Any movement in eurozone policy rates in the near future remains unlikely, but the mini taper tantrum at the end of June shows just how sensitive markets are to central bank signalling.

HSBC’s Sino-foreign joint venture has been approved at last, almost two years after the project was announced. It is the first such venture to have foreign control but what exactly has HSBC won?

The shrinking number of publicly listed stocks is a growing worry for policymakers concerned about job creation, income inequality and consolidation towards monopoly pricing among a few very large and profitable quoted companies, but the real story is growing sophistication in private financing.

The UK has been one of the world’s key testing grounds for new financial technology thanks to London’s status as global financial centre and the UK authorities’ support for new competition to the incumbent banks they had to rescue in the crisis, but the big four banks’ central role as clearing banks has kept truly disruptive innovation away from the profitable core of retail banking, until now.