Visa has announced plans to begin operations in Syria after reaching an agreement with the country’s central bank on a roadmap to build a nationwide digital payments infrastructure. In a statement released on Thursday, the global card network said the accord sets out steps to introduce electronic payments in a market that has been largely cut off from international finance…
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), is reworking its redevelopment plans for the landmark HSBC tower in London’s Canary Wharf, shifting back toward a more traditional office-led scheme. According to people familiar with the project, the fund is now considering keeping up to 80% of the 45-storey skyscraper as offices after HSBC vacates the building in 2027,…
European lenders face an “unprecedentedly high” likelihood of severe external shocks, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned on Tuesday. In its supervisory priorities, the central bank highlighted that the convergence of geopolitical instability, shifting trade dynamics, and technological disruption has created a volatile environment where “tail risks”, extreme events with historically low probability, are becoming increasingly plausible. Claudia Buch, Chair…
The surge in artificial intelligence stocks has created what Stefan Hoops, chief executive of Deutsche Bank’s asset management unit DWS, sees as a powerful but potentially unstable phase for global markets. The firm manages about 1.1 trillion euros in assets and is analysing whether the AI boom could unwind faster than previous technology cycles, given how concentrated recent gains have…
The Bank of England (BoE) said the broader benefits of its government bond-buying program help counterbalance the sizable losses now crystallizing on its balance sheet, a politically sensitive issue because His Majesty’s Treasury indemnifies those losses. The BoE revised its standard estimate of the net lifetime loss arising directly from quantitative easing (QE) to a range of £60 billion to…
Visa and Mastercard have reached a revised settlement with U.S. merchants over long-running claims that the card networks impose excessive “swipe” (interchange) fees, according to a November 10, 2025 letter filed in Brooklyn federal court. While the initial filing signaled agreement in principle, subsequent reporting indicates the new proposal would trim interchange fees by about 0.1 percentage point from levels…
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has referred the proposed $3.7 billion merger of Getty Images and Shutterstock to an in-depth Phase 2 investigation, saying initial remedies offered by the companies did not dispel concerns that the tie-up could lead to higher prices, worse terms, and lower quality for editorial and stock imagery customers in Britain. The decision follows…
