Bank regulation in spotlight after JPMorgan buys First Republic

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Good evening.

JPMorgan Chase is buying most of First Republic after regulators brokered a deal to address the second-biggest bank failure in US history.

The bank, founded by the widely admired Jim Herbert, had been on the edge of collapse for almost two months as deposits fled and its model of providing cheap mortgages to the wealthy was hit by rising interest rates. Last Monday this led it to announce that it had suffered more than $100bn in outflows. The deal, announced before markets opened, sees First Republic’s shareholders wiped out but depositors protected: here’s the story of how the saga unfolded.

Shares in JPMorgan were up in early trading in New York, but US regional banks were under pressure, with Citizens and PNC both falling.

First Republic’s collapse, marginally bigger than that of Silicon Valley Bank in March which sparked the recent tumult across the sector, has raised further questions about the effectiveness of US regulation and the risk of contagion.

In its postmortem on the failure of SVB published on Friday, the Federal Reserve, pointed the finger at the Trump administration for softening bank regulations in 2019, as well as blasting internal supervisors for failing to deal with management errors.

Richard Bookstaber, a former US Treasury and SEC official, said US regulation was set up to fail, describing it as “reactive and overbearing”. The dynamic and complex nature of markets means “regulating risk is a game of whack-a-mole,” he wrote. “All the more so because gaming new regulations is itself a prime mover for the innovations.”

Concerns have also been raised about contagion in the commercial property market, a risk highlighted by veteran investor Charlie Munger in a new FT interview, pointing to American banks full of “bad loans” as property prices fall.

There could also be some political blowback as the dust settles on the deal. Capital Alpha analyst Ian Katz said: “The cost to the federal bank regulators . . . will go beyond the dollar figures. JPMorgan never would have received regulatory approval to purchase a healthy bank of First Republic’s size. JPM will now get bigger due to its role of saviour of last resort.”

However, JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon rejected criticism that America’s largest bank had become too powerful.

“We have capabilities to help our clients who happen to be cities, schools, states, hospitals, governments,” he said. “We bank countries and we bank the IMF, we bank the World Bank. You need large successful banks. And anyone who thinks that it would be good for the United States of America not to have that should call me directly.”

Need to know: UK and Europe economy

Chief economics editor Martin Wolf says the Bank of England needs to do more to tackle entrenched high inflation while our latest Big Read considers the approach of the European Central Bank and whether its chief Christine Lagarde can silence her critics.

New EU proposals on rewilding risk hitting efforts to build wind farms and other renewable projects, critics argue, as Brussels tries to reconcile efforts to bring down emissions while restoring biodiversity.

Germany is reopening its mines to reduce its dependence on China by extracting more critical raw materials, such as fluorspar, a crucial component of electric cars, at home.

Need to know: Global economy

China’s manufacturing activity shrank in April as global demand for goods slowed and authorities warned that the post-Covid recovery had not yet solidified.

Paraguay’s long-ruling Colorado party won a convincing victory in presidential and congressional elections, bucking the region’s recent trend to turf out ruling parties. New president Santiago Peña, a pro-business former finance minister, pledged to tackle “economic stagnation and fiscal deficits” and is likely to continue the country’s close ties with Taiwan.

Iran has been accused of concealing evidence of spiralling inflation, writes Tehran correspondent Najmeh Bozorgmehr. The most recent published figure put the annual rate at 47.7 per cent but analysts believe it may now have passed the 1995 record of 49 per cent.

As a corrective to some of the gloom surrounding prospects for the global economy, economics editor Chris Giles offers some reasons to be cheerful.

Need to know: business

Norwegian Cruise Line upgraded its profit forecast after beating expectations in the first quarter. Advance ticket sales were up 60 per cent from the first quarter of 2019 — before the pandemic struck — despite higher prices.

Grocery delivery app pioneer Getir is in talks to take over German rival Flink, as consolidation continues in one of the pandemic’s hottest tech sectors.

The legal battle is heating up between Disney and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has been accused of violating the company’s constitutional rights to free speech.

Italy is second only to Germany when it comes to businesses’ dependency on Russia. The new FT film looks at the government of Giorgia Meloni and whether she is likely to maintain her country’s support for Ukraine in face of the Russian invasion.

The World of Work

For many people, the lack of “networking events” was one of the few upsides from the pandemic, but now that they are back in force, columnist Pilita Clark offers some tips on how to be a super schmoozer.

Lloyds Banking Group has told staff that they will have to spend at least two days a week in the office, with “card swipe data” used to monitor their return. There is currently a divergence between companies in the City of London, with some demanding more attendance and others granting staff more freedom to work from home.

Corporate culture is back in the spotlight following rape allegations at the CBI, the UK business lobby group, but how do you spot signs of corporate rot?

As the UK experiences another nurses strike, John Burn-Murdoch examines how stress, burnout and workplace culture are driving a mounting exodus of Britain’s medics.

In the wider UK economy, the number of working days lost to sickness hit a record high last year, highlighting fears over the impact of ill health. The share of absences due to respiratory conditions has more than doubled since the pandemic.

Our work and careers newsletter, Working It, is being relaunched on Wednesday. Do sign up for ways to get ahead in the office, and to read our new section, Office Therapy.

Some good news

Cigarette smoking among US adults has hit an all-time low as taxes, price rises and smoking bans leave just 1 in 9 saying they are current smokers. The use of e-cigarettes has risen to 1 in 17 adults.