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One of the UK pension industry’s biggest asset managers abandoned mark-to-market pricing on funds reeling from the country’s government bond crisis last year, instead choosing higher values that presented a rosier picture of its position. The highly unusual and previously unreported move by Insight Investment came at the height of the September crisis that began

A Deutsche Bank probe into the mis-selling of risky foreign exchange derivatives in Spain has found that staff acted disingenuously, exploited flaws in the bank’s controls and broke EU rules, according to people with knowledge of the report. One of the people said employees acted in “bad faith” over years, pushing small and medium sized

Gillian Keegan, UK education secretary, has signalled she will fight any Home Office attempts to cut migration into Britain by driving away overseas students, saying universities were a “hugely valuable” export success. Keegan, in an interview with the Financial Times, said she wanted to build on the UK’s booming export market in university education, and

The UK economy stagnated in the final quarter of 2022, narrowly avoiding a recession despite output shrinking by more than expected in December. Gross domestic product was unchanged between the third and fourth quarters of 2022, following a contraction in the previous three months, according to data published on Friday by the Office for National

Credit Suisse has reported its biggest annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis, laying bare the scale of the challenge the bank faces in restoring its fortunes. The lender on Thursday reported a SFr1.4bn ($1.5bn) loss for the fourth quarter, as investment banking revenues slumped and clients pulled money from the group’s wealth management business.

President Joe Biden has warned that the US will protect itself if China threatens its sovereignty as he used a joint address to Congress to deliver a defiant message to Beijing and defend his economic record in the White House. “I am committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit

Rescue teams in Turkey and Syria worked through the night in the search for survivors after a powerful earthquake devastated several big cities, leaving more than 4,800 people dead and in excess of 20,000 wounded. On Tuesday, authorities were pulling people out of the rubble in a race against time and freezing temperatures in south-eastern

Beijing on Monday stepped up its condemnation of Washington’s decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon that traversed US airspace, accusing the US of dealing a “serious blow” to relations. Vice-minister of foreign affairs Xie Feng lodged a formal protest with the US embassy in Beijing in which he came close to accusing the US

Beijing has lashed out at the US decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon that flew across North America this week, accusing the Biden administration of “seriously violating international conventions”. The Chinese foreign ministry said it “repeatedly” told the US the balloon was for “civilian use” and had entered American airspace by accident due to

The UK’s FTSE 100 hit an all-time high on Friday, as the blue-chip index dominated by multinational companies overcame the drag of a domestic economy headed for recession. The FTSE added as much as 1.1 per cent on the day to trade at 7906.58, eclipsing its previous peak in May 2018, before closing at 7902.

Apple posted a decline in quarterly revenues for the first time in three-and-a-half years after “significant” supply chain disruptions in China delayed deliveries of iPhones during the important holiday period. The worse than expected performance highlighted Apple’s dependence on China for manufacturing and came after shipments of its high-end iPhones were hit by an outbreak

Losses for Adani Group stocks hit $100bn on Thursday after the conglomerate’s flagship company called off a $2.4bn equity sale, saying it would be “not be morally correct” to proceed given the stock wipeout. All 10 stocks controlled by Adani Group fell in early trading in Mumbai. Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission and Adani Ports extended

Rishi Sunak is facing a big test of his authority as he agonises over whether he can sell an outline deal on the Northern Ireland protocol to pro-UK unionist politicians in the region and Eurosceptic Tory MPs. After months of talks, negotiators have briefed Sunak, the UK prime minister, that a deal is taking shape

Britain is the only leading economy likely to slide into recession this year, the IMF said on Tuesday, predicting that UK household spending would falter under the weight of high energy prices, rising mortgage costs and increased taxes. The fund upgraded its forecasts for most leading economies and said the global outlook had brightened. But

The world’s leading central banks are poised to raise interest rates this week to their highest levels since the financial crisis, stoking anxiety among some investors that this month’s record bond market rally underestimates the growing evidence of persistent inflation. Bond prices have rapidly rebounded since the start of the year from last year’s historic

The UK tax authority has admitted that it gave misleading information last summer when it said no government minister was being investigated, even though Nadhim Zahawi was the subject of a probe. HM Revenue & Customs has now apologised for wrongly stating last June that no ministers were under investigation — mistakes it blames on

In politics, they say, the cover-up is often worse than the crime. Nadhim Zahawi’s “error” in overlooking millions of pounds he owed in tax is gobsmacking enough, to those of us who are slogging to file our own returns by next week’s deadline. But his denials of what turned out to be true should have

The new chief executive of Rolls-Royce has given a brutal assessment of Britain’s flagship engineering group, telling employees it must transform the way it operates or it will not survive. In a global address broadcast to staff, parts of which were shared with the Financial Times, Tufan Erginbilgic warned investors were losing patience with the

EY Germany is planning to cut 40 partners and shed 380 staff as the Big Four firm attempts to improve profitability after the damage caused by the Wirecard scandal. Most of the job cuts are aimed at reducing back-office costs at the German business, one of the largest in EY’s 150-country operations, four people familiar

Rupert Murdoch has scrapped a proposal to combine Fox and News Corp after his attempt to bring the two halves of his media empire back together was resisted by shareholders. Murdoch’s companies announced on Tuesday that the “special committees” established to explore the terms of the putative merger would be disbanded with immediate effect on