Aurelia Butler

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally.Description: Turkish authorities have raised the pressure on the country’s banks to limit corporate clients’ purchases of foreign currency, US consumer prices rose at an annual pace of 8.3 per cent last month, and the EU will have to spend close to €200bn in the next five years to secure energy independence from Russia. Plus, the FT’s Tabby Kinder explains why HSBC’s biggest shareholder is pressuring the bank to split up. Mentioned in this podcast:Turkey dials up the pressure on banks as lira slidesUS inflation stays at 40-year high defying expectations of bigger dropEU warns of €195bn cost to free bloc from Russian energyPeter Ma: China’s shy insurance tycoon bursts into the limelightSaudi Aramco overtakes Apple as the world’s most valuable companyThe FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon and Marc Filippino. The show’s editor is Jess Smith. Additional help by Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva, and Gavin Kallmann. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.Transcripts are not currently available for all podcasts, view our accessibility guide. More

Jefferson’s appointment was approved by a 91-7 vote with all of the no votes coming from Republicans. He is the fourth Black man to be a governor at the U.S. central bank. His term runs to 2036.Lawmakers on Thursday are expected to hand Jerome Powell a second term as Fed chair, though that confirmation vote is likely to be by a slimmer margin. However, that vote will amount not only to an endorsement of his handling of the pandemic crisis and the devastating 2020 recession that marked his first term, but also for the round of sharp interest rate hikes he began in March to fight the decades-high inflation that is marring his second.Jefferson was confirmed a day after Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote on the Senate floor to confirm another of President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Fed, Michigan State University’s Lisa Cook. She is the first Black woman to become a Fed governor. Two Black governors have never before served simultaneously on the Fed Board. For Jefferson, the confirmation marks a bit of a return to his roots: his first job after graduating from Vassar College in New York State was as a research assistant at the Fed. Before taking his current job at Davidson College in North Carolina, he taught economics for more than two decades at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and before that at Columbia University in New York. He has published research on monetary policy and written extensively on wages, poverty, and income distribution. The seven-member panel will still be one seat short of its full complement.Earlier this month Biden said he would nominate former Treasury official Michael Barr to be the Fed’s vice chair of supervision. His initial pick for the job, Sarah Bloom Raskin, withdrew her name after opposition from Republicans and one Democrat denied her a path to confirmation. More

TOKYO (Reuters) -A Bank of Japan policymaker said it was inappropriate to change monetary policy for the purpose of controlling exchange rates, a summary of opinions at the April meeting showed, brushing aside the idea of countering sharp yen falls with interest rate hikes.The yen’s slide to 20-year lows against the dollar has pushed up the cost of raw material imports, drawing concern among policymakers of the potential hit to Japan’s fragile economic recovery.Some market players believe the BOJ may tweak its ultra-loose policy to slow the yen’s decline, which is driven by rising interest rate differentials as the U.S. Federal Reserve embarks on aggressive rate hikes.”Among the factors behind the weak yen is the widening gap in economic conditions between Japan and Western countries. It’s inappropriate to change monetary policy for the purpose of controlling exchange rates,” one of the BOJ’s nine board members was quoted as saying in the summary, released on Thursday.”In guiding monetary policy, the BOJ must look at the impact of fluctuations in commodity prices and exchange rates on the economy and prices, rather than the price moves themselves,” another opinion showed.Several board members stressed the need to maintain the BOJ’s massive stimulus programme on the view any pick up in inflation will likely be temporary and driven mostly by rising raw material costs, the summary showed.”The BOJ must be mindful of the need to make its ultra-loose monetary policy sustainable if inflation remains short of its 2% target for a prolonged period,” one member was quoted as saying.At the April 27-28 meeting, the BOJ strengthened its commitment to keep interest rates ultra-low by vowing to buy unlimited amounts of bonds daily to defend its yield target, triggering a fresh sell-off in the yen. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors have been reducing valuations of Latin American startups during the global stock market rout and in an environment of higher interest rates, said Sergio Furio, founder of unicorn fintech Creditas.”Startups that raised cash at peak valuation, for example last July last year, will have to accept a reduction if they need more money this year”, said Furio. Following the public markets, multiples attributed to private companies fell. Shares of Latam’s largest fintech, digital bank Nubank, sank 60.6% this year. So startups are trying to conserve cash, Furio added. Creditas’ latest funding was in January, a $260 million round in which the valuation reached $4.8 billion. The fintech will not raise capital this year, Furio said in an interview with Reuters before meeting with investors in New York.The startup expects to moderate credit growth, as its consumers deal with higher inflation and lower disposable income. It also intends to present progress in the operation of Voltz, an electric motorbike maker in which Creditas invested 100 million reais.The investment banking unit of Latin America’s largest bank, Itau BBA, is hosting its first conference in New York with Latin American CEOs since the start of the pandemic, with around 150 companies headquartered in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Emerging market investors have been more interested in Latin America since the Ukraine war, as the region is relatively insulated from the higher geopolitical risks. They also have become more demanding.Alex Ibrahim, head of international markets at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), expects markets to reopen for new equity offerings from Latin America by September. “Investors are more selective, demanding a clear path to profitability from startups”, Ibrahim said. Investors are more cautious about companies that burn cash. While the market is closed, the NYSE has been working to prepare candidates, including tech and industrial companies, to come to markets when there is a window. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday approved a bill that seeks to invalidate a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) environmental review conducted as part of a deal to buy 50,000 mostly gas-powered next-generation delivery vehicles.House Oversight and Reform chair Carolyn Maloney said the bill would help USPS transition its “gas guzzling fleet to electric vehicles” and argued the USPS review that supported the purchases was faulty.Critics of the USPS plan want the postal service to buy more zero-emission electric delivery trucks. The White House and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have unsuccessfully asked the USPS to reconsider the deal.The bill would toss out the USPS environmental impact statement and compel it to conduct a new one. House Republican James Comer said the bill would cause a “reckless delay” in new USPS vehicles.USPS in March placed an initial $2.98 billion order for 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles from Oshkosh (NYSE:OSK), and doubled its planned electric vehicle (EV) purchases from 5,000 to 10,019 by 2026.USPS expects the new vehicles will begin appearing on carrier routes in late 2023. They will replace many 30-year-old vehicles without airbags or other safety features.USPS said Wednesday the bill “potentially would have the effect of delaying our vehicle replacement program by a year or more, and substantially increasing the cost.”The bill “takes steps in exactly the wrong financial and operational direction,” it said.USPS has more than 230,000 vehicles, including 190,000 that deliver mail.Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Reuters last month that USPS expects to receive about 5,000 vehicles in 2023 and about 21,000 a year after that, calling the order “a slam dunk,” given its urgent vehicle needs.”I have people out there that have trucks that are dangerous,” DeJoy said.He said in the near-term USPS needs gas-powered vehicles and said the purchase was “a very, very logical decision based on our math for our business.”USPS said in 2021 it could buy up to 165,000 vehicles from Oshkosh over 10 years but DeJoy told Reuters USPS considering various options for vehicle purchases after the initial 50,000.Last month, 16 states and others filed suit seeking to block USPS’s vehicle plan, arguing it failed to comply with environmental regulations.DeJoy, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, was named as postmaster general in 2020 by the Postal Service’s governing board. More

By Sinead CruiseLONDON (Reuters) – Citigroup (NYSE:C) is looking for a new senior manager within its Delta One operations, a trading unit that sells financial products to sophisticated investors, according to three people familiar with the matter and a job advertisement posted by the bank last week.So-called Delta One desks target investors such as pension funds, hedge funds and blue chip corporate clients.Citi is looking to name a new Head of Forward Trading based at its European headquarters in London, a job vacancy posted on professional networking site LinkedIn shows.The search follows the departure of Ali Omari, who was EMEA Head of Delta One Forwards and Sectors, one of the Delta One units, according to Omari and two sources familiar with the matter.Citi’s broader Delta One operations have been linked to a trading blunder that led to a market flash crash on May 2, the two sources said. But Omari was not involved in the event and his departure was unrelated, according to Omari and the two sources. Omari told Reuters on Tuesday that he was not at work for three weeks prior to the May 2 flash crash, and only returned to the office on May 3 to tender his resignation from the bank before taking up another opportunity.Reuters was unable to independently verify who was responsible for the flash crash and has no evidence to suggest that Omari played any role in the trading error that caused that event. A spokesperson for Citi declined to comment on the timing of the hiring plans in its Delta One operations beyond confirming the vacancy.Two of the sources familiar with the matter said the bank’s Delta One trading activities were connected to, although not responsible for, the data input blunder that caused the pan-European STOXX 600 equity benchmark to fall by more than 2 percentage points in around two minutes of trading.Citi has previously confirmed that one of its employees was behind the error that led to the market fall, but has not given details on which teams played a role. A spokesperson for Citi declined to comment on this again on Wednesday.Citi has said it is pursuing a revamp of its risk management and controls systems. It is still subject to at least two consent orders by U.S. regulators related to its internal controls after the United States’ Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) lifted a 10-year-old order in late April. More

Bonus payments stand at their highest since 2013 as a share of UK earnings, as employers seek ways to pay workers for higher living costs without committing to inflation-busting wage deals.Andrew Bailey, Bank of England governor, warned last week that intensifying pay pressures were one of the main reasons the central bank was worried high inflation would persist. “The first, second and third thing they want to talk about . . . is the tightness of the labour market. The challenges they’re having in recruitment and what that means for pay,” he said, referring to feedback from business leaders.Underlying wage growth was already running at an annual rate of around 4 per cent: well above pre-pandemic levels, although far short of inflation, according to the BoE. It warned that it was likely to pick up further over the next few months because many companies were considering awarding mid-year top-ups to pay settlements or one-off bonuses to help them retain staff.The latest official data suggest employers have increasingly been using discretionary awards to compete for scarce workers, while trying to limit the overall rise in their wage bill. Bonus payments made up around 7 per cent of average weekly earnings in the three months to February, the highest proportion since 2013. This was partly owing to a bounce-back in bankers’ bonuses, after a lean year in 2021, but pay experts said the trend also extended to sectors where big bonuses are less typical.British Airways last month adopted practices used last year by employers struggling to hire HGV drivers, nurses and warehouse workers with the airline offering new cabin crew a £1,000 welcome bonus as it seeks to address staff shortages that have forced it to cancel thousands of flights.Duncan Brown, an independent adviser on reward management, said the use of sign-on bonuses and retention payments in these sectors and other industries, such as hospitality, was “unprecedented”. In professional services bonuses were increasingly being guaranteed rather than linked to performance, he added, while big tech companies were also relying more on cash bonuses because falls in their share prices had reduced the value of stock options. “Pay awards are definitely only part of the picture at the moment,” said Sheila Attwood, a managing editor at the HR research firm XpertHR, who has seen many companies offering new recruits higher salaries than incumbents, while awarding time-limited “market supplements” to staff with key skills on top of the base pay rise offered to all employees.Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), said many companies were offering staff more flexibility around homeworking as a way of addressing cost-of-living concerns. It cuts commuting costs so “in this environment hybrid is more attractive,” he added.However, pay experts said employers were increasingly accepting that they would need to bring their basic pay awards closer in line with inflation — given mounting evidence of people on low incomes missing meals or falling into debt to pay for essentials as living costs climb. “Most organisations have recognised that the typical 3 per cent annual raise is not going to cut it this year,” said Tom Hellier, an adviser on rewards at the HR consultancy Willis Towers Watson. Brown added: “If anything now, the emphasis is shifting back from variable to fixed pay.”A monthly survey of recruiters, published by the REC on Thursday, showed the proportion reporting higher starting salaries for both permanent and temporary staff remained near record levels in April.Carberry said this showed “how broad-based” pay pressures were across the economy. Given the scale of the squeeze on household incomes, for most companies, the pre-pandemic norm of a 2 to 3 per cent annual pay deal “doesn’t feel sustainable”, he added. More