Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.US investors are relaunching a key Ukrainian grain export terminal after wresting control from alleged looters, in a test of Kyiv’s ability to attract capital to rebuild its economy in its fourth year of war.US-based funds Argentem Creek Partners and Innovatus Capital Partners have taken over the Olimpex terminal in the port of Odesa, after securing victory in a saga of alleged loan fraud that underlines the challenges of reviving international investment in wartime Ukraine.Sustained Russian attacks on infrastructure and fading…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.After decades during which pensions in many parts of the world have been de-risked — spurred by scandal, accounting changes and other policy tweaks — the pendulum is fast swinging the other way. In many instances that may be appropriate. In others it may be open to abuse.Consider the case of Italy’s sales rep pension scheme Enasarco, which was revealed last week to have allocated 67 per cent of its entire European equities portfolio to one stock, Mediobanca. That group is at…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Jane Street has deposited more than $560mn of what India’s markets regulator has called “illegal gains” in an escrow account to comply with an order that banned the company from trading securities over alleged market manipulation.The Securities and Exchange Board of India said on Monday that Jane Street had informed the regulator that Rs48.4bn ($564mn) “has been credited to an escrow account with a lien marked in favour of Sebi”.The deposit is a precursor to lifting a trading ban imposed by Sebi…

Welcome to FT Asset Management, our weekly newsletter on the movers and shakers behind a multitrillion-dollar global industry. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered every Monday. Explore all of our newsletters here.Does the format, content and tone work for you? Let me know: harriet.agnew@ft.com One podcast to start: the FT’s Unhedged Podcast looks at three surprises that might spook the markets. In today’s newsletter:A new twist on an old bet with BuffettAn Apollo-backed insurer is coming for the UK’s pensionsDutch pension funds set to sell €125bn of government…

The EU has put trade retaliations against the US on hold, and US investment banking is set to extend its losing streak. Plus, the FT’s Eleni Varvitsioti explains how Greece recovered from economic disaster in the past decade, but still has work to do.Mentioned in this podcast:EU pauses trade retaliation against US after Trump’s 30% tariff threatInvestment banking set to extend worst run in over a decadeHow Greece came back from the brinkToday’s FT News Briefing was produced by Persis Love, Sonja Hutson, Katya Kumkova, Mischa Frankl-Duval and Marc Filippino. Additional help from Alexander Higgins and Peter Barber. Our acting…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the US banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Investment banking is on course to extend a record streak of underperformance, supplying less than a quarter of Wall Street revenues at the biggest US banks for the 14th quarter in a row. Traders are due to come to the rescue of their advisory colleagues once again when the banks report second-quarter results next week, with total trading revenues at the five largest Wall Street banks forecast to be $31bn — more than three times the figure for investment banking. Analysts expect…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Pensions industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The City of London Lord Mayor has criticised British companies for picking pension providers that charge the lowest fees, arguing more expensive managers who invest in alternative assets will deliver better returns. “We’ve ended up with pension pots that have lots of equity trackers and lots of fixed income because it’s a cheap way of doing it,” Alastair King said in an interview with the Financial Times, adding that there had been an industry “fixation” on costs over the past 10 years. King, who…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.MPs have accused the chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service of “disrespectful” behaviour, saying she tried to stop them finding out that the body’s chief executive was sacked after a “mutual collapse in confidence”.The scathing findings by the House of Commons Treasury select committee add to a deepening crisis at the FOS. Its powers are set to be curbed by chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Mansion House speech on Tuesday after it became a lightning rod for City criticism of regulators.MPs have…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UniCredit has attacked the Italian government’s intervention in its hostile takeover bid for rival Banco BPM, criticising its use of powers setting conditions for the deal as “illegitimate”.In a statement following an Italian court decision on Saturday that handed UniCredit a partial win against Giorgia Meloni’s government seeking to impose stringent conditions for a takeover deal, the Milanese bank said the court’s decision was “unequivocal proof that the way in which [the government’s powers] were used was illegitimate”.UniCredit, led by chief executive…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Cryptocurrency companies are racing to expand into traditional banking in the US, as they seek to capitalise on a friendlier regulatory environment under President Donald Trump and become more embedded in the financial system.Crypto payments group Ripple, stablecoin company Circle and custodian BitGo have applied for national trust bank charters that will allow them to offer some banking services, while crypto exchange Kraken plans to launch bank cards in the next month.“It’s a natural convergence,” Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of Kraken, told…