Raphael Stevens

Attendees arrive at the auditorium of the CHI Health Center during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, US, on Saturday, May 6, 2023. 
David Williams | Bloomberg | Getty Images

For decades, Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting — Warren Buffett’s “Woodstock for Capitalists” — has attracted foreign investors traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, sometimes from thousands of miles away. This year, their international trip has a new wrinkle to it.
Xin Jin, a Chinese investor in Guangzhou, wanted to pay his second visit to Omaha this May but international travel in the current political climate worried him. In 2012, he poured half his assets into Berkshire’s stock, which became one of the most profitable names in his portfolio.

“I really want to go to Omaha this year,” Jin said. “I admire Buffett and I’m very touched by him.”
A consumer-focused Chinese investor in Shanghai who didn’t want to be named but who has attended the annual meeting three times, also said the hostile political environment kept him from traveling this year. Another Chinese shareholder noted there are fewer third-party agencies organizing trips to Omaha this time. One shareholder in Jakarta, Indonesia, who attended last year decided to stay home, saying he’s concerned about “unnecessary and unfounded issues with customs.”
This year’s meeting comes after President Donald Trump launched a global trade war in the early days of his second term, intensifying political tensions between the U.S. and other nations. China, in particular, has issued a risk alert for Chinese tourists traveling to the U.S., citing recent “deterioration of China-U.S. economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the U.S.”
“What I noticed the last couple of years, the demographics of the shareholders tilted a lot more towards international — shareholders being there for the first time, largely international and very young,” said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland, who once held private lunches for his students and Buffett.
Berkshire’s annual gathering can attract as many as 40,000 people to the Cornhusker State for a unique opportunity to hear from Buffett, his designated successor Greg Abel and Berkshire’s insurance chief, Ajit Jain. The Q&A session will be broadcast on CNBC and webcast in English and Mandarin.

Buffett, 94, has long acknowledged the growing international representation at his annual gathering. In fact, he and his late partner, Charlie Munger, used to hold special receptions for those traveling from outside North America. He eventually ended the event as the number of foreign attendees grew.
“Our count grew to about 800 last year, and my simply signing one item per person took about 2 1⁄2 hours,” Buffett said in annual letter in 2009. “Since we expect even more international visitors this year, Charlie and I decided we must drop this function. But be assured, we welcome every international visitor who comes.”
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng.

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“The modern financial system is broken, it’s slow, it’s expensive,” Eric Trump told CNBC in the UAE.
The executive vice president of the Trump Organization has made frequent visits to the desert sheikhdom in recent years as it rapidly becomes a global hub for cryptocurrency.
A vocal advocate of digital currencies, the younger Trump lauded decentralized finance as a way to bypass the costs and lack of privacy of traditional banks.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Eric Trump has a warning for banks: change the way you operate, or go extinct.
“The modern financial system is broken, it’s slow, it’s expensive,” the executive vice president of the Trump Organization told CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Dubai while discussing the United Arab Emirates’ development as a cryptocurrency hub.

“There’s nothing that can be done on blockchain that can’t be done better than the way that the current financial institutions are working. SWIFT is an absolute disaster,” Eric Trump said on Tuesday, referring to the global international messaging network for financial transactions.
He lambasted what he described as the slowness and inefficiency of the traditional banking system, calling it “antiquated” — a criticism held by many, especially crypto enthusiasts.
The second son of U.S. President Donald Trump has made frequent visits to the UAE in recent years amid expanding Trump-branded real estate projects in the country and wider Gulf region — and as the desert sheikhdom rapidly becomes a global hub for cryptocurrency.
A vocal advocate of digital currencies, Eric Trump in December predicted that bitcoin would reach $1 million while attending the Bitcoin MENA 2024 conference in Abu Dhabi. 

Crypto markets have proven to be highly volatile amid a sell-off of risk assets, stoked by President Trump’s trade tariffs imposed on countries worldwide. Bitcoin was trading around $95,357 late Tuesday.

“Our banking system favors the ultra-wealthy,” Eric Trump said. “And what actually got me into [cryptocurrency] is the fact I realized our banking system was weaponized against the vast majority of people in our country, either the people that don’t have the zeros on their balance sheet, or people who might have worn that red hat that said ‘Make America Great Again.’ And it forced me into the crypto world. And I’m telling you, if the banks don’t watch what’s coming, they’re going to be extinct in 10 years.”

A new era for crypto?

His criticism of banks comes as the sector attempts to navigate the rapidly growing cryptocurrency industry, which is decentralizing finance and eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries like banks.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms enable peer-to-peer transactions with competitive or zero transaction processing and account fees, which have typically been a source of revenue for traditional banks.
“You can open up a DeFi app right now, you can open up any cryptocurrency app, and you can send money, wallet to wallet, instantaneously, without the expense, without the variability” of banks, Eric Trump said.
Some financial giants, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, have launched blockchain networks and crypto trading desks in response to the growing popularity of digital currencies.

Still, critics of the relatively new asset class warn that its lack of regulation, security vulnerabilities, volatility and limited consumer protections pose serious risks for users.

The Trump administration has vowed to ring in a booming era for the crypto industry, and both President Trump and his wife Melania have launched their own meme coins, leading to concerns from ethics experts about potential conflicts of interest. The Trump family is also at the helm of crypto platform World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded with real estate billionaire and current White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Eric Trump and his older brother Donald Trump Jr. recently announced plans to launch a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin through World Liberty Financial, and in March launched a new bitcoin mining company called American Bitcoin, co-founded with Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot.
The UAE, meanwhile, continues to attract international crypto investors, startups, exchanges, and highly-attended events in the sector, thanks in large part to supportive government regulations for the crypto industry. Eric Trump and others in both the Trump Organization and the White House administration have lauded their relationships with Arab Gulf leaders, praising what they see as key growth markets with pro-business policies.

Eric Trump’s comments come ahead of his father’s planned visit to the Gulf region from May 13 to 16, during which he is expected to stop in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Trump will be the first U.S. president to visit the Emirati sheikhdom since George W. Bush in 2008. 
The trip is emblematic of the Trump administration’s warm ties with Gulf governments; during his first presidential term, President Trump’s first overseas visit was to Saudi Arabia. More

Swiss giant UBS on Wednesday beat bottom line expectations amid sharp returns in investment banking.
The lender said it delivered a 32% year-on-year hike in revenues of the global markets unit of its investment banking arm, largely driven by “higher client activity in equities and FX with gains across all regions.”
Investors are keenly watching these metrics as European banks transition to an environment of monetary easing

The three keys USB logo is seen outside the London office of Swiss bank UBS in central London, on March 20, 2023.
Daniel Leal | AFP | Getty Images

wiss giant UBS on Wednesday beat bottom line expectations amid sharp returns in investment banking while warning of the global trade impact of sweeping U.S. tariffs as it seeks to rein in steep share declines.
Net profit attributable to shareholders hit $1.692 billion in the first quarter, compared with a mean forecast of $1.359 billion in a LSEG poll of analysts. Group revenue over the stretch stood at $12.557 billion, versus analyst expectations of $12.99 billion.

Other first-quarter highlights included:

Return on tangible equity reached 8.5%, versus 3.9% in the fourth quarter.
CET 1 capital ratio, a measure of bank solvency, was 14.3%, unchanged from the December quarter.

The lender said it delivered a 32% year-on-year hike in revenues of the global markets unit of its investment banking arm, largely driven by “higher client activity in equities and FX with gains across all regions.” It also achieved a 15% hike in transaction-based hike in income in its key global wealth management unit.
Speaking to CNBC’s Carolin Roth on Wednesday, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti recognized a “challenging environment” in the first quarter, with a spate of “definitely extremely volatile” first few weeks in April that underpinned spikes in the volume of transactions that at times exceeded Covid-19 levels by 30%.

Critically, the lender posted $1.629 billion in its net interest income (NII) — the difference between earnings from loans and investments and the payments on deposits —  down 16% year-on-year and 11% from the fourth quarter, guiding for further declines in the June quarter.
“In the second quarter we expect net interest income (NII) in Global Wealth Management to decline sequentially by a low single-digit percentage, and we see a similar decline in Personal & Corporate Banking’s NII in Swiss francs. In US dollar terms, Personal & Corporate Banking’s NII is expected to increase sequentially by a mid-single-digit percentage, based on current foreign exchange rates,” UBS said.

Investors are keenly watching these metrics as European banks transition to an environment of monetary easing, particularly in Switzerland, which has been combating a strong franc and depressed inflation with interest rates as low as 0.25%.
Ermotti said he is “not overly concerned” about interest rate movements.
“I think that we are now in a situation where it’s almost like a neutral, fairly boring zone,” he noted. “If rates go up or down from here in Swiss francs, then we’re going to see a potential pick up in NII. But it’s premature to talk about if and when this will materialize.”
Separately, UBS on Wednesday confirmed it had completed $500 million in share buybacks and intended to press ahead with a $2.5 billion repurchase plan for the remainder of 2025.
“Overall a decent set of results, albeit boosted by non-core gains and heightened trading activity in both IB and GWM, all of which may not be sustainable, whereas NII has missed expectations again,” Citi analysts said in a Wednesday note after UBS reported.
The lender’s shares were up 1.64% at 08:30 a.m. London time.

Tariff outlook

Deposed this month as continental Europe’s largest bank by market capitalization by Banco Santander, UBS has suffered share declines of roughly 10% in the year to date, with the brunt of losses logged after the White House’s imposition of tariffs on global trade partners on April 2.
Switzerland faces a 31% duty if it fails to agree a more conciliatory trade deal by the end of Washington’s 90-day reprieve in early July. Comparatively, the European Union was hit with 20% in U.S. levies.
Tensions with Washington and a potential recessionary outlook for the world’s largest economy spell trouble for the Swiss banking giant and its money-spinning global wealth management division, with around half of UBS’ invested assets concentrated in the broader Americas region last year.

“Rapid and significant changes to trade tariffs, heightened risk of escalation and significantly increased macroeconomic uncertainty led to major market volatility in the first weeks of April,” UBS said Wednesday. “With a wide range of possible outcomes, the economic path forward is particularly unpredictable. The prospect of higher tariffs on global trade presents a material risk to global growth and inflation, clouding the interest rate outlook.”
It flagged the possibility of “further spikes in volatility” as markets remain sensitive to new tariffs-led developments, noting that “Prolonged uncertainty would affect sentiment and cause businesses and investors to delay important decisions on strategy, capital allocation and investments.”
“You look at the last 10 days or so, I think there is a little bit of fatigue coming in. I think that investors are now waiting in a wait-and-see mode. Markets have settled down … people are waiting for significant news,” UBS’ Ermotti told CNBC. “But I do expect spikes of volatilities to come back as positive or negative news unfold.”
The picture of UBS’ long-term profitability remains darkened by questions over potential new — and more draconian — capital requirements from Swiss authorities, which have questioned the Swiss titan’s “too big to fail” status since its absorption of collapsed domestic rival Credit Suisse. The transaction — which one politician at the time dubbed the “deal of the century” — has propelled UBS down the path of maximum resistance against further restrictions, which it argues would undermine its competitiveness as an already adequately capitalized entity.

“UBS’s lobbying is both visible and unmistakable. It’s clearly resonating in various places. But once again: the Federal Council cannot be intimidated by lobbying, but must also represent the interests of taxpayers,” Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter told broadcaster SRF last month, according to a Google translation.
“The Federal Council has one goal: that in the event of a crisis, a UBS that is systemically important is resolvable. This means that the systemically important parts of the bank can be separated in Switzerland. That must be the goal of the Federal Council and the new legislation.”
UBS is expected to engage with the Swiss Federal Council over any proposed capital requirement changes in June.
Speaking about UBS’ odds of competitiveness in the broader Swiss regulatory environment, Ermotti said, “We are not magicians. We are not going to be able to be competitive and provide and be an engine of growth for the financial center, but also for the economy, if the regulatory framework is not competitive.” More

British bank Barclays’ pre-tax profit came in at £2.7 billion ($3.6 billion), up 11% year-on-year and ahead of analyst expectations of £2.49 billion.
CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said he was expecting “fairly high market volatility” as a result of U.S. trade policy going forward.
He added that the lender was prepared for a range of scenarios, including economic slowdowns in the U.K. or U.S.

British bank Barclays on Wednesday reported slight beats on the top and bottom line in the first quarter, boosted by stronger investment bank performance.
Pre-tax profit came in at £2.7 billion ($3.6 billion), up 11% year-on-year and ahead of analyst expectations of £2.49 billion, according to LSEG. Group revenues hit £7.7 billion, above an analyst projection of £7.33 billion.

Income from investment banking, its most profitable division, increased 16% to £3.87 billion.
Barclays’ return on tangible equity, a measure of profitability, reached 14 % in the first quarter, after averaging 7.5% in the December quarter.
Shares were 2% higher in early deals in London.
Key to investors is how Barclays navigates its sizable U.S. exposure in the market storm unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade tariffs. Notably, Barclays has had a significant presence Stateside since acquiring the investment banking and capital markets businesses of collapsed Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers for $1.75 billion.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said he was expecting “fairly high market volatility” going forward.

“It’s calmer now but I imagine it will continue to go up and down. Beyond that, as you’ve seen in our results, that market volatility helps us help clients manage their risk, we can do so in a profitable way that helps them as well and helps markets income, as long as you manage your risk well,” he said, pointing to strong fixed income trading as a highlight from the earnings.
Venkatakrishnan continued, “I think, going forward, the longer this goes on, the greater economic uncertainty there is, which is putting companies off from making decisions. Individuals also take time to make decisions, you could have a risk of a slowdown in economic activity.”
“Even though we have a good starting point, we have to be prepared” for a range of scenarios, he told CNBC, including economic weakness in its major markets of the U.K. and the U.S.
The British lender’s U.S. consumer bank business has made strides, delivering a 9.1% return on tangible equity in 2024, from 4.1% in 2023. Income at the unit nudged 1% higher to £864 million in the first quarter, though profit before tax slid 7% to £55 million.

Stock chart icon

Barclays share price.

In a Wednesday note, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the pre-tax profit beat was driven by income but partially offset by higher than expected impairments.
The bank’s exposure to the U.S. consumer and investment banking is likely to weigh on the stock more than on other U.K. banks until the “rhetoric around global trade wars subsides,” they added.
Barclays shares took a steep tumble as the White House kicked off its trade war on April 2, but recovered thereafter and remain up more than 10% in the year to date — in sharp contrast to Swiss giant UBS, whose U.S. foothold and domestic concerns have led to a hemorrhage in stock value.
Barclays’ core U.K. consumer bank unit meanwhile posted 12% higher income of £484 million and 23% higher pre-tax profit of £207 million, supported by its acquisition of Tesco Bank.
Britain could receive a rare economic boon as a result of its divorce from the European Union, after the bloc was struck with 20% in — now briefly suspended — U.S. reciprocal tariffs in early April. London, which only faces 10% in such White House levies, is now attempting to leverage its historic transatlantic relationship and a broadly more balanced trade record with the U.S. to secure a sweeter commercial arrangement. However, a wider slowdown in global trade and growth is expected to weigh on the economy.
Barclays’ pressures at homes have eased, with behemoth HSBC announcing plans to wind down its M&A and equity capital markets businesses in the U.K., U.S. and Europe amid a revamp of its investment operations. And the British unit of Spanish lender Banco Santander — which dethroned UBS to become continental Europe’s largest bank by market capitalization in recent weeks — in March said that 750 of its staff were at risk of redundancy, as it targets 95 branch closures as part of a broader plan to update its footprint from June 2025.
While Santander insists that the U.K. remains a “core market,” the latest move has added to questions whether the Spanish lender intends to exit the British high street. More

Britain is at risk of losing budding fintech and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to rival hubs if it doesn’t work to address pressing challenges with regulation and funding, industry leaders say.
The country’s finance watchdog has faced criticisms that it’s become too restrictive of companies seeking to shake up the financial services landscape with digital technology.
“I think the U.K. will get it right — but there is a risk if you get it wrong that you drive innovation to other markets,” Keith Grose, Coinbase’s U.K. head, told CNBC.

Workers cross a junction near the Bank of England (BOE) in the City of London, UK, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. 
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON — Britain is at risk of losing budding fintech and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to rival hubs if it doesn’t address pressing regulation and funding challenges, according to industry leaders.
Several crypto bosses told CNBC this week that the U.K. has created an unfavorable environment for fintech and crypto. They argued that the local regulator takes too strict an approach to registering new firms, and that pension funds managing trillions of pounds are too risk-averse

Whereas a decade ago the U.K. was seen as being at “the forefront in terms of promoting competitiveness and innovation,” today things “have shifted more towards prioritizing safety and soundness to an extent where growth has been held behind,” according to Jaidev Janardana, CEO of British digital bank Zopa.
“If I look at the speed of innovation, I do feel that the U.S. is ahead — although they have their own challenges. But look at Singapore, Hong Kong — again, you see much more rapid innovation,” Janardana told CNBC. “I think we are still ahead of the EU, but we can’t remain complacent with that.”

Tim Levene, CEO of venture capital firm Augmentum Fintech, said entrepreneurs face challenges attracting funding in the U.K. and could be tempted to start their founding journeys in other regions, like Asia and the Middle East.
“We’re scrambling around looking for pots of capital in the U.K., where currently it would be more fruitful to go to the Gulf, to go to the U.S., to go to Australia, or elsewhere in Asia, and that that doesn’t feel right,” Levene told CNBC.
Lisa Jacobs, CEO of business lending platform Funding Circle, said that the negative impacts of Brexit are still being felt by the U.K. fintech industry — particularly when it comes to attracting overseas talent.

“I think it is right that we’re paranoid about other locations,” she told CNBC. “It is right that we are trying to — as an industry, as government — make the U.K. still that great place to set up. We have all the ingredients there, because we’ve got the ecosystem, we do have this talent setting up new businesses. But it needs to continue. We can’t rest on our laurels.”

Crypto rules unclear

The U.K. is home to a vibrant financial technology sector, with firms like Monzo and Revolut among those scaling to become challengers to traditional banks.
Industry insiders attribute their rapid rise in part to innovation-friendly rules that allowed tech startups to apply for — and secure — licenses to offer banking and electronic money services with greater ease.

Businesses operating in the world of crypto are frustrated that the same hasn’t happened yet for their industry.
“Other jurisdictions have started to seize the opportunity,” Cassie Craddock, U.K. and Europe managing director at blockchain firm Ripple, told CNBC.
The U.S., for example, has adopted a more pro-crypto stance under President Donald Trump, with the Securities and Exchange Commission dropping several high-profile legal cases against major crypto businesses.
The EU, meanwhile, has led the way when it comes to laying out clear rules for the industry with its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
“The U.S. is driving global tailwinds for the industry,” Craddock said, adding: “MiCA came into force in the EU at the end of last year, while Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE are moving full steam ahead with pro-industry reforms,” she added.
The U.K. on Tuesday laid out draft proposals for regulating crypto firms — however, industry insiders say the devil will be in the detail when it comes to addressing more complex technical issues, such as reserve requirements for stablecoins.

Rules on stablecoins unclear

One area in particular where fintech and crypto leaders alike want to see more clarity is stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to that of a sovereign currency.
Mark Fairless, CEO of payments infrastructure firm ClearBank, told CNBC that his business has been looking to develop its own stablecoin — but it’s been held back from launching one because of a lack of regulatory clarity.
Stablecoins are “part of our medium-term, longer-term strategy,” Fairless told CNBC. “We see ourselves well set up for that.” However, he added that a ClearBank stablecoin will only be possible when there’s regulatory certainty in the U.K. The startup is awaiting approval from the Bank of England.
Crypto industry insiders also say the FCA has been too restrictive when it comes to approving registrations from digital asset firms. The FCA is the regulator responsible for registering firms that want to provide crypto services within the scope of money laundering regulations in the U.K.
Last year, the watchdog published a roadmap detailing its plan to implement crypto regulation. The roadmap includes a series of discussion papers on topics ranging from stablecoins to crypto lending over the next two years. A full regulatory regime is expected to go live by 2026.

Another issue faced by crypto companies is that of being “debanked” by high street banks, according to Keith Grose, head of U.K. at Coinbase.
“Debanking is a huge issue — you can’t get bank accounts if you’re a company or individual who works in crypto,” Keith Grose, Coinbase’s U.K. head, told CNBC. “You can’t build the future of the financial system here if we don’t have that level playing field.”
A survey by Startup Coalition, Global Digital Finance and the U.K. Cryptoasset Business Council of more than 80 crypto firms published in January found that half were denied bank accounts or had existing ones closed by major banks.
“I think the U.K. will get it right — but there is a risk if you get it wrong that you drive innovation to other markets,” Coinbase’s Grose told CNBC.
“This is such a fast developing space — stablecoins grew 300% last year. They’re already doing more volume than Visa and Mastercard,” he added. “I think if you deliver smart regulation here, stablecoins can be a foundational part of our payment ecosystem in the U.K. going forward.” More