Direct Line has suspended its dividend after a combination of severe cold weather in December and rising inflation pushed up the cost of claims, sending shares in the UK insurer down by more than 25 per cent. Faced with a surge in the cost of claims,…

J Sainsbury on Wednesday said full-year profits would be near the upper end of its forecast range after reporting robust Christmas sales.The retailer said grocery sales were 7.1 per cent higher than last year over the Christmas period — the six weeks up to January…

Goldman Sachs has embarked on its biggest cost-cutting exercise since the financial crisis, with the Wall Street bank reviewing spending on everything from its private jets to expenses at a new technology and consumer unit.The spending review comes as Goldman starts to implement more than…

The writer is a former chair of Lloyds Banking Group and a member of the House of Lords industry and regulators committeeWith the latest financial services and markets bill starting its passage through the House of Lords, the doomsayers will be lining up to claim…

Microsoft products tend to be widely used and rarely praised. Messaging platform Teams lacks the rave reviews of rival Slack, for example. Unlike Google, search engine Bing has not become shorthand for online queries.Launched in 2009, Bing’s name is supposed to emulate the feeling of…

The Belgian prime minister has accused the US of an “aggressive” campaign to lure European companies to the other side of the Atlantic with the promise of support under its new green subsidy act.Alexander de Croo told a meeting at the European parliament Tuesday that…