Growing threats to UK financial stability December 4, 2025 What keeps you up at night? For the governor of the Bank of England it’s a long list of threats to the UK’s financial system – so let’s take a look at them. The Bank of England’s latest financial stability report makes for a sobering read. It says “risks to financial stability have increased during [...]
The 68p lawsuit that threatened to upend the British bond market December 3, 2025 In 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority set out to modernise the bond market. A noble ambition. But as many seasoned City execs will tell you, noble ambitions from regulators don’t always work out how they were intended. The FCA proposed to introduce what’s known in industry jargon as a consolidated tape – a system which [...]
Bank of England sounds alarm on leveraged hedge fund bond bets December 3, 2025 The Bank of England has sounded the alarm on international hedge funds snapping up record levels of UK government debt, warning that their highly leveraged bets leave Britain increasingly exposed to a bond market meltdown. In its biannual Financial Stability Report, the central bank said the large share of UK government debt held by risk-seeking asset [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Starmer denies Budget ‘misleading’ as Reeves on brink December 1, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. It was quite the Budget week to end November and for many more questions were created than answered. Whilst Labour might’ve hoped it would be be their rallying moment – with the lifting of the two-child benefit cap and doubling of the Chancellor’s fiscal buffer [...]
Autumn Budget: Investor confidence crisis ‘remains live’ December 1, 2025 The likelihood of an investor confidence crisis in UK assets after last week’s Autumn Budget “remains live” and markets will “gradually lose faith” in the government’s fiscal plans despite the initial reaction being largely positive, an economics consultancy has said. A fresh analysis published by Oxford Economics said the government’s frontloaded spending and backloaded tax [...]
Bond market braces for gilt and sterling tremors November 26, 2025 Bond market participants are bracing for a fresh round of turbulence in the aftermath of Wednesday’s Budget, with investors rejigging their exposure to gilts having warned the Chancellor’s fiscal plans are “very much under the microscope”. Rachel Reeves is expected to use her second major fiscal shake-up mount a historic tax and spend consolidation in [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Budget and bubbles continue to set agenda November 17, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. We are now just over a week out from the Labour government’s second Budget and last week rogue Westminster briefings sent ripples through markets. After continuous weeks and media outings teasing a manifesto-breaking income tax hike, the government rowed back with several reports pointing to [...]
Reeves and Starmer are now at the mercy of the markets November 13, 2025 A government elected on competence and stability may now gamble both to stave off internal revolt. For investors, the message is that British politics has not regained the calm that markets briefly hoped for, says Helen Thomas The markets once again have a starring role on the stage of political intrigue. Allies of the Prime [...]
IMF sounds alarm on soaring sovereign debt October 15, 2025 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged governments to bear down on profligate spending after it found government debt was on course to reach 100 per cent of global GDP within the next five years. In its latest Fiscal Monitor report, the world’s preeminent financial institution sounded the alarm on developed and developing nations’ over-reliance [...]
How Reeves could ‘trigger’ bond market fright and collapse UK economy October 9, 2025 Poor decisions made by Rachel Reeves at the next Budget could send the UK economy into a crisis if her announcements trigger a collapse in bond markets’ confidence, according to a scenario played out by analysts at Oxford Economics. Rachel Reeves has pledged to drive growth in the UK and lower the cost of living [...]