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A lobbying firm is launching a one-year business engagement operation ahead of the next general election in what is likely to be one of multiple attempts to exploit the vacuum left by the crisis at the CBI. WPI Strategy, a public affairs group behind the imminent launch of “BizUK”, insisted that it was not trying

Dominic Raab has resigned as the UK’s deputy prime minister after an independent report into bullying claims against him upheld two of the allegations. Raab, who was also justice secretary, issued a letter on Twitter on Friday morning saying he wanted to “keep his word” having promised to resign if the inquiry by employment lawyer

Russian paramilitary group Wagner, notorious for its brutal role in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, unsuccessfully asked China for supplies of weapons earlier this year, according to a leaked US intelligence report. Representatives from Wagner, which is controlled by close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, “sought munitions and equipment” from China in “early 2023”, according to

UK inflation remained in double digits in March with annual price rises of 10.1 per cent, raising the chances of further interest rate rises from the Bank of England. Consumer price inflation had been 10.4 per cent in February and was expected to drop to 9.8 per cent last month. Although petrol and diesel prices

Chinese insurer Ping An said HSBC had “exaggerated” the “costs and risks” of spinning off its Asian operations, as the bank’s largest shareholder used a rare public statement to ramp up pressure on the lender to separate its business. Michael Huang, chair of Ping An Asset Management, said in a statement on Tuesday that although a

Shares in US bank State Street dropped 10 per cent in pre-market trading as quarterly profits missed expectations and fees were hit by subdued markets and reduced assets under management. The huge custody bank, which is also a large provider of index mutual funds and exchange traded funds, said assets under management in its investment

Companies have committed more than $200bn to US manufacturing projects since Congress passed sweeping subsidies last year, as president Joe Biden’s effort to spark a new industrial revolution gains momentum. The investment in semiconductor and clean tech investments is almost double the commitments made in the same sectors in the whole of 2021, and nearly

Hedge funds and other parts of the shadow banking system should face greater scrutiny after last month’s upheaval in US government bonds, the country’s top markets regulator has said, reflecting concerns that speculative investors pose a risk to financial stability. Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Financial Times that taming

JPMorgan Chase expects to increase the profits it makes from lending and said that deposits had jumped by $37bn in the first quarter, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Net income rose 52 per cent from a year ago to $12.6bn, or $4.10 per share in the first quarter, boosted by a rise in

EY’s UK bosses have told partners to prepare for a fresh cost-cutting plan and a stream of staff departures as they admitted to embarrassment at the collapse of the firm’s long-running attempt to split its global business in two. On a call with partners on Wednesday, Anna Anthony, UK managing partner for financial services, said:

Tens of thousands of Hongkongers who moved to the UK are being blocked from accessing as much as £2.2bn of pension assets, as activists accuse the city’s government of retaliating against those deemed “unpatriotic” following a political crackdown. The figures, released by UK advocacy group Hong Kong Watch on the eve of the first visit

CBI director-general Tony Danker has been sacked with immediate effect following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the employers’ organisation. He will be replaced by Rain Newton-Smith, the UK lobby group’s former chief economist, who will return as director-general after a brief spell as a managing director for policy at Barclays. The dismissal

Shares in a number of Chinese companies soared more than 100 per cent on Monday, as the first batch of initial public offerings under a new streamlined listings regime debuted in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The top gainers among the 10 new launches included Shenzhen CECport Technologies, an electronics distributor, whose shares rose as much as

ByteDance raked in a record underlying profit last year, overtaking China’s long-reigning tech giants Tencent and Alibaba for the first time even as losses mounted for its fast-growing TikTok business unit. The world’s most valuable private company posted a 79 per cent surge in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, its preferred metric for

US fund managers are increasing investments in international stock markets after rising interest rates and fears of an economic slowdown brought an end to more than a decade of domestic dominance. US stocks have vastly outperformed most other developed and emerging markets since the financial crisis, but the trend began to reverse last year. The

A British business registered to a terraced house in a north London suburb appears to have arranged the sale of about $1.2bn of electronics into Russia since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022. Mykines Corporation LLP, a company based in the London borough of Enfield, is listed in Russian records

Kyiv is willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Financial Times. The comments by Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, are the most explicit statement of Ukraine’s interest in negotiations since it

Police have arrested the husband of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon as a suspect in an investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National party. Peter Murrell resigned as chief executive of the SNP last month after the party was forced to admit it had 30,000 fewer members than it had claimed.

Credit Suisse chair Axel Lehmann has apologised to investors for the 167-year-old Swiss bank’s collapse at its final shareholder meeting as an independent business on Tuesday morning. “It is a sad day. For all of you, and for us,” Lehmann told shareholders at the bank’s first in-person AGM in four years, held at a 15,000-capacity

Russia’s security services are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives to prevent overseas travel, as paranoia over leaks and defections spreads through Vladimir Putin’s regime. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still raging, security officers have tightened up travel requirements within the state sector, demanding the surrender of travel documents from some