Paul J. Davies

Ownership of unlisted equity is rising as public and private markets converge—but they mustn't move to more opacity. Private equity can have surprises for investors, as in Anthropic's case. What's need is more disclosure overall, not less.

New Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has long argued that the central bank should aggressively shrink its $6.7 trillion balance sheet, bloated by years of bond buying. He now has two powerful allies in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, Michelle Bowman.

The sound of fund gates slamming shut is never welcome. But when it comes to private equity, investors should be less surprised than with real estate or private credit. Still, Wednesday’s news that Partners Group Holdings AG has capped withdrawals from a $8.6 billion vehicle aimed at rich people is troubling for an industry that has put the wealth market at the center of its growth plans.

A decade after the Brexit vote, the finance industry at the heart of London is doing... well, fine actually. When Britain opted to quit the European Union, there were fears that the City would lose its premier role in global banking. In fact, it is hard to identify any clear losses for the sector caused directly by tearing up the agreements that helped ensure London was the continent’s financial hub.

The US Federal Reserve could shrink its assets by changing bank liquidity rules. But doing this too quickly would spook a system that adjusted to quantitative easing after the 2008 crisis. And while Trump may want lower interest rates, Warsh might not find a way to ease policy.

London still has a lot going for it: History, habit and all the past investments that turned it into a global financial hub can't be easily thrown away

When Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA sealed its hostile takeover of Mediobanca SpA last year, the financial rationale was dubious but the politics were clear: Italy wanted a third major lender to compete with its top two. Now, one of those leading banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, has launched a €30.6 billion ($35.3 billion) bid for the enlarged Monte Paschi and the picture is reversed: For investors, the strategy mostly adds up, but the politics make almost no sense at all.

If Andrea Orcel wants to seduce the shareholders and staff of Commerzbank AG, he has a funny way of going about it. The chief executive officer of UniCredit SpA has been using all the smarts of a seasoned investment banker to keep increasing its stake in the German bank in quietly efficient ways. But his tactics have left his targets cold, particularly the German government, which has a near 13% stake.

Founders and venture capitalists love to moan about being stymied by risk-averse rules and regulators in the UK and Europe. Their ambitions get frustrated, investors are put off and the result is less innovation and slower growth, goes the argument. But then there’s Revolut Ltd.

Morgan Stanley was among the first major banks to roll out generative artificial intelligence for its people to use in their day-to-day dealings with customers in late 2023. The internal chatbot was designed to give its financial advisers swift access to all the firm’s research and knowledge so they’d have answers or ideas on investments, tax or most other questions from wealthy clients. The point was to make every adviser as good as the smartest.