Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Fintech myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.First, private credit came for corporate finance. Consumer lending is now the latest frontier. In recent weeks, the likes of Elliott, Carlyle, Fortress and Blue Owl have collectively agreed to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of loans, for consumers, automobiles and home equity. The sellers are once high-flying fintechs such as Klarna, SoFi and Upstart. This latter group has been hammered by higher interest rates, heavy expenses and limited profits. More generally, these companies have decided they would rather emphasise sleek…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Fintech myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.First, private credit came for corporate finance. Consumer lending is now the latest frontier. In recent weeks, the likes of Elliott, Carlyle, Fortress and Blue Owl have collectively agreed to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of loans, for consumers, automobiles and home equity. The sellers are once high-flying fintechs such as Klarna, SoFi and Upstart. This latter group has been hammered by higher interest rates, heavy expenses and limited profits. More generally, these companies have decided they would rather emphasise sleek…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Increasingly motorists are comparing car insurance to highway robbery. The average price of a new quote rose by nearly four times as much as inflation in the three years to June 2024. The government has pledged to tackle the problem. But are insurers really taking customers for a ride?Some pricey policy add-ons fuel that perception. This week the UK financial watchdog launched an investigation into whether people are being overcharged to pay for car and home insurance in instalments. If the Financial…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK home insurance prices are set to keep rising this year and next, according to an industry forecast, as insurers seek to stem persistent losses on their underwriting.Supply chain pressures, the rising number of payouts and inflation in claims costs meant home insurers posted a net combined ratio — claims and expenses as a proportion of premiums — of 118 per cent in 2023, according to data from consultancy EY.A figure above 100 per cent represents a loss on insurers’ underwriting, which…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Senior PwC staff in the UK who will never be partners are to be offered a new “managing director” title as the Big Four firm seeks to keep top employees whom it is unwilling to admit to its £1mn-a-year partnership.People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times the UK firm had introduced the new grade to hold on to a key layer of senior accountants and consultants and to bring in external hires with higher salaries. However, the role would not…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the European banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.One of BBVA’s biggest shareholders has sold its entire stake over the Spanish bank’s decision to pursue a hostile bid for domestic rival Banco Sabadell.GQG Partners, which is a big investor in several European banks, was a top-five shareholder in BBVA but sold out this summer after telling the bank’s management team it opposed their contentious attempt to buy Sabadell, according to people familiar with the conversations.BBVA’s €10bn bid for Sabadell, which would be the largest European bank takeover for several years,…

Nigerian banks are racing to find new sources of capital after the country’s central bank ordered them to strengthen their balance sheets to protect themselves from the country’s worsening economic situation.The Central Bank of Nigeria, which supervises the country’s 25 commercial banks, has given them until March 2026 to meet new capital requirements. Those with international operations are expected to have at least N500bn ($314mn) in capital. For banks with operations around the country the figure is N200bn and for smaller regional operators it is N50bn. “Bigger banks with [a] larger capital base and capacity can underwrite larger levels of…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the US banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.US banks are considering aggressive cuts to interest payments for corporate depositors as they seek to protect profit margins after the Federal Reserve cut benchmark lending rates. Since 2022, lenders have been offering better rates to savers as the Fed raised benchmark interest rates to 23-year highs and they sought to ensure customers did not move cash to another bank or into money market funds. Corporate bank clients were some of the biggest beneficiaries, demanding and receiving payments on their deposits that rose in…

Jeff Yass used to see options trading as a “game”. Now he sees it as a “mission from God”.The billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group has claimed he was a socialist during his student days at the State University of New York, but now he talks about capitalism with the zeal of a convert.“Throughout history, the money lenders have always been viewed with suspicion,” he told a student group dedicated to the promotion of free markets in 2021. “When you’re against finance, you’re fundamentally against all human progress.”Having flown under the radar for years, Yass has recently gained prominence as…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Buy now, pay later could be the maxim of governments across the world. With national debt to GDP ratios on the rise from the US to the UK to Japan, the principle of having things before you can afford to pay for them has become a 21st century norm. Living beyond your means may be sustainable, for a while at least, if you are a country with a trusted government or you have the backing of the world’s reserve currency. But for many…