Rishi Sunak, UK chancellor, has launched a consultation on radically changing the rules governing insurance companies, with the aim of allowing them to invest tens of billions of pounds more in infrastructure — including green energy. The government argues that reform of the EU’s Solvency II rules — and their replacement with a British regulatory
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Tug of war matches are rarely lengthier or more exhausting than those between the insurance industry and its customers. The conflict in Ukraine is creating many such tussles, where the outcome remains extremely uncertain. A little clarity emerged in an update from UK speciality insurer Lancashire on Thursday. It estimated its ultimate net losses in
This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here. Specification: Living costs, inflation, economic welfare, real wages Click to read the article below and then answer the questions: Cabinet split on plan to cut UK food tariffs as grocery bills rise 5.9% What is meant
“Sent from heaven to finish all your educations” was how Walter Sickert defined himself in 1907 to young British artists. Aged 47, he had just completed his own education: a decade living between Dieppe and Venice, exhibiting in Paris, honing influences from his mentors, Whistler and Degas, before detonating European modernism in a domestic context
Welcome back to Energy Source! Russian president Vladimir Putin opened a new front in the energy war with the west, cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after the countries refused Moscow’s demand to shift payment into roubles. The move sent gas futures on the continent soaring by as much as 20 per cent,
Over the past year, I’ve been captivated by photos taken of Bella Hadid on the streets of Paris and New York. I couldn’t pinpoint why until it recently clicked: Hadid looks like someone who is having fun with clothes, and I haven’t thought of fashion as fun for at least two decades. The American model’s style
The founder and chair of one of Asia’s biggest private equity investors has criticised the Chinese government for policies that he says have resulted in a “deep economic crisis” comparable to the global financial crash. Weijian Shan, whose group PAG manages more than $50bn, said his fund had diversified away from China and was being
A decade ago, while attending a conference in an unprecedentedly prosperous and westernised Moscow, I went to interview the British KGB double agent George Blake in his dacha outside town. It was meant to be just a newspaper article, but it spiralled out of control, and my biography of him appeared last year. Other recent
Number 30 Charlotte Street is holy ground for London’s restaurant cognoscenti. It was, from some point in the mid-Neolithic until well into this millennium, the site of L’Etoile, a traditional French restaurant commanded by the charismatic Elena Salvoni. It had run its course by the time it closed, but it is still wonderful to see
Fear of male violence distorts women’s lives. It affects daily decisions: is it safe to take that shortcut? Should I avoid that empty train carriage? Assessing risk is second nature for most of us, yet the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer in London last year turned out to be an
Russia has exported €63bn worth of fossil fuels via ship and pipelines since the invasion of Ukraine, according to new data, with most going to the EU. The largest importers of Russian coal, oil and gas were Germany, Italy and China, according to an analysis of pipeline and seaborne trade by the Centre for Research
Sophisticated trading desks and compliance departments on Wall Street are facing renewed scrutiny following the arrest of Bill Hwang on federal racketeering, fraud and market manipulation charges. Hwang, 58, and former chief financial officer Patrick Halligan, 45, were yesterday accused of using Archegos Capital Management as an “instrument of market manipulation and fraud” with “far-reaching
A Nasdaq-listed ride-sharing company has agreed a $100mn deal to buy UK start-up Zeelo, the latest in a string of acquisitions as technology companies push into the transport industry. Dubai-based Swvl, which listed in New York this month through a merger with a blank cheque company, has rattled through five acquisitions in the past eight
EY Germany is planning to cut workloads as it overhauls its auditing practices following the failure to spot that half of Wirecard’s revenues and billions of corporate cash did not exist. The German arm of the Big Four accounting firm on Thursday promised staff “an improvement of working conditions” after receiving the recommendations of an
Barclays’ profits fell 18 per cent in the first quarter and the bank had to delay a promised £1bn stock buyback as a jump in litigation and conduct provisions overshadowed a surge in trading revenue. Net income fell to £1.4bn, down from £1.7bn in the same period last year, the British bank said on Thursday.
Volvo Cars has begun sourcing alternatives to its Chinese-made parts as coronavirus lockdowns now spreading across the country add a new supply chain threat to an auto industry that has been beset by them over the past year. The company started double sourcing components that are obtained in China in a bid to shield its
The Bank of Japan has driven the yen to a new multi-decade low, defying a global shift towards higher interest rates and vowing to keep bond yields at zero. Within hours of the BoJ’s policy decision on Thursday, the yen fell 1.7 per cent to ¥130.62 against the dollar as the central bank promised to
Hello, this is Kenji from Hong Kong. I have been involved in the #techAsia newsletter since its inception in April 2019, and am excited to continue my engagement in its latest incarnation. Despite the changes in the format, the mission of the newsletter remains the same: to deliver the latest and deepest stories from the
Miner and commodity trader Glencore has suffered a rebuke from some shareholders over its climate transition plan, highlighting the increased scrutiny of corporate proposals to tackle global warming. Almost 24 per cent of votes cast at the group’s annual general meeting in Switzerland on Thursday were opposed to a resolution seeking approval for the company’s climate