Not long ago, it was difficult for payments processors to avoid being taken over. Worldpay was sold by Royal Bank of Scotland Plc in the crisis, taken public and bought again in eight years. Nordic payments group Nets went from being owned by a group of banks to private equity ownership, to public markets, before going back into private equity ...

What could the European Central Bank (ECB) realistically do to help Italy, even if it were so minded? Not much, is the depressing answer – in specific new aid anyway. That’s unless Italy ends up getting itself in such a mess that it’s forced to hand over financial control and enter into another ECB bailout program. We’re nowhere near that ...

Bloomberg US stock futures turned lower and shares dropped in Europe and most of Asia on Monday as investors struggled to drum up any optimism after a roller coaster few weeks. The dollar rose, oil halted a 10-day sell-off and the pound slid as the UK’s premier fought to save her Brexit divorce plan. Futures on S&P 500, Dow and ...