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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

Federal Reserve officials are converging around the need to keep US interest rates high for longer, reflecting concern about recent hotter-than-expected inflation data and worries about global economic trends that could fuel price pressures. “In order to put this episode of high inflation behind us, further policy tightening, maintained for a longer time, will probably

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

Fears for the future of the London stock market are mounting after SoftBank and the world’s largest building materials group shunned the City in favour of New York. SoftBank this week rejected a London listing for Cambridge-based chip designer Arm despite an intense lobbying effort from three successive prime ministers, according to two people with

Andrew Bailey has signalled financial markets are wrong to assume the Bank of England will raise interest rates further, in a bid to convince investors that Britain’s economic outlook differs from the US and eurozone. The BoE governor said on Wednesday that the bank no longer presumed it would increase rates beyond the current 4

Rishi Sunak has suggested that the UK government will press ahead with his new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland even if it is rejected by the Democratic Unionist party, saying it was not about “any one political party”. The UK prime minister met business leaders and politicians in Belfast on Tuesday to sell the agreement

Britain and the EU clinched a deal on Monday to settle their toxic dispute over Northern Ireland trading rules in a turning point after years of post-Brexit tensions. Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, sealed the agreement in the shadow of Windsor Castle, with both talking of a

The European Commission president will travel to the UK on Monday in a bid to strike a deal overhauling Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements, as the two sides attempt to settle a bitter dispute that has overshadowed post-Brexit relations. Ursula von der Leyen will meet UK prime minister Rishi Sunak to work towards “shared, practical solutions

Joe Biden has said he did not think China would send weapons to Russia to help its military campaign in Ukraine, in comments that appeared to undercut claims from his top officials that Beijing was considering the idea. In an interview with ABC television on Friday that was aired on the evening of the anniversary

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”

Joe Biden has nominated former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga as World Bank president, picking a Wall Street veteran raised in India to oversee the institution’s biggest mission change in a generation. Banga’s nomination, a week after sitting president David Malpass abruptly resigned, comes as the US and other shareholder nations seek to expand the

Citigroup has forecast that UK inflation will plunge from double-digit rates to close to 2 per cent by the end of this year as rapid falls in gas prices give Rishi Sunak’s government hope of solving some of its biggest economic challenges. Citi said on Wednesday that consumer price inflation was likely to fall to

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will suspend its remaining nuclear weapons treaty with the US, a move western officials said spelt the end of the post-cold war arms control regime. In a state-of-the-nation address ahead of the anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s president said Moscow would freeze its participation in the New Start

Junior doctors in England have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strikes, in a further escalation of the dispute between the UK government and NHS staff over pay and working conditions. The British Medical Association on Monday said that, on a turnout of 77.49 per cent, 98 per cent of members had backed plans for a

The prime minister of Sweden has warned against delinking his country’s Nato membership bid from Finland’s, after the alliance acknowledged for the first time that the two might have to join separately owing to Turkey’s obstruction. Ulf Kristersson said in an interview that for strategic reasons, the two membership applications should be ratified at the

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 Russian army is suffering huge losses in Ukraine, shows no sign it has improved its “meat grinder” tactics and is struggling to sustain a stuttering offensive that is “advancing, if at all, in metres not kilometres”, Britain’s defence secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday. Despite fears that Russia is poised to launch a huge

PwC is under investigation by UK regulators over its auditing of the failed shopping centre owner Intu Properties, as accountants brace for increased scrutiny of their work ahead of an expected rise in insolvencies. In its fifth outstanding probe into PwC’s work for British companies, the Financial Reporting Council is investigating the firm’s audits of

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

Western intelligence shows Russia is amassing aircraft at the border with Ukraine, an indication that Moscow could throw its jets and helicopters into the war to support a stuttering land offensive. The fear of a looming air war in Ukraine has prompted allies to prioritise rapid shipments of air defence assets and artillery ammunition to