FirstFT: ECB pushes banks to boost their post-Brexit operations

The European Central Bank is pushing banks to allocate hundreds of additional staff and billions of additional capital to their post-Brexit operations in continental Europe.

Despite predictions that tens of thousands of City workers would have to relocate after Brexit, research by the Financial Times showed only a minimal decline in London banking jobs in recent years.

But bank managers, lawyers and regulators told the FT that the ECB had become increasingly forceful in its demands that lenders move more resources to the continent to conduct their European businesses.

The move is partly related to the ECB’s decision to end temporary grace periods for banks to move staff and capital to the EU.

Thank you for reading FirstFT Europe / Africa. Here’s the rest of today’s news – Jennifer

Five more stories on the news

1. Evergrande’s real estate sale plan collapses The Chinese real estate developer said a potential sale of its real estate services division has collapsed, adding to pressure on the group, which only has days to avoid an official default.

2. Investors are fleeing gold for cryptocurrencies According to Bloomberg data, more than $ 10 billion were made this year.

3. PayPal in talks with Pinterest about a $ 45 billion acquisition The online payments company is in talks to acquire the social media group, which could lead to one of the largest corporate acquisitions of the year, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

4. End of an era with the resignation of the head of the Bundesbank Jens Weidmann has decided to step down as head of the German central bank weeks after the general election and shortly before a decision on the future of monetary policy in the euro zone. What will his successor mean for the coalition talks?

5. Jack Ma takes the first trip abroad since the raid The Alibaba founder is vacationing in Spain, according to two people familiar with his travel plans. This is the internet tycoon’s first confirmed trip outside of China since clashing with the country’s financial regulators last year.

Leslie Hook, FT environmental correspondent, will be in Glasgow for COP26 next month. If you have any questions for Leslie to answer, please send an email firstft@ft.com and we will publish their answers.

Coronavirus digestion

• Sajid Javid, UK Minister of Health, warned against this England Faced a return in restrictions as he urged people to take booster jabs and exercise caution.

• President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a proposal to leave workers at home for at least a week since Of Russia Case numbers and deaths are increasing.

• North Korea–China Trade has soared to its highest level in more than a year, with Pyongyang’s economy being hit by the pandemic and sanctions.

• the US Medicines Agency has approved booster vaccines for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and will support a mix-and-match strategy.

• Global Supply chain The problems could drag on for “several months,” said the head of the World Trade Organization of the FT.

The day ahead

European Council summit On the agenda of the two-day summit are the European energy crisis and the bloc’s relations with China. For the latest from the summit, Subscribe to to our Europe Express Newsletter.

Turkey is placed on the “gray list” by the global financial regulator The Financial Action Task Force is expected to adopt recommendations that Turkey should be subject to special surveillance if it fails to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

WeWork goes public The co-working space company will start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange after a two-year dispute.

Merits It’s a big day for corporate profits. In the UK, Barclays will publish its third quarter results and Unilever will publish a trade statement. Other reporting companies are Blackstone, AT&T, American Airlines, Hermès, and Southwest.

Who do you think will be the most influential women of 2021? In the run-up to our annual Women of the Year series, we’re collecting your recommendations. Share your suggestions in the comments below this story.

What else we read

Europe after Angela Merkel The German Chancellor will again take on the role of mediator in the preparation of a showdown with Poland about the primacy of EU law. This time there is a difference: Merkel is on her way out. Will Germany’s new coalition be tough on foreign policy?

How Netflix became “Hateflix” A culture war is raging at the world’s largest streaming companies. Activists condemn Netflix for broadcasting programs that they say may promote discrimination against transgender people, leading to one of the platform’s worst public relations crises.

The revenge of the old economy It’s tempting to attribute today’s bottlenecks to temporary disruptions caused by the pandemic. But the roots of these bottlenecks can be traced back to the aftermath of the financial crisis, writes Jeff Currie, Global Head of Commodities Research at Goldman Sachs.

In John Lewis’ nightmare If you weren’t sure what to need for your home or where to find it, there is always a time to give John Lewis a try. But it is threatening to disappear: Millennials are not feeling it, and Central England is shopping around. Can the dealer shake himself up?

Bitcoin ETFs shouldn’t exist The first US Bitcoin fund traded on the stock exchange could have risen on its first day of trading this week. But, as my colleague Robert Armstrong writes, “you can hardly imagine a less attractive financial product”. He explains why in today’s Unhedge newsletter. Register here.

Thanks to the readers who took our survey yesterday. Seventy percent of you said lawmakers in Washington, not Wall Street, had the right approach to US relations with China.

Meet our journalists: Robin Harding

Robin Harding took over the role of FT Asia editor in mid-August. The trained economist worked in various positions, from London to Washington to Tokyo, where he was office manager from 2015.

Which story are you particularly interested in at the moment?

The potential default by Chinese real estate company Evergrande, less in itself than for what it says about the Chinese growth model. One of the big questions of this century is whether China can keep growing until it is as rich as Japan, or even the United States. How China is fighting Evergrande will provide clues as to the answer.

You have lived in Japan for almost 12 years. What still fascinates you about the country?

Japan is different. I think one reason for Japan’s pre-Covid-19 tourism boom is that Japan is a rich industrialized country that still feels alien to Europeans or Americans. I’m constantly learning how Japan does it, and the comparison sheds light on the rest of the world, whether it’s about monetary policy, town planning or railways.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year?

I checked my Kindle and read it again Pride and prejudice this year, so that’s the real answer. The best new nonfiction book was The weirdest people in the world, who essentially argues that the Catholic Church created the modern world by banning cousin marriage in Europe. I’ll leave out the sci-fi and fantasy recommendations here, but don’t hesitate to email me!