Headlines

Britain's financial regulator said on Friday it had launched an enforcement investigation into mortgage ​lender Market Financial Solutions, which collapsed in ‌February leaving creditors including major banks and private credit funds facing a shortfall in excess of 1.3 billion pounds ($1.74 billion), Reuters reported. The Financial ​Conduct Authority said in a statement that ​London-based MFS was only registered with it ⁠and supervised for compliance with money laundering, terrorist financing ​and transfer of funds regulations, and not for wider ​financial regulation.

Citi group provided a GBP 100M line of credit to Interbridge Mortgages, a fast-growing UK lender backed by Paresh Raja, just as his Market Financial Solutions was hurtling toward collapse, according to a Bloomberg report. Raja controls a 40% stake in the Interbridge holding company and around GBP 30M of the funding line has been drawn. There is no indication that Interbridge was affected by the collapse of MFS, which has been accused of fraud that could leave major lenders facing losses of around GBP 1.3B.

China Evergrande liquidators’ lawsuit to claw back funds from the builder’s auditors will finally reach its first public court hearing in May, about two years after being filed, Bloomberg reported. The parties in the case — China Evergrande Group (in liquidation) and PricewaterhouseCoopers International — will gather in the Hong Kong High Court on May 18, according to the court schedule on its website. The hearing will focus on whether PricewaterhouseCoopers International can strike out the claims, it said.

Alliança Saúde has turned to the courts for temporary protection as it faces mounting debt obligations, BitGet.com reported. The company is proactively requesting judicial assistance to manage approximately 155 million reais in principal and interest payments scheduled for April and October. This move follows a clear signal from credit markets: Fitch Ratings recently lowered Alliança's rating to CCC+, citing insufficient liquidity as of September 2025 to meet these payments. Rather than a last-minute reaction, this is a calculated step to pause and reassess, prompted by the downgrade.

Retail sales were up 1.1 per cent at $70.7 billion in January, driven by higher sales at motor vehicle and parts dealerships, Statistics Canada says, the Canadian Press reported. Sales were up in six of the nine subsectors it tracks, as the motor vehicle and parts dealers subsector posted the largest increase in retail sales in January — up two per cent, the agency said on Friday. Andrew Grantham, senior economist at CIBC, said retail sales appear to be starting the year strong.

Goldman Sachs expects mergers and acquisitions activity to be on the upswing this year despite the disruption caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, CEO David Solomon said on Friday, Bloomberg reported. “While it is difficult to predict the broader economic effects of the military action by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, we still see the potential for a more constructive operating environment,” Solomon said in the annual shareholder letter.

Saudi Arabia’s oil officials are working frantically to project how high oil prices might go if the Iran war and its disruption of energy supplies doesn’t end soon—and they don’t like what they are seeing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The base case, several oil officials in the Gulf’s biggest producer said, is that prices could soar past $180 a barrel if the disruptions persist until late April. While that would sound like a bonanza for a kingdom still heavily leveraged to oil revenue, it is deeply concerning.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government would mobilise €5 billion to shield the economy from the impact of the war in Iran, EuroNews.com reported. "The war will cost Spaniards €5 billion," he said, adding that additional resources could be deployed if necessary. The package is designed to support around 20 million households and 3 million companies. While it will not fully offset the effects of the conflict, the government hopes it will soften the economic blow. Sánchez also said that the measures will save up to €200 million for energy-intensive industries.

Europe’s top central bankers warned that the escalating war in the Middle East would drive up inflation and knock growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. The conflict is threatening the global economy, but Europe is seen as particularly vulnerable because of its dependence on imported energy. European-natural gas prices have nearly doubled since the conflict began. “The war in the Middle East has made the outlook significantly more uncertain, creating upside risks for inflation and downside risks for economic growth,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

Russia’s central bank Friday cut its key interest rate for a seventh straight meeting, despite a surge in oil prices following the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran that promises to boost an economy that had been faltering, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Russia lowered borrowing costs to 15% from 15.5%, down from a 2025 peak of 21%.