George Hay

LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) - Under founder Enrico Cuccia, Mediobanca pulled the strings of Italian post-war finance.

LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) - Launching an unwelcome takeover of a rival bank used to be a sign of dangerous excess.

Another day, another chunky Italian bank merger. On the face of it, Thursday’s decision by $9 billion BPER to lob in a $4.5 billion all-share bid for domestic peer Banca Popolare di Sondrio (BPSO) merely represents the latest iteration of a wider saga in which other deals – like UniCredit’s 10 billion euro swoop for Banco BPM and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s (MPS) 13 billion euro pitch for Mediobanca – are more eye-catching. Yet BPER Chief Executive Gianni Franco Papa’s gambit also inserts him in the conversation should these other deals unravel.

LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) - BP has a laundry list of problems. The $93 billion UK oil major has a confused strategy, an overleveraged balance sheet, and a valuation way adrift of its main rivals.

By George Hay and Foo Yun Chee LONDON (Reuters) - The EU's competition chief says U.S.

Up until two years ago, Ajay Banga had spent most of his career in the private sector – as a banker at Citigroup and latterly as the CEO of Mastercard . Now the World Bank president finds himself having to defend one of the linchpins of the liberal international order against President Donald Trump, who last month ordered a government review that could see the United States quit as the 81-year-old institution’s top shareholder. Yet Banga has arguments and hard facts on his side, which could help him appeal to U.S. self-interest.

Europe has the martial equivalent of a “how to spend it” problem. Faced with the prospect of a U.S. military pullback in their backyard and a renewed threat from Russia, major powers like Germany and the United Kingdom are planning for defence spending to rise above 3% of GDP. Yet unless the bloc wants to wind up with the 21st-century equivalent of the Maginot Line – France’s vastly expensive border fortification that the German army simply bypassed at the start of World War Two – it needs to direct more of the resulting hundreds of billions of euros to defence technology and innovation.

Israel struck the Islamic Republic just as it was discussing a US nuclear deal that could have eased tensions. Much depends on how and where Tehran responds. Spare Saudi capacity can offset short-term oil price spikes, but a broader escalation would destabilise the whole region.

If Iran fully stopped oil moving through the infamous chokepoint, it would upend the world economy. But threats of regime change may push Tehran towards extremes. And as they proved in the Red Sea, Iran-aligned Houthis can disrupt trade even without a physical blockade.

Global asset prices reacted mildly to US strikes on Iran, despite the scope for escalation. Geopolitical surprises do not always crash stocks, and if they do the shock soon fades. Big oil supply crunches are different – but investors seem confident Tehran won’t create one.