world’s largest asset manager.The New York-based group said it drew in $68bn across the investment funds it manages in the three months to the end of June, more than a fifth below the $87bn Wall Street had predicted. It was the smallest quarterly addition since the start of 2024; BlackRock’s…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Europe’s new anti-money laundering watchdog has warned that crypto assets are its biggest challenge to stop dirty money infiltrating the region’s financial system.Bruna Szego, chair of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority, told the Financial Times that the crypto market is a clear priority because it is “significantly exposed to money laundering and terrorism financing risks”. Europe needed to be particularly on its guard against these risks, Szego said, because “our market is quite fragmented and many crypto assets service providers are looking to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A global climate alliance of top banks is at risk of losing key European members after lenders refused to commit to remaining in the group, further weakening its position after an exodus of Wall Street firms. Barclays, which joined in 2021, declined to confirm its membership plans in a conversation with the Net-Zero Banking Alliance’s leadership in recent days, a banker familiar with the matter said. The bank had discussed dates for its possible departure and was considering investors’ responses to HSBC’s…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Cryptocurrencies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Standard Chartered has begun allowing institutional clients to directly trade bitcoin and ether, becoming the first major bank to enable spot cryptocurrency transactions.The London-based lender said it had launched bitcoin/dollar and ether/dollar trading from Tuesday for institutional clients such as corporates, asset managers and investors, and would soon add so-called non-deliverable forwards — contracts in which no physical settlement of the currencies takes place.The move highlights how crypto is becoming increasingly entwined with mainstream finance, and comes as more traditional companies seek to…

Wall Street is wagering that BlackRock continued to draw investors in during the second quarter, with assets under management expected to eclipse $12tn.The world’s largest asset manager is in the midst of a mammoth shift engineered by chief executive Larry Fink, as he pushes the public markets giant into top rungs of the private investment industry. The $12bn takeover of private credit specialist HPS Investment Partners earlier this month closed after the quarter ended, so most of the inflows in the three months to end of June are expected to come from BlackRock’s iShares exchange traded fund business. BlackRock is…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Shares in Barratt Redrow fell more than 10 per cent on Tuesday morning after the UK housebuilder said it had sold fewer homes than forecast in the year to the end of June. The company, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, said it had sold 16,565 homes in the year, down from its April guidance of between 16,800 and 17,200.The company said the shortfall was “mainly due to the impact of fewer international and investor completions than expected” in its London business. Demand had…