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 Leaky War: How Rachel Reeves and the OBR came to blows December 4, 2025 Between 5:16am and 11:30am on the day of the Budget, as Rachel Reeves was putting the finishing touches to her House of Commons speech, 7 audacious internet users made 44 attempts to break into the servers of Britain’s fiscal watchdog to get an early glimpse of her plans. An hour before Reeves stood up in [...]
Birthday cookies and fine dining: Inside the law firm aiming for 5-Star service December 4, 2025 There are not many office buildings in the City where, just five feet in the door, you receive a personalised greeting, but Addleshaw Goddard’s client services team would put The Ritz to shame. How to stand out in a crowded field? That is the question plaguing most law firms as they battle to grow in [...]
Exclusive: Goldman Sachs, Oaktree and Carlyle to take part in private credit stress test December 3, 2025 Goldman Sachs, Oaktree and Carlyle will take part in the Bank of England’s inaugural stress test of the burgeoning private credit sector this week, City AM can reveal. Britain’s central bank is poised to carry out its first ever “system-wide exploratory scenario exercise” of so-called shadow banks in the coming weeks, in a bid to [...]
Paragon Banking chief eyes acquisitions after capital boost December 3, 2025 The boss of Paragon Banking Group has acquisitions in mind after the lender received a major tailwind from regulatory reforms this year. Nigel Terrington has said the loosening of banks’ capital requirement rules, known as MREL (minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities), will open up further growth prospects for mid-cap lenders. The boss [...]
Businesses shed staff at ‘fastest rate since February’ December 3, 2025 Businesses laid off staff at the fastest rate in nine months as growth in the UK economy suffered a “renewed slowdown”, new data has indicated. S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for November suggested growth marginally changed over the month, with researchers pointing the finger at pre-Budget speculation keeping bosses on edge. The composite PMI [...]
Why Britain is a nation of bad sports investors December 3, 2025 Britain loves sport, but our approach to funding it is fundamentally flawed. We spend heavily on pitches, clubs and community programmes, yet much of that money vanishes into a black hole of short-term fixes. Simply put, we are bad sports investors because we treat funding as charity rather than a catalyst for growth. It’s not [...]
FTSE 100 Live: HSBC names new chair; Bloomsbury and Google tie-up December 3, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Are we on the verge of another financial crisis? It’s quite the eerie question but it was one of many posed to the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey following the latest financial stability report on Tuesday. The head of the central Bank [...]
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 [...]
Natwest chief: UK ‘closer to start than finish line’ on regulation mission December 2, 2025 The government’s mission to overhaul regulation still has a long distance to go, the boss of Natwest has said, as he warned of “trade-offs” in the pursuit of cutting red tape. Paul Thwaite, the chief executive of Natwest, praised the government and the City watchdog in edging forward in its regulation mission, referencing recent changes [...]