News

UBS has offered to buy Credit Suisse for up to $1bn, with Swiss authorities planning to change the country’s laws to bypass a shareholder vote on the transaction as they rush to finalise a deal before Monday. The all-share deal between Switzerland’s two biggest banks is set to be signed as soon as Sunday evening

Credit Suisse, UBS and their key regulators are racing to thrash out a deal on the historic merger of Switzerland’s two biggest banks as soon as Saturday evening, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times. The Swiss National Bank and regulator Finma have told international counterparts that they regard a deal with UBS

The parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, the lender taken over by US regulators last week, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a federal court in New York. The move by SVB Financial Group is an attempt to salvage value from two units — a broker-dealer and a technology investing business — that are

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates by half a percentage point, sticking to its goal of fighting inflation despite financial turmoil caused by US bank failures and worries about Credit Suisse. The ECB’s decision to lift its benchmark deposit rate from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent was in line with what

Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, has claimed Britain will become the best place to invest of any advanced economy after putting £9bn of business tax breaks at the heart of his “Budget for growth”. His first Budget also contained two big measures intended to keep people in work: a £5bn extension of free childcare in England and

US inflation remained hot enough to further complicate the path forward for the Federal Reserve as it contends with three bank failures and broader concerns about financial stability. The consumer price index rose 6 per cent year on year in February, following a 0.4 per cent increase from the prior month. That is a step

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has torn into global markets, with investors ripping up their forecasts for further rises in interest rates and dumping bank stocks around the world. Government bond prices soared on Monday, with two-year US Treasury yields recording their biggest one-day drop since 1987, as fund managers ramped up bets that

The UK chancellor is preparing a dramatic intervention to provide a cash lifeline to scores of tech businesses next week as he seeks to contain the damage caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Jeremy Hunt said there was “a serious risk” to tech and life sciences companies that used SVB’s UK bank, many

Silicon Valley Bank was shuttered by US regulators on Friday after customers raced to withdraw $42bn — a quarter of its total deposits — in one day and a failed effort to raise new capital called into question the future of the tech-focused lender. With about $209bn in assets, SVB has become the second-largest bank

European and Asian equities tumbled in morning trade on Friday as fears over the health of banks’ bond portfolios added to investors’ tensions ahead of the release of closely watched US economic data. The region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 1.4 per cent, hit by declines in bank stocks such as Deutsche Bank and Société Générale, which

EY chief executive Carmine Di Sibio has sought to reassure staff that a planned split of its audit and advisory arms will happen after the head of the business in the US told partners the deal was on pause and needed to be reworked. In a message to staff on Thursday morning, seen by the

The head of one of Britain’s largest insurers has decried the “perpetual drift” of companies away from London’s stock market, saying that a low-growth economy and political infighting had eroded the UK’s appeal. The decisions last week by CRH, the world’s largest building materials group, and UK chip designer Arm to shun London in favour

China will overhaul supervision of its financial system and bolster science and technology to try to catch up with the west, as Xi Jinping embarks on a third term as president with one of the biggest reforms of the state apparatus in years. The changes — part of a series of ministerial reforms to China’s

CBI boss Tony Danker has stepped aside following an allegation over his workplace conduct at the UK’s largest business group. The CBI on Monday said it had been told of an allegation regarding its director-general in January, which was investigated and dealt with “in line with CBI procedure”. It said the investigation “determined that the

China will target an economic expansion of “around 5 per cent” for 2023 as President Xi Jinping seeks to restore pre-pandemic levels of growth and prepares to centralise power further in his own hands. Announcing the target, which was below last year’s goal of 5.5 per cent, China’s outgoing premier Li Keqiang told its rubber-stamp

The Financial Conduct Authority has been blamed by some UK officials and SoftBank staff for London losing out to New York on the blockbuster stock market listing of chip designer Arm. SoftBank, the Japanese owner of the Cambridge-based semiconductor company, this week dashed Rishi Sunak’s hopes of retaining the homegrown tech giant, rejecting entreaties from

Rishi Sunak is refusing to rush Britain back into the EU’s €95.5bn Horizon science programme despite his recent breakthrough in relations with Brussels, raising the prospect of a tough negotiation on rejoining the scheme. Senior colleagues said the UK prime minister was “sceptical” about the value of the research programme — the world’s biggest —

The world’s largest building materials company CRH is planning to move its listing from London to New York in a fresh blow to the UK’s capital market. The company, which has a market capitalisation of almost £30bn, is the latest UK-listed company to embark on a move to New York. Last year, Ferguson, the plumbing

China’s manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in more than a decade in February, in one of the clearest signs that the world’s second-largest economy is shaking off the effects of a nationwide Covid-19 outbreak and years of growth-constraining pandemic curbs. The official manufacturing sector purchasing managers’ index hit 52.6 last month, according to

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Belfast on Tuesday to sell his post-Brexit trade deal for Northern Ireland to business leaders after the region’s main unionist party welcomed progress but said concerns remained. Sunak unveiled the so-called Windsor framework with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, hailing it as a “new