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The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), the EU's financial stability watchdog, is examining the risks private ‌credit poses to the region's banks and economy, according to Richard Portes, a member of the board's advisory committee and ​co-chair of a recently launched credit taskforce. He said this would involve assessing the potential of private credit to ⁠spread or amplify financial shocks and its interconnectedness with Europe's financial system. "It is those linkages ​that we as the ESRB and any macro-prudential authority will worry about. We want to know where the ​interconnections are. And honestly, not much is yet known about that," he said.

 

Reuters

Research from the New ‌York Federal Reserve based on a new database powered by AI indicates that bank runs become more problematic when financial institutions' broader underlying health is ​under challenge. "Poor bank fundamentals are necessary for bank ⁠runs to translate into failure and for bank ​distress to generate severe economic distress," the research said, ​adding that "although runs can occur in both weak and strong banks, poor fundamentals are necessary for runs to result ​in bank failures."

 

Reuters

Global growth is forecast to decline from 3.5% in 2025 to 3% in 2026 before climbing back to 3.4% in 2027, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. The IMF identified an increased dependence on AI and renewable energy as two factors that helped offset the negative impact of the US-Iran war on the global economy. “The global economy as a whole has, so far, weathered the shock from the war better than feared,” the organisation's researchers said. “Movements in and repercussions from the main channels of transmission - commodity prices, inflation expectations, and financial conditions - have been relatively limited.”

 

The Hill

Financial Times

Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who was personally blacklisted by Beijing five years ago, has said that the Netherlands and China were cooperating "extremely well" to resolve a dispute involving chipmaker Nexperia, as he sought to reset ties during the first visit by ​a Dutch trade minister to China since 2018. The Dutch government last year partly took control of the chipmaker amid concerns that key intellectual property could be transferred to China. "We had a ⁠frank discussion, but also forward-looking, because I think both of us wanted to make a clean ​break with the previous period in which there were a lot of frictions and a lot ​of problems," Sjoerdsma told Reuters after meeting Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

 

NL Times

DutchNews

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it has significantly improved efficiency by using AI, cutting the processing time for less complex supervisory cases from up to four hours to an average of six minutes. The regulator is deploying AI to speed up its authorisations process as part of a strategy to become a faster, more data-driven regulator. In its annual report, the FCA said chair Ashley Alder and chief executive Nikhil Rathi believe the organisation has made a strong start on its new five-year strategy, despite its proposed £9.1bn motor finance mis-selling redress scheme being delayed by legal challenges. The report also highlighted rising financial crime risks, with reported investment fraud losses more than doubling to £1.2bn last year. The FCA said suspicious share trading took place before 41% of UK takeover announcements, up from 38% a year earlier. The watchdog said this was “just one indicator of possible insider trading” and there could be other factors behind it. Whistleblowing reports increased 22% to 1,375, leading to 523 instances of direct regulatory action.

 

Financial Times

The Times

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found that many financial firms are making positive changes under the Consumer Duty by designing products and services that better meet customers' needs, including those of vulnerable consumers. The regulator said firms are increasingly researching customer needs when developing products and using "negative target markets" to identify customers for whom products are unsuitable. However, it found some firms need to improve how they define target markets, oversee third-party providers, and support vulnerable customers after identifying them. The FCA said well-designed products help consumers make informed choices, receive fair value and achieve better outcomes, while poor product design can lead to confusion, complaints and reduced trust.

 

The Standard

As Europe faces extreme heat, unions are advocating for new laws to protect workers from heat stress. They are calling for enforceable workplace thermal limits, based on the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), along with mandatory job site heat risk assessments, rights to heat breaks, outdoor shade, water, cooling and adjusted working hours to be included in a forthcoming quality jobs law, in a draft directive text seen by the Guardian. Enrico Somaglia, the general secretary of the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (Effat), said: “Climate change is no longer a distant environmental challenge, it is a daily occupational health and safety risk, as well as a threat to job stability. The current European legal framework is clearly not sufficient to defend against it.”

 

The Guardian

Tesco is exploring a sale of its operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in a move that would mark the retailer's exit from mainland Europe and end its three-decade ambition to build a global supermarket business. The company is understood to be working with advisers on its options, although it declined to comment on market speculation. The division operates 561 stores and employs more than 22,000 people, generating £4.5bn of revenue and £115m of adjusted operating profit last year, compared with group revenue of £66.6bn and adjusted operating profit of £3.2bn. Proceeds from a disposal could strengthen Tesco's ability to invest in lower prices, technology and shareholder returns as it focuses on defending its leading position in the UK grocery market.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

City AM

Indorama Ventures Group's decision to close its Steinfort facility has sparked outrage among Luxembourg's trade unions, who have called it "completely unacceptable." The closure will affect nearly 100 jobs and is the largest industrial site closure in Luxembourg in nearly 20 years. Unions highlighted the personal tragedy for employees of the multinational chemical company, and have requested urgent meetings with government ministers to discuss alternatives. Indorama cited competitive pressures and deteriorating margins as reasons for the closure, which follows the closure last month of an Indorama Ventures facility in Longlaville.

 

Luxembourg Times

The European Commission has referred Hungary to the European Court of Justice over its retail price cap on food and drugstore products, arguing the policy unfairly targets mainly foreign-owned retailers and breaches EU rules. The measures, which introduced a 10% cap on retail margins for 30 staple food products in March 2025, have since been extended, expanded and made permanent. The Commission said Hungary's approach incorrectly assumes the difference between purchase and selling prices represents retailers' profits, without accounting for operating costs such as wages, property and taxes. Hungary has previously defended the policy as a tool to combat inflation and has indicated it is prepared to challenge the EU's position.

 

Reuters

Victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams in the UK received £243m in reimbursements from payment companies last year, according to the Payment Systems Regulator. APP scams involve consumers being deceived into sending money to seemingly legitimate parties. In 2024, new rules mandated that payment companies must reimburse victims up to £85,000. The regulator is set to be merged into the Financial Conduct Authority.

 

The Times

Workers in London are most at risk of job losses due to AI, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The study reveals that three-quarters of jobs in the capital are "highly exposed" to AI, meaning that more than half of the daily tasks involved can be performed by the technology. The report also found the UK is lagging behind the EU, US, Canada and Australia in growth of AI hiring, while vacancies in AI-exposed occupations have fallen since the pandemic. Although AI's impact on young workers currently appears limited, the OECD said graduates face growing pressure from automation and offshoring. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "AI presents real opportunities - from driving economic growth to improving public services - but also brings with it new challenges, including the potential impact on London's labour market." He warned earlier this year that AI could become a "weapon of mass destruction of jobs" if not properly controlled or used for "positive transformation."

 

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

City AM

The I

Coty has agreed to transfer its Gucci beauty licence back to Kering around a year ahead of schedule in a deal worth up to $400m, paving the way for Kering to begin its exclusive 50-year licensing agreement with L'Oréal from mid-2027. Coty will continue to manage the Gucci beauty business until at least June 2027 and has received an initial $250m payment, with up to a further $150m due by September 2027, subject to certain conditions. The cosmetics group plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt and invest in its core prestige fragrance and beauty brands, while the agreement also resolves all outstanding litigation related to the licence.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, has abandoned its target of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, removing goals covering Scope 3 emissions, which account for the vast majority of its environmental footprint. Instead, the company will retain its existing target to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 30% by 2030 and has introduced a new goal to cut those emissions by 70% by 2050. JBS said it is refocusing its sustainability strategy on emissions it can directly control and measure, while continuing to report Scope 3 emissions annually. The move follows criticism of its environmental commitments and comes after the company reached a $1.1m settlement with the New York Attorney General last year over claims it had misled the public about its ability to meet its original 2040 net-zero pledge.

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times