Starling Bank has created a US subsidiary where it will target mid-sized banks with its banking software as a service (BaaS) offering. The tech operation of Starling Bank has already won customers in Europe and Australia for its platform, which was originally launched in the UK in 2018 and rebadged as Engine in 2022. […]

Lloyds Banking Group will build, deploy and scale artificial intelligence (AI) systems using a Google service, accelerating production while slashing CO2 emissions. The bank is using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI to build a machine learning (ML) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) development platform, which more than 300 of its data sc

Three announcements in the space of a few days this month suggest financial scams have reached a tipping point and banks are ready to up the ante. Santander last week published figures on the amount of money scammed from its UK customers in the first three months of this year. According to the bank, […]

Over £18m was stolen from Santander customers in the UK during the first three months of this year, according to the bank. In its quarterly report on scams, the Santander said over £9m of the lost funds was through purchase scams, when fraudsters trick people into paying for non-existent or goods or services. In […]

Fintech trade body calls on the government to establish a national centre to help businesses across different sectors fight fraud through data sharing. Innovate Finance said that current data sharing initiatives designed to fight fraud operate in silos, which means the country lacks the “critical mass” or “scale” needed to stop fraudsters. Th

Banks and tech firms are coming together in an initiative to share information on fraud to give them visibility of the attacks targeted at customers. The collaboration is part of Stop Scams UK’s intelligence-sharing pilots, which have brought together banks such as HSBC, NatWest and Santander with tech firms Amazon, Google and Meta. Mobile [&

Given digital technology is so central to how we live, work, transact and communicate, we have recently seen the finalisation of an unprecedented amount of digital regulation in both the UK and the EU.  In such a fast-moving environment, this begs the question; how should companies stay ahead of the curve? Although the exact […]

Banks are operating a “spaghetti” tech structure that is creating a game of “technology Jenga” for IT managers updating their systems. Making changes to IT systems has huge knock-on effects, with upgrades risking downtime. But banks are willing to accept a certain level of downtime – this will only change when the cost of […]

The government has canned the Payments Services Regulator (PSR) to reduce red tape as part of its Plan for Change. PSR activities will be transitioned to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which will provide “one port of call” to payments system providers rather having to deal with multiple regulators. In November 2024, a speech […

Imagine the impact of a sudden service disruption on your business. Customers unable to access your platform, transactions put on hold, and your team racing against the clock to fix the issue. These aren’t far-fetched scenarios — they’re the kinds of challenges many organisations faced in 2024 when small configuration errors cascaded into maj

The government-backed Centre for Finance, Innovation and technology (CFIT) has outlined its plan to fight economic crime through digital business IDs. Digital IDs for business will improve business efficiency, security and trust, according to the CFIT, which was launched in February 2023 with £5.5m funding in response to a report into UK fint

In 2024, the Norwegian government set out a national digitisation strategy with the aim of making the country the most digitised in the world by 2030. This intent is nothing new and has both ignited, and been ignited by, a tech startup ecosystem that has taken Norway away from its industrial and maritime roots […]

Customers of multiple banks have reported problems banking online, as they struggle to access services on payday for the second month running. The problems came two days after MPs were due to receive details of how IT failures have affected banks over the past two years. At the end of January, customers of Barclays […]

The Post Office has made its first official apology to subpostmasters who used its faulty Capture accounting software and were blamed and punished for unexplained shortfalls. Ken Tooby received a letter from a senior executive who “apologised sincerely and unreservedly” on behalf of the Post Office for “failings and impact” on Tooby’s l

The UK government has begun its search for an IT supplier to support its plan to build open banking capabilities into its payment platform. The Government Digital Service (GDS) is looking for a tech supplier to start work in July this year, in a three-year contract worth £49m. The GDS, which is part of […]

CaixaBank will invest in programmes to make more use of artificial intelligence (AI), as part of a multibillion-euro business plan announced last year. The IT element of the bank’s two-year, €5bn Strategic Plan, known as Cosmos, leans heavily on AI technology to improve customer services and internal working. To complete the Cosmos plan, the

The CrowdStrike incident in 2024 hit the UK like a hurricane. As it swept across the country, it ground flights to a standstill, forced hospitals to cancel operations, and brought down the computer systems and websites of hundreds of businesses. Since the early 1970s, it has been possible to predict the damage likely to […]

Many companies from a range of industries worldwide are stuck at a trial stage of emerging technologies usage, according to the sixth annual EY Reimagining industry futures study. The firm surveyed 1,635 enterprises in November 2024, including 9% in the UK, 6% in Germany and 20% in the US. Respondents were drawn from a […]

Fintech investment has been on a downward spiral since 2012, but the second half of this year could see the first shoots of recovery. Investment in UK fintechs fell by over a quarter last year, but there are signs that a recovery could be on its way, according to KPMG. In its latest report […]

MPs have written to bosses at the UK’s biggest banks to shed light on the impact of IT failures on their businesses, after a Barclays outage caused chaos on payday last month. The recent three-day outage at Barclays Bank has heightened concerns over the stability of the banking sector, and the Treasury Committee has […]

One of the interesting developments right now is the intersection between AI and Web3. From the creation of AI agents integrated into Web3 decentralised applications to the impact of generative AI on Web3 gaming, Web3 is once again at the forefront of technological innovation. However, if Web3 companies want to capitalise on these exciting po

The Parliamentary Treasury Committee has called on consumers, finance firms and IT suppliers to provide evidence to support an inquiry into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the finance sector. AI is used widely in the finance sector where automation is rife. This includes chatbots supporting customers and even the use of AI [&h

Customers of Barclays Bank have been left unable to access web app and online banking, make payments to and from their accounts, or access customer services, in the wake of a significant IT outage at the bank which struck on Friday 31 January. According to Ookla’s Downdetector service, reports of issues affecting UK customers […]

Those Beyond started life as the tech lab of fintech unicorn Thought Machine, supplying cloud-based core banking systems to the world’s biggest banks. Now, after setting off in a different direction to its former parent, it is on an innovation journey that started with a product not aimed at the JP Morgans or the […]

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) came into force on 16 January 2023. Following a two-year implementation period, from 17 January 2025, financial organisations must fully comply with the new regulation, which aims to ensure they remain resilient to severe operational digital disruption. The act covers a number of aspects of cyber

Financial services regulators in the UK and New York are to share staff through a secondment programme that kicks off next month. The New York Department of Financial Services and the Bank of England plan to share insights, knowledge and experience of emerging financial services and technologies. The Transatlantic Regulatory Exchange programm

Although they have had two years to prepare for the incoming legislation, a study has today revealed that a significant minority of UK financial services organisations are set to miss the 17 January 2025 deadline to comply with the European Union’s (EU’s) Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). According to the Censuswide survey commission

The women behind fintechs still face discrimination when seeking investment, despite the issue being an industry talking point for years, according to figures from a UK fintech industry body. Innovate Finance’s numbers, which revealed UK fintech investment dropped by double the global figure, also unearthed the worrying detail that investment

Two separate announcements have highlighted the aggressive cost-cutting measures banks are putting in place as digital technologies replace thousands of people from the back-office of their organisations. Bloomberg Intelligence’s recent report predicts 200,000 middle and back-office jobs will be lost to artificial intelligence (AI), while Lloyds Ba

With cyber criminality and fraud against banks running rampant in recent years and showing no signs of slacking off, banking organisations around the world are coming to understand that they need to be doing much more effective due diligence when managing inbound customer contacts via voice calls or web chats. First National Bank of […

It seems fintech has been replaced by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as the most-used term in banking IT this year. Fintech, after all, is not a technology but a movement, which will undoubtedly see its next evolution through the use of AI, with GenAI the chosen conversation-starter for most. Research from Accenture last year [&he

Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer (CDIO) at NatWest Retail Bank, has had a distinguished career leading technology-led change in some of the world’s biggest financial services organisations. Now, she’s using that experience to drive even more innovation. After four years as CIO for collaborative technology solutions with Deutsc

Technology has always been a transformative force, reshaping industries, economies, and societies. In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, its potential to democratise access to opportunities stands out as one of its most powerful capabilities. Innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and digital platforms create eff

International financiers have pulled support for a revolutionary paytech system being rolled out in the Middle East after it became embroiled in Russian plans to evade sanctions intended to snuff foreign trade flows supporting its invasion of Ukraine. The Bank for International Settlements, a global association of central banks, said on 31 Au

The Bank of England is launching a consortium where private sector finance organisations and artificial intelligence (AI) experts can provide knowledge on the technology’s benefits to the sector and manage risk. During an international financial conference in Hong Kong, Sarah Breeden, deputy governor of financial stability at the Bank of Engl

Ireland’s Department of Social Protection has contracted Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide the IT and business services that underpin its new retirement pension scheme. The 15-year contract will see Ireland’s My Future Fund use TCS’s BaNCS digital platform to automatically enrol 800,000 people in Ireland to the retirement savings sch

Coming from a military intelligence background, focusing on the financing of terrorist groups, I saw the power of the dollar over bad actors. A dollar removed from their back pocket, or to that end, in the pocket of others, sometimes had more of an effect than a bomb or a bullet. If we can influence […]

Members of the House of Lords are pressing for changes to legislation that will give the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) new powers to require banks to monitor the accounts of every person who receives benefit payments, including the state pension. The government claims financial surveillance powers in the Data Protection and Digital Informa

Police have shut down a web service used by more than 2,000 criminals worldwide to launch and manage phishing attacks. The Metropolitan Police worked with police forces from 19 countries to disrupt the world’s largest phishing-as-a-service platform, known as LabHost. Law enforcement agencies made 37 arrests worldwide after searching over 70 address

Technology changes fast and tech jobs are changing just as rapidly, according to Belinda Finch, CIO at enterprise technology company IFS. Finch joined IFS late last year from mobile company Three, where she led Three’s digital transformation and helped to drive system developments to support customer experience as CIO. She has also held senior lead

The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and the monetary authority, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), are in the midst of a profound supervisory transformation fuelled by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI).  While technological advances are driving a wave of innovation in the financial and security industries, these superv

Nordic banks are turning more eagerly to artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation-led tech partnerships that can help them compete more cost-efficiently with niche digital banking rivals that are increasingly populating the financial services space in the region. Leading Nordic financial groups such as Danske Bank, Nordea and SEB have identified

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is only bettered in size by Accenture and IBM Global Services, with a customer list already containing the world’s largest and best known corporates. In the UK, TCS competes in the top three with Accenture and AWS, the company’s UK head Amit Kapur told Computer Weekly Globally, TCS employs 600,000 people in […

On Friday 19 July 2024, the UK awoke to news of a fast-spreading IT outage, seemingly global in its nature, affecting hundreds – if not thousands – of organisations. The disruption began in the early hours of Friday morning in Australia, before spreading quickly across Asia, Europe and the Americas, with the travel industry among […]

US bank Wells Fargo has reported a big jump in recommendations from customers after using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to help families manage the bank accounts, mortgages and financial assets of bereaved relatives.  The bank, which runs over 4,000 branches in the US, is investing in AI and business process management software as it

According to the House of Commons, there were approximately 5.6 million private sector businesses in the UK as of 1 January 2023, 0.8% more than in 2022. Meanwhile, the number of self-employed people in the UK has been steadily rising for the past 20 years (barring a drop in 2020-2022, due to the economic impact […]

Nationwide Building Society is using Red Hat as part of its application development platform, which is speeding up software releases and improving availability. The UK finance giant is using Red Hat OpenShift as part of a platform to integrate business systems after the success of an initial project to collect real-time data. The project, known [&h

Financial services company BBVA has received approval from the UK regulator for a takeover of Spanish rival Sabadell, which would see it take control of the UK’s TSB Bank and pose interesting questions over its future IT strategy. TSB customers were migrated from the systems of Lloyds Bank, which hosted them, to a UK-specific version […]

Recorded incidents of digitally enabled financial fraud and scams across the UK have hit their highest ever level, with consumers lodging a total of 8,734 complaints and with over half relating to customer-approved online bank transfers – also known as authorised push payment (APP) scams – in a three-month period, according to the Financial Ombudsm

Lloyds Bank is streamlining its trade financing sales through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which will automate the checking of documents in line with industry regulations. Trade finance transactions involve large payments, often international, that traditionally require many participants with large volumes of manual checks of documentat

Mphasis is expanding its UK operation with a central London innovation hub that will provide its customers with the opportunity to jointly investigate the application of the latest technologies to their businesses. The company emerged from the ashes of former IT outsourcing powerhouse EDS after HP’s 2016 breakup. It now specialises in application d

Barclays has extended a private cloud contract with HPE to use GreenLake Cloud as a core pillar of its hybrid cloud strategy. Barclays signed a strategic contract with HPE in 2021 to deliver a global private cloud platform, hosting more than 100,000 workloads across the bank’s strategic hubs in the UK, the US and Asia. […]

HSBC has worked with Quantinuum to trial “the first application” of quantum-secure technology for distributing tokenised physical gold. The HSBC Gold Token for retail investors in Hong Kong allows the bank’s customers to acquire fractional ownership of physical gold. Moving these tokens over financial networks requires encryption that cannot be bro

Metro Bank has contracted Infosys to support its digital business transformation and use of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and data technologies in a deal that will also help it meet cost-cutting targets. According to reports, the bank is planning to cut 300 staff, including those working in its IT department. This follows an announcement

MoneyGram said it is “shocked and disappointed” by Post Office portrayal on a contract breakdown, which saw money transfer services removed from thousands of branches. The money transfer firm also confirmed that the UK is the only country it operates where services are yet to resume following a major cyber attack. Earlier this week, Computer [&hell

Financial services firm and money transfer specialist MoneyGram has disclosed a breach of customer data arising from a late-September cyber attack on its systems, but has waited over a week to tell customers that they have been affected. The incident first manifested as a network outage on 20 September, before being confirmed as a cyber […]

WHEN AID donors helped fund the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique, the goal was to help that southern African country build up its economy after a civil war. In a country with income per head of just over $600, the Mozal smelter is the largest industrial employer. Yet now the lofty aim to help poor […]

THE FORECLOSURE and court auction of 87 flats in the southern city of Changsha last month underlines many of the problems with China’s property sector. The homes were owned by one woman, flouting the controls that Changsha and other cities have on the number of housing units urban dwellers can buy. The fact that one […]

Missiles are flying over a region that supplies a third of the world’s crude

When Michel Barnier, France’s new prime minister, submits his budget to parliament on October 10th he will be doing so against a painful market backdrop. A fortnight ago the yield on French ten-year government debt surpassed that of Spain, suggesting that investors see the euro zone’s second-largest economy as riskier than its southern neighbour’s

How much money has Senegal borrowed? More than previously thought, according to Ousmane Sonko, who became its prime minister in April. At a press conference on September 26th he said the previous government had “lied to the people” by hiding loans worth 10% of GDP, enough to push the country’s public debt to 83% of […]

There is no such thing as a strategic commodity

The career of Andrea Orcel vividly encapsulates the recent history of European banking. At Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America, Mr Orcel advised on deals that formed part of the wave of mergers that crested in 2007, when a pan-European troika bought ABN AMRO, a Dutch lender. After the financial crisis of 2007-09, […]

If Chinese retail investors had their way they would forgo the seven-day National Day holiday that ends on October 7th. An aggressive stimulus package, announced in Beijing on September 24th, has unleashed the biggest stockmarket rally the country has witnessed in more than 15 years. Major indices have soared more than 25%; the Shanghai stock [&hel

After THE financial crisis of 2007-09, global house prices fell by 6% in real terms. But, before long, they picked up again, and sailed past their pre-crisis peak. When covid-19 struck, economists reckoned a property crash was on the way. In fact there was a boom, with mask-wearing house-hunters fighting over desirable nests. And then […]

CANADA AND America’s economies are joined at the hip. Some $2bn of trade and 400,000 people cross their 9,000km of shared border every day. Canadians on the west coast do more day trips to nearby Seattle than to distant Toronto. No wonder, then, that the two economies have largely moved in lockstep in recent decades: […]

As China’s economy has descended into deflation, the central bank’s lack of urgency has been a source of frustration for many economists. Policymakers at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) initially expressed confidence that deflation was, so to speak, transitory. When it then persisted, they worried less about falling prices than about the side-eff

Egypt is gearing up to return to international debt markets for the first time in three years. Last week Ahmed Kouchouk, the country’s finance minister, is reported to have told investors that his government is hoping to raise around $3bn in external debt over the coming months. Much of this borrowing will take the form […]

TWO GUT instincts have distinguished the macroeconomic policies of Xi Jinping, China’s ruler since 2012. He has disdained consumer handouts, which he thinks breed laziness. And he has refrained from bold economic stimulus, the kind of fiscal and monetary “bazooka” that China’s previous leaders fired in November 2008 during the global financial cris

Prices could once again spike this winter

Downtown New York is quieter than ever. Finance has never been louder

A single dissent on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate committee garnered plenty of attention last week. Understandably so. It marked the first time since 2005 that a Fed governor had opposed a rate decision. Michelle Bowman’s disagreement highlighted concerns that a half-percentage-point cut might be excessive for an economy yet to vanquish infla

As China’s economy has descended into deflation, the central bank’s lack of urgency has been a source of frustration. Officials at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) at first expressed confidence that deflation was, so to speak, transitory. When it persisted, they worried less about falling prices than about the side-effects of fighting them. They [

Israel’s economy should have been trundling towards recovery. After all, many of the 300,000 workers who left their jobs to fight have now returned to offices, factories and farms. Instead, a difficult situation is becoming ever more acute. GDP growth came to just 0.7% between April and June, on an annualised basis, some 5.2 percentage […]

You may sense that governments are not as competent as they once were. Upon entering the White House in 2021, President Joe Biden promised to revitalise American infrastructure. In fact, spending on things like roads and rail has fallen. A flagship plan to expand access to fast broadband for rural Americans has so far helped […]

The thread from shipwrecks and sheep flocks to digital currencies

Europe’s tough competition policy is something of a historical accident. After the second world war Germany wanted to contain cartels, which it viewed as a threat to its young democracy and market economy. France, meanwhile, saw cracking down on big firms as a way to promote its economic interests. Messy negotiations ended up handing lots […

Why has development ground to a halt?

The Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates by half a percentage point, announced on September 18th, is momentous for two reasons. As the first cut by America’s central bank since it lifted rates to quell inflation, it marks the start of a monetary-easing cycle. It also represents a bet by the Fed that inflation […]

The longed-for moment is almost here. For two and a half years, ever since America’s Federal Reserve embarked on its fastest series of interest-rate rises since the 1980s, investors have been desperate for any hint of when it would reverse course. Now it would be a huge surprise if Jerome Powell, the central bank’s chair, […]

On a recent visit to his hometown of Laixi, in eastern China, Guo Ping received a shock: the local government had sold off a number of state-owned assets, including two reservoirs. The small city’s finances, as well as those in the neighbouring port of Qingdao, were under strain, forcing officials to come up with new […]

When China’s ruler, Xi Jinping, began calling for “common prosperity” in 2021, he made investors nervous. The stated goal was to reduce inequality. But the term became wrapped up with something edgier: a morale-destroying campaign to browbeat billionaires into displays of charity, tighten regulations on big tech firms and curb what Mr Xi called the

Does it give up—or insist on painful reforms?

Mimosas have a simple recipe: one part champagne, one part orange juice. Soon, though, the tipple may be even less affordable—and not because sparkling wine is ever more expensive. Concentrate orange-juice futures in New York, which soft-drink producers use to hedge against price swings, have quadrupled since late 2021. They hit an intraday high of

After a terrible couple of months for shareholders, lenders are feeling smug

Not long ago America’s main concern with sovereign-wealth funds was how to regulate these large pools of money controlled by foreign governments. Now, seemingly overnight, the hot new idea in Washington, DC, is that America should join the club. It is easy to understand the allure. A well-managed SWF can, in theory, let the government […]

The country’s economy is thriving yet the krone is becoming less and less valuable. What’s going on?

Between early 2022 and mid-2023 the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy at the fastest pace since the early 1980s, lifting America’s policy interest rate from 0-0.25% to 5.25-5%. When the central bank’s policymakers next meet on September 17th and 18th, they will almost certainly start cutting rates. Investors even wonder whether they will be

Europe has at last realised it has a problem with economic growth. Duh. Can it now find a solution? A report published on September 9th by Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank and prime minister of Italy, and the continent’s unofficial chief technocrat, is an attempt to do just that. Over […]

The hotly anticipated comeback of a 1990s British legend sold out fast. Fans took to social media to complain. “Poor effort and a load of hype,” wrote one. “What a shitshow,” added another. “Anyone else loving the chaos?” asked an amused onlooker. To celebrate its 30th birthday, St. John, a restaurant that pioneered modern British […]

Enough policies have been proposed to make a call

China’s leaders have ambitious plans for the country’s economy, spanning one, five and even 15 years. In order to fulfil their goals, they know they will have to drum up prodigious amounts of manpower, materials and technology. But there is one vital input China’s leaders have recently struggled to procure: confidence.

How worried should investors be?

That is the contention of Cliff Asness, one of the great quant investors

Investors returning from summer holidays might feel dispirited upon checking their portfolios. Stocks have had a poor start to September. America’s benchmark S&P 500 index dropped by 2% on its first day of trading. European shares followed suit on September 4th; those in Japan have fallen by even more. It is a striking change from […]

When commodity prices move in tandem, it is usually because real-world events jolt markets. China is the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials, so its economic leaps and stumbles matter. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hindered the trade of fuels and grains, causing prices to surge. But every once in a while it is news in […]

A few years ago, nobody thought that a soft landing was possible

That is what Department of Justice prosecutors allege

An unusual sort of business will soon open in Shelby, North Carolina. It will take over premises previously run by a flooring company, tucked in beside shops selling clothes, paint and fast food. But it will not sell anything itself. Instead, willing donors, paid around $40 a pop, will sit connected to an apheresis machine. […]

Ueda Kazuo begins on a dangerous mission

Vladimir Putin is spending big on his war in Ukraine. The Russian president has disbursed over $200bn, or 10% of GDP, on the invasion, according to America’s Department of Defence. He now plans to invest heavily in infrastructure that will enable his country’s economy to flourish even while cut off from the West. Over the […]

At the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, attendees enjoy R&R: research and recreation. The latter usually involves a pleasant hike by the lake, but last year a rainstorm soaked the assembled economists. When they returned on August 23rd a remarkably accurate weather forecast helped them dodge a shower and enjoy some

No matter what critics of Kamala Harris allege

For economists and investors accustomed to staring at charts, the jagged peaks of the Teton mountains possess more than a passing resemblance to financial trend lines. They also form the backdrop to one of the year’s most keenly awaited central-bank speeches: annual reflections by the chair of the Federal Reserve at a conference hall in […]

An early-warning system for recessions would be worth trillions of dollars. Governments could dole out stimulus at just the right time; investors could turn a nice profit. Unfortunately, the process for calling a recession is too slow to be useful. America’s arbiter, the National Bureau of Economic Research, can take months to decide. Other countri

Even though the continent’s stocks are in a “sweet spot”

John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and pioneer of index funds, may have saved investors more money than anyone else in history. By some estimates, his crusade to drive down fees has, over the past five decades, left them with more than $1trn that would otherwise have gone to fund managers. Index funds, through […]

Be more productive. That is how ChatGPT, a generative-artificial-intelligence tool from OpenAI, sells itself to workers. But despite industry hopes that the technology will boost productivity across the workforce, not everyone is on board. According to two recent studies, women use ChatGPT between 16 and 20 percentage points less than their male pe

It is easy enough to understand what is motivating Kamala Harris’s economic strategy. Poll after poll demonstrates that many Americans consider the cost of living to be their main concern heading into the election in November, and Ms Harris starts on the back foot, having served as vice-president during a time when inflation soared to […]

Silicon Valley’s tech bros are having a difficult few weeks. A growing number of investors worry that artificial intelligence (AI) will not deliver the vast profits they seek. Since peaking last month the share prices of Western firms driving the ai revolution have dropped by 15%. A growing number of observers now question the limitations […

Over the past year-and-a-half inflation has fallen sharply across the rich world. Although some central banks have now begun to cut interest rates, few are yet ready to pat themselves on the back for a job well done. In many countries the core rate of inflation, excluding volatile energy and food prices, remains uncomfortably high—at […]

The outcry was immediate. On August 11th Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, said that his country could permanently occupy the Gaza Strip. “Sanctions,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, hit back, “must be on the agenda”. It was unclear whether Mr Borrell meant they would be placed on Mr Ben-Gvir or Israel itself; [

When an economy contracts for two consecutive quarters, it is often considered to be in recession. European policymakers will be hoping that two consecutive quarters of growth are equally notable. Data released on August 14th showed that, in the second quarter of the year, the EU’s economy once again grew by 0.3% against the previous […]

Many governments live in fear of bond-market “vigilantes”, investors who punish errant policies by aggressively selling the sovereign’s debt, driving down its price and thereby pushing up its yield. Financial regulators also worry about bond-market malfunctions, such as unsettled trades, when one party to a transaction fails to honour its promises.

Just ignore it. That, in short, is the advice given to retail investors when stockmarkets convulse, as plenty have over the past few weeks. Watching hard-earned savings disappear in a flash tends not to promote a cool head. So do not check your portfolio, do not tot up your losses and, above all, do not […]

Across the world worries are mounting about the economy. In America and Canada unemployment is rising, while consumer sentiment remains depressed. Europe continues to flirt with recession. Don’t even mention China. Yet there is one place where the mood is quite different. Despite fierce sanctions and pariah status, Russia’s economy is growing stron

Meat-eaters may want to avoid Argentina

“Even those born poor fear the heat.” This slogan, printed on a lemonade from Mixue, a drinks-and-ice-cream chain, says a lot about Chinese consumption. The beverage has been a wild success during a heatwave sweeping the country, less for its tart, refreshing properties than for its price. A cup sells for as little as 3.6 […]

No investor commands attention quite like Warren Buffett. As boss of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment firm that he has run for almost six decades, Mr Buffett’s every movement is scrutinised. When he shifts in his seat, investors large and small ponder what it might mean for their portfolios.

Division is not always a weakness

When times are tough, politicians reach for metaphors. In Ethiopia, which floated its currency and entered a $3.4bn IMF programme on July 29th, the prime minister Abiy Ahmed (pictured) compared reform to “the pain of surgery, endured for healing”. In Nigeria Bola Tinubu, the president, has defended two devaluations, saying the old system was “a [&h

A weak jobs report in America has raised fears that the world’s largest economy is heading for recession. America’s stockmarkets have tumbled, with fear spreading to other countries. Japan’s Topix index is 15% off its recent high; Germany’s main index is down by 7%. When America sneezes, everywhere catches a cold.

This year’s hottest months are shaping up to be especially wild

For a while on August 5th things were looking awful. During the Asian trading session Japan’s benchmark Topix share index had fallen by 12%, marking its worst day since 1987. Stock prices in South Korea and Taiwan had tanked by 9% and 8% respectively, and European markets were falling. Before trading began in America, the […]

As fears of an American recession spread, stockmarkets around the world have been jittery. The moves have been the wildest of all in Japan. On August 5th the Topix plunged by 12% in its worst performance since 1987; the yen had climbed from its weakest point in 37 years. The next day, stocks swung back, […]

As fears of an American recession spread, stockmarkets around the world have suffered. But none has taken as severe a beating as Japan’s. On August 5th the Topix plunged by 12% in its worst performance since 1987, compared with falls of 2-3% in America, Britain and Europe. The index is now almost a quarter below its peak, reached […]

Kamala Harris has all but erased Donald Trump’s polling lead in America’s six swing states, which is testament to the excitement generated by her late entrance into the presidential race. On August 6th she will speak at a rally in Pennsylvania, the most crucial of the swing states, alongside her new running-mate, who may well be […]

They would be doing even better if the Biden-Harris administration had been more cynical

Budget talks in the European Union are a game of 27-dimensional chess. Members play simultaneously against one another, negotiating over many spending items at any one time. Countries are already preparing for the contest that starts next year, which is likely to be particularly dramatic. The world around the EU has shifted, owing to the […]

How many Securities and Exchange Commission chairs can you name? Even in Washington it is hard to imagine a passer-by being able to come up with more than one. Perhaps the best known is Joe Kennedy, the sec’s first chairman, who took office during the Depression when Americans had lost faith in markets and were […]

Cities everywhere are busy implementing measures to deter excess tourism. But most people agree holidaymakers offer an economic bounty. So what would the ideal tourist market look like? Residents would probably prefer a small number of high-spending visitors, to minimise disturbance and maximise revenues. Figures compiled by The Economist rank 20 p

How quickly the mood turns. Barely a fortnight ago stockmarkets were on a seemingly unstoppable bull run, after months of hitting new all-time highs. Now they are in free fall. America’s Nasdaq 100 index, dominated by the tech giants that were at the heart of the boom, has fallen by more than 10% since a […]

We are seeking promising journalists and would-be journalists to apply for our Marjorie Deane internship. Successful candidates will spend six months with us in London writing about finance and economics or business, and will be paid. We are looking to hire at least two interns over the next year. The start date is flexible and […]

The developing world has fallen back in love with economic planning. As protectionism sweeps the West, poor countries are no longer afraid of industrial policy—or bold ambition. India’s government declares that manufacturing will propel the country to high-income status by 2047. Indonesia wants to get there by 2050, with growth driven by green comm

China’s economic miracle emerged from dozens of industrial entrepots. Dongguan, famous for producing furniture and toys, as well as its many brothels, witnessed GDP growth of 21% in 2004. Hohhot, a town on the edge of the Mongolian steppe, posted nominal growth of 18% in 2006 as it scarred its mineral-rich terrain with mines. Shanghai, […]

Cooling off is easy in Barcelona. Swim in the sea, sip sangria—or just hang about looking like a holidaymaker. Recently residents have taken part in anti-tourist protests, some firing at guests with water pistols. Other rallies calling for an end to mass tourism have taken place across the Balearic and Canary Islands. And it is […]

All come with their own drawbacks

In a video clip that has gone viral recently, Kamala Harris quotes her mother asking her whether she thought she had just fallen out of a coconut tree. The probable Democratic nominee for president breaks into a laugh at the turn of phrase before explaining, somewhat philosophically, the message of the story: “you exist in […]

To meet the world’s biggest news junkies, head not to Washington or Westminster. Instead, make your way to a trading floor, where information from every corner of the globe must be parsed the instant it emerges. Whatever the news, from coups to company-earnings reports, it probably affects the price of something. This year, amid a […]

Vast new holdings of grain, natural gas and oil suggest trouble ahead

Mortgages used to be a tough sell in Russia. Decades of Soviet propaganda, which denounced credit as an unbearable burden, had an effect. Even after the end of communism, Russians still referred to mortgages as “debt slavery”, preferring to save until they could buy their homes outright. Vladimir Putin, the country’s president, has spent two [&hell

Immigrants are increasingly unwelcome. Over half of Americans favour “deporting all immigrants living in the US illegally back to their home country”, up from a third in 2016. Just 10% of Australians favour more immigration, a sharp fall from a few years ago. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s new centre-left prime minister, wants Britain to be […]

Believe it or not, corporate America still makes room for the little guy. Around half of working Americans are employed by a firm with less than 500 workers. Nine in ten banks are community institutions that hold less than $10bn in assets. This rather parochial picture, however, is not reflected in the country’s stockmarket, where […]

America’s stability can no longer be taken for granted. That is one possible conclusion from the near assassination of Donald Trump, reinforcing lessons already learned from the attack on the Capitol in January 2021. Regrettably, America is not exceptional in this regard. The past few months alone have featured a shooting of Slovakia’s prime minist

Consumer banks, on the other hand, are starting to suffer

Currency meddling will prove futile

Houses in Bouldin Creek, a neighbourhood in Austin, Texas, are cavernous, but occupy only a small portion of their plots. Rules known as the “McMansion ordinance”, intended to preserve the area’s character, ensure there is plenty of space between them. Architects must squeeze the design of any new home into an imaginary tent rising five […]

We assess what could bring the bull market to an end

The Jingxi Hotel in Beijing is known for its home-made yogurt—and for hosting some of the most important meetings in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. They include the “third plenum” of 1978, which confirmed Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power and the opening of the Chinese economy. The country’s leaders are now gathering for […]

In markets it is known as the “Trump trade”, a bet that Donald Trump’s return to the White House would herald more inflation and higher interest rates. Many of Mr Trump’s core policies push in this direction: tariffs would add to import costs, deportations of immigrants could push up wages and deficit-financed tax cuts would […]

In the early 20th century, for brief periods, the most frenetic American trading pits were not the raucous markets in which stocks were traded, nor the venues where bonds were exchanged. The real action was in the market for betting on the next president. “Crowds formed in the financial district…and brokers would call out bid […]

“We cannot carry on trade without war, nor war without trade,” wrote Jan Pieterszoon Coen, a brutal governor-general of the Dutch East India Company, to shareholders in 1614. Four centuries later, things sound a bit different. “Let’s make no mistake: assertiveness is a prerequisite for keeping our markets open,” says Sabine Weyand, the EU’s top [&h

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s new chancellor, says that she has inherited the worst fiscal circumstances since the second world war. An exaggeration, perhaps, but only a small one. To address the squeeze, Ms Reeves will seek the help of Britain’s retirement savings. On July 8th she said that she wants the country’s pension funds “to drive […]

China’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, contains multitudes. His economic philosophy touts both self-reliance and openness. His vision of policymaking embraces top-down design, but also bottom-up experimentation. During the covid-19 pandemic, he urged local officials to eliminate infections (which often required lockdowns) and promote growth (which r

In May 27 members of the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET), a Philippine charity, were charged with bankrolling communist rebels. Straight away the case looked strange. A social-media post by police claimed they had jailed Estrella Flores-Catarata, one of CERNET’s associates, who received an award from the UN for her work with indigen

The earliest depiction of the ouroboros—a serpent coiled in a circle, eating its own tail—was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1320BC. It was used in his funerary texts to depict the infinite nature of time, and later cropped up all over the place. In Ancient Rome it signified […]

The world is still, in a sense, swimming in cash. Or at least the electronic equivalent: central-bank reserves. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a club of central banks, estimates that the balance-sheets of rich-country central banks amount to roughly 50% of collective GDP. That is down from 70% in 2021—a reduction which reflects quant

Starbucks offers endless opportunities for innovation. Parts of social media delight in hacking the chain’s menu to create highly instagrammable drinks. Fancy a “cake batter Frappuccino”? Simply order a “vanilla bean crème Frappuccino”, add a pump of hazelnut syrup and ask the barista to put a cake pop in the blender. How about some “liquid [&helli

The savings and loan (S&L) crisis terrorised America’s banks for years. Starting in the mid-1980s, a mix of aggressive lending growth, poor risk controls and a property downturn contributed to the collapse or consolidation of over 1,000 small lending institutions. China’s smallest banks are now suffering from many of the same ailments. But unti

Move to San Francisco and it is hard not to be swept up by mania over artificial intelligence (AI). Advertisements tell you about how the tech will revolutionise your workplace. In bars people speculate about when the world will “get AGI”, or when machines will become more advanced than humans. The five big tech firms—Alphabet, […]

War is still exacting a heavy toll on Ukraine’s economy. The country’s GDP is a quarter smaller than on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the central bank is tearing through foreign reserves and Russia’s recent attacks on critical infrastructure have depressed growth forecasts. “Strong armies,” warned Sergii Marchenko, Ukraine’s finance ministe

Sixteen years ago American stockmarkets reached their modern nadir. During the early 2000s European and emerging-market equities went on a bull run. By March 2008 America had entered recession and its financial crisis was under way. The country’s stocks accounted for less than 40% of the world’s total stockmarket capitalisation. Fast-forward to tod

Queues of idle trucks trying to enter America are standard fare at Mexico’s border. Recently, however, vehicles at the Otay Mesa crossing, which separates California and the city of Tijuana, have been lining up to get into Mexico. The trucks do not travel far—they offload their shipping containers in newly built warehouses just 15km south […

From some angles it seems as if thermal coal, the world’s dirtiest fuel, is having a tough year. Prices are down a bit. China, which gobbles up over half the world’s supply, is in economic trouble; a surge in hydropower generation there is squeezing out the fuel. In May G7 members agreed to phase out […]

Which is the greatest rivalry in tennis? Older players might reminisce about the “fire and ice” contests between the cool-headed Bjorn Borg and the tempestuous John McEnroe; those a generation younger might rave about the all-American duels between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. After a two-decade-long era dominated by rivalries between Roger Feder

In the cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants”, Mr Krabs, purveyor of krabby patty hamburgers, is a frequent and ruthless price-gouger. He can get away with it since he has no competition, save for the unappetising Chum Bucket. McDonald’s, a fast-food chain that flips real-world hamburgers, can only dream of Mr Krabs’s pricing power. It has been forced [&h

In April a New York fried-chicken shop went viral. It was not the food at Sansan Chicken East Village that captured the world’s imagination, but the service. Diners found an assistant from the Philippines running the till via video link. The service is provided by Happy Cashier, which connects American firms with Filipino workers. Chi […]

Owing to the rapid spread of solar power, Spanish energy is increasingly cheap. Between 11am and 7pm, the sunniest hours in a sunny country, prices often loiter near zero on wholesale markets (see chart). Even in Germany, which by no reasonable definition is a sunny country, but which has plenty of wind, wholesale prices were […]

India’s stockmarket swooned upon the news that Narendra Modi, the country’s business-friendly prime minister, would return to power diminished and in a coalition after a recent general election. One benchmark, though, fell especially sharply and has yet to recover: the Bombay Stock Exchange’s index for Public Sector Undertakings (BSE PSU). It compr

Editor’s note (June 20th 2024): The Supreme Court has ruled in Moore v United States, upholding the tax at issue (the “mandatory repatriation tax”). The court declined to weigh in on the constitutionality of a tax on unrealised gains. What is income, really? Ask an economist and they might describe “Haig-Simons” income—the value of a […]

Things are big in America. That is true of houses, cars and food portions. Perhaps most shocking of all is the size of tips. In much of the rest of the world, gratuities are a small gesture for good service. In American restaurants they are de rigueur. And they are becoming more generous and more […]

How can you tell it’s time to get out of the market? In 1929 Joseph Kennedy, an American businessman and politician, supposedly realised the party was over upon hearing a shoe-shine boy dispensing stock tips. In 2000 the exit doors beckoned after 17 “dotcom” firms paid millions of dollars each for brief advertising slots during […]

It was a French politician, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who coined the term “exorbitant privilege” in the 1960s. He was referring to the benefits received by America as issuer of the world’s reserve currency—namely, the ability to run high deficits comfortably. These days France is reminded that it has no such privilege. Ahead of parliamentary electi

Is a fresh housing boom under way? In April a house-price index for the world, excluding China, rose by more than 3% year on year (see chart 1). American house prices are 6.5% higher than a year ago, Australian ones are up by 5% and Portuguese ones are soaring. In other countries, the market looks […]

The HISTORY of leveraged finance—the business of lending to risky, indebted companies—is best told in three acts. High-yield (or “junk”) bonds were the subject of the first. That ended in 1990 when Michael Milken, the godfather of this sort of debt, was sent to prison for fraud. In the second act, the extraordinary growth of […]

Returning from his paternity leave last week, your columnist was keen to get writing. After all, numerous studies say parents’ careers can suffer after they have children. Best to immediately dispel any notion that his might do so. But then he remembered that he is a man, and went to get a coffee. For the […]

In some parts of the world, not least America’s capital, “trade” is a dirty word. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden now champion protectionism, and neither president signed a single new trade deal. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a shell of its former self. So you might think that trade deals are history—but in […]

It is the million-person mystery, and its solution will help determine just how strong American growth truly is. According to an official survey of employers, America’s economy has added 1.2m jobs in net terms since the start of the year. But a separate survey of households paints a completely different picture: that the country has […]

Chinese officials seem pleased with the yuan’s recent progress as a global currency. The international monetary system is diversifying at an accelerating pace, said Pan Gongsheng, the governor of China’s central bank, in March. The yuan has become the fourth-most active currency in global payments, he noted. In trade finance, it now ranks third. An

Ahead of America’s election in November, company bosses, financiers and diplomats are busy calling on Donald Trump’s allies, trying to divine the economic policies that the former president will pursue if he is re-elected. But there is one man in Mr Trump’s orbit who holds more sway than most and who, for now, is virtually […]

Investors in China’s stockmarket have been doing handsomely this year. The Shanghai composite index has risen by 13% from a multi-year low in February, notwithstanding a recent drop. Equity analysts and state media alike are cheering. For Xi Jinping, China’s leader, the rally was a relief, since retail investors own at least 80% of the […]

A new paper suggests the answer is “yes”

Many people have experienced the joy of finding some spare change down the back of the sofa. On May 30th the World Bank experienced something similar, if on a grander scale. After rooting around in 176 countries, it discovered almost $7trn in extra global GDP—equivalent to an extra France and a Mexico. In fact, there […]

Days after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Raiffeisen, an Austrian bank, said it was considering selling its business in Russia. Twenty-seven months later, the lender’s unit in the country is doing rather well. Its staff has grown to nearly 10,000, a 7% rise since 2022. Last year its profit reached €1.8bn ($2bn)—more than any of […]

“Equities in Dallas,” cried the traders in “Liar’s Poker”, an account by Michael Lewis of his life as a junior banker in the late 1980s. Demotion from New York to the backwater of Texas would be a humiliation. Who wants to sling shares to yokels? Times may be changing. On June 4th an upstart Texas […]

On June 7th each share in Nvidia will become many. In one sense such stock splits ought not to matter much: they merely lower the share price, usually returning it to somewhere near $100, in order to make small trades easier. Yet for the company and its long-time backers this administrative exercise is cause to […]

Nothing has been able to stop American consumers. At first they splashed covid-19 savings on home-exercise bicycles; now they are more likely to plump for beachside holidays. Predictions, made by bank bosses last summer, that households would be squeezed by inflation have been confounded. Instead, their outlays have powered American GDP ever higher

Twenty years ago Joshua Cooper Ramo, a consultant, first wrote about the “Beijing consensus”. The Washington consensus of financial liberalisation, floating currencies and openness to foreign capital was, he posited, a damaged brand. China was pioneering its own approach to development based on principles of equality, innovation and a relentless fo

When William Nordhaus, who would later win a Nobel prize in economics, modelled the interaction between the economy and the atmosphere he represented the “damage function”—an estimate of harm done by an extra unit of warming—as a wiggly line. So little was known about the costs of climate change that he called it “terra incognita”, […]

How to explain the disparity? India’s economy is growing astonishingly fast, Bangalore and Mumbai have become destinations for bosses of global financial firms and Narendra Modi trumpets the country’s appeal in his electoral campaign. Given the enthusiasm, surely foreign money is flooding into the country. Not quite. In April foreign investors dump

What China’s leader may learn from a pair of reform-minded academics

Buying art can be a nerve-racking experience. But investors have long been able to console themselves with the thought that, if their purchase plummets in value, they will at least have something nice on their wall. Now they can also console themselves that they will have something to borrow against. That is because there has […]

Watch professionals play poker, and one of the first things to strike you is how often they fold when the game has barely begun. Rounds of Texas Hold’em, a popular variant, start with each player being dealt two cards and then deciding whether to bet on them. Amateurs are more likely to proceed than not, […]

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group that produces 40% of the world’s crude, wants to keep oil prices high and stable. Lately they have certainly been stable, even if not that high. Despite the recent death of Iran’s president and the escalating war in Gaza, prices of Brent […]

Baby-boomers were born between 1946 and 1964—and are the luckiest generation in history. Most of the cohort, which numbers 270m across the rich world, have not fought wars. Some got to see the Beatles live. They grew up during strong economic growth. Not all are rich, but in aggregate they have amassed great wealth, owing […]

Three decades ago much of the housing in China’s cities belonged to state-owned enterprises, which provided homes to workers at low rents. A lot has changed since then. China is now blessed, if that is the right word, with a sprawling commercial property market, which has produced vast numbers of flats and equal amounts of […]

At last, it seemed time for a manufacturing take-off. Having struggled to compete with China’s industrial might, other emerging markets stood ready to benefit as their rival’s labour costs surged and rising tensions between it and the West pushed firms to look for new factory locations. Last year foreign direct investment into China fell to [&helli

As one of the leaders of the passive-investing revolution, BlackRock is usually a disruptive force in the financial world. But the asset-management giant’s battle with Saba Capital, an activist fund, has cast it in an unfamiliar role: as besieged incumbent. Ten of BlackRock’s investment vehicles, known as closed-end funds, are in Saba’s sights. The

If current forecasts are accurate, 2064 will be the first year in centuries when fewer babies are born than people die. Birth rates in India will fall to below the level seen in America last year. Even with immigration and successful pro-natal policies, America’s population will only have a little bit of growth left. By […]