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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

UBS is in discussions to take over all or part of Credit Suisse, with the boards of Switzerland’s two biggest lenders set to meet separately over the weekend to consider Europe’s most consequential banking combination since the financial crisis, according to multiple people briefed on the talks. The Swiss National Bank and regulator Finma are

Credit Suisse shares rebounded sharply on Thursday after the lender revealed plans to borrow up to SFr50bn ($54bn) from the Swiss central bank and buy back about SFr3bn of its debt in an attempt to boost liquidity and calm investors. The Swiss National Bank had said on Wednesday it was willing to provide a liquidity

Jeremy Hunt will on Wednesday announce billions of pounds to boost business investment and measures to bolster Britain’s workforce, including a big expansion in free childcare, in a “Budget for growth”. The chancellor has pledged that business will be the main beneficiary of any tax cuts in his Budget, but he is constrained by a

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, posting some of the biggest rallies since the crisis of 2008, as fund managers ramped up bets that the US Federal

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt was on Saturday locked in talks over how to stop the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank from dealing a heavy blow to Britain’s tech sector. More than 200 UK-based tech company executives have urged Downing Street to step in, warning that many companies faced an “existential threat” because they banked with

Investors wiped $52.4bn off the market value of the four largest US banks by assets on Thursday amid a widespread sell-off of financial stocks that analysts linked to investor fears over the value of lenders’ bond portfolios. The sell-off in JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo appeared to have been sparked by

EY has “paused” its plan to split in two amid a fierce dispute over how much of its tax business should stay with the audit side of the firm. Julie Boland, the head of EY’s US business, who has been picked to run EY after it spins off its consulting arm, told partners on a

Private credit groups including Apollo, Ares and Blackstone are poised to write the largest direct loan on record as they continue to muscle in on a lucrative business traditionally dominated by Wall Street banks. The lenders are increasingly confident they can edge out investment banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs on a deal to fund

One of Credit Suisse’s longest-standing shareholders has sold its entire stake in the scandal-hit Swiss bank after losing patience with its strategy amid persistent losses and a client exodus. US investment manager Harris Associates, whose deputy chair and chief investment officer David Herro was for years among the Swiss bank’s most prominent supporters, owned as

The biggest selling point for the UK stock market in recent months has been its slow, steady, boring nature. This is a quality that should not be taken for granted. The era dominated by whizz-bang, US tech-led stocks is fading. Sure, it made a good shot at reasserting itself in the final months of last

The head of Melrose Industries has thrown his weight behind the London capital market, crediting it with having been a “major factor” in the group’s growth since listing, even as it struggles with a wave of takeovers and take-private deals. Simon Peckham, chief executive of the FTSE 100 conglomerate, said it had no plans to

Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Motors is demanding more than £500mn of government aid for a new battery factory in Britain, in a decision set to be “pivotal” for the future of the UK car industry. People briefed on discussions say the Indian group is close to choosing between Spain and south-west England for its

It felt like a renewal of vows. Seven years after the rupture of the Brexit vote and the subsequent freeze in relations, a British prime minister and the president of the European Commission stood side-by-side at Windsor Guildhall, pledging to work amicably together. In the 17th century wedding venue chosen by King Charles and Camilla,

The record-breaking global bond market rally since the start of this year has fizzled out as mounting signs of persistent inflation force investors to reverse their views on the likely future path of interest rate rises. Investors rushed into fixed income in the first few weeks of 2023 as they became increasingly expectant that the

Ukraine’s western allies have warned of “severe costs” for countries helping Russia evade sanctions as concern mounts about China’s role in Moscow’s war economy and the conflict enters its second year. Washington announced fresh sanctions on Friday against more than 200 entities “across Europe, Asia and the Middle East that are supporting Russia’s war effort”

The EU and its allies are investigating a surge in exports to economies in Russia’s vicinity as they seek to prevent companies from evading western sanctions imposed on Moscow. David O’Sullivan, the EU’s newly appointed sanctions envoy, told the Financial Times that big increases in trade with countries in Russia’s neighbourhood raised questions as to

Joe Biden heaped blame on Vladimir Putin for waging a war of “choice” in Ukraine that Russia will “never” win, as the US president sought to rally the west for a long and bloody campaign to defend democracy in Kyiv. Speaking against the backdrop of Warsaw’s Royal Castle, Biden delivered a keynote speech that directly

Poland’s head of state has called on Nato powers to give postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, on the eve of a visit by the US president to Warsaw to reaffirm the west’s support for Kyiv a year into Russia’s war. Andrzej Duda told the Financial Times that promises of security guarantees “would be important” for

The US has formally concluded that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, vice-president Kamala Harris said on Saturday, vowing that those who had perpetrated crimes and their superiors “will be held to account”. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Harris said that Washington had “examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and

The UK government’s decision to drop a court case over the rights of Europeans to remain in the country has been welcomed by the bloc’s watchdog for citizens’ interests. The Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements said on Thursday it was pleased the Home Office would not proceed with an appeal against a

Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday announced her resignation as Scotland’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National party after a backlash over her strategy for securing independence and controversy over proposed transgender laws. Sturgeon has been a thorn in the side of UK prime ministers for almost a decade as she pushed to end Scotland’s

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy has vowed to double down on the company’s struggling grocery store business, despite recently announcing that its growth plans were on hold. Jassy told the Financial Times that the ecommerce giant was ready to “go big” on bricks-and-mortar stores, blaming a lack of “normalcy” during the pandemic for a series

David Solomon told a private gathering of Goldman Sachs’ top executives that he had erred by not cutting jobs earlier in 2022, according to people familiar with the remarks. Speaking to about Goldman 400 partners at a closed-door meeting in Miami this week, the chief executive said he took responsibility for being slow to reduce

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

Nelson Peltz has called time on his fight against Walt Disney less than a month after the activist investor said he would seek a seat on the company’s board of directors, ending what was expected to be one of the biggest corporate battles in recent years. “The proxy fight is over,” Peltz said in an

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

A second powerful earthquake has struck Turkey just hours after the worst quake in 80 years wrought destruction across the country and neighbouring Syria, killing more than 2,000 people and wounding many more.  The second quake, which hit south-east Turkey on Monday afternoon local time, registered a magnitude of 7.5, according to the US Geological

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”. In a statement posted by the Chinese embassy in Washington on Saturday evening, the foreign ministry said it had “repeatedly informed” the US that the

US jobs growth unexpectedly rebounded in January, as the economy continued to perform strongly despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to damp down demand. Employers in the world’s largest economy added 517,000 jobs in the first month of the year, nearly double December’s figure, which was revised up to 260,000. Economists had expected 185,000 positions to