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Shares in First Republic tumbled again on Monday after its credit rating was cut for the second time in the space of a week, a decision that came following depositors pulling tens of billions of dollars from their accounts. The bank’s shares, which have fallen more than 80 per cent in March, were down 30

UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.25bn after a frantic weekend of negotiations brokered by Swiss regulators to safeguard its banking system and attempt to prevent a crisis spreading across global financial markets. The historic deal follows five days in which the Swiss establishment raced to end a deepening crisis at Credit Suisse that

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

Investors have wiped nearly half a trillion dollars from the value of bank shares around the world in the worst rout for the financial sector since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Financial stocks dived this week as the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank spread through global markets. Banks in the US,

The largest US banks have banded together to deposit $30bn into First Republic Bank in an attempt to bolster its finances and contain the fallout from the collapse of two big lenders in the past week. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo will each deposit $5bn into First Republic, a California-based lender.

Jeremy Hunt has delivered a defiantly upbeat Budget that offered a £9bn tax break for business, an extension of free childcare and a surprise pension boost for the well-off. The chancellor claimed on Wednesday that Britain’s economy was “proving the doubters wrong”, as he announced a 100 per cent tax break for business investment to

The world’s largest private investment firms are exploring the purchase of loans from the remains of Silicon Valley Bank after the collapse of the tech-focused lender last week. Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management, KKR, Ares Management and Carlyle Group are among the buyout groups examining SVB’s $74bn loan book for pieces that might fit into

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 the financial crisis of 2008, as fund managers

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

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

Silicon Valley Bank was shuttered by US regulators on Friday after a rush of deposit outflows 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 failure in US history after the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual,

Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are primed to offload their stakes in Alfa-Bank in a $2.3bn sale of Russia’s largest private lender, as they seek to free themselves from western sanctions. The oligarchs’ longtime business partner Andrei Kosogov, who has not been targeted by sanctions, has agreed to buy the Russian bank for

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

Jay Powell warned the US Federal Reserve is prepared to return to bigger interest rate rises to fight inflation at a congressional appearance on Tuesday. In his first public intervention since data releases showed the central bank struggling to cool the US economy despite a year-long campaign of monetary tightening, the Fed chair signalled his

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen has convinced US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to meet in California instead of in Taipei in a bid to avoid an aggressive response from Beijing. McCarthy, a California Republican who became Speaker in January, had said last summer that he intended to visit Taiwan if elected to the leadership

The UK government’s flagship pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 has been hit by inflation and officials are debating which projects to delay as the NHS capital budget faces a shortfall of close to £2bn by 2027/8. As Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, prepares for the Budget on March 15, people close to the

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

Germany and Italy have derailed the adoption of an EU ban on internal combustion engines from 2035. The rules were due to be approved next week but in a last-minute U-turn, the German and Italian governments thwarted the process, resulting in the EU vote being postponed indefinitely on Friday. The two countries want exemptions to

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Blinken and Lavrov spoke for about 10 minutes on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi on Thursday, according to a state

Andrew Bailey has signalled that financial markets have been wrong in their growing belief over the past month that the Bank of England will need to impose many more interest rate rises to bring inflation under control. Speaking at a cost of living conference in London on Wednesday, the BoE governor said the central bank