Behind the Money

For more than 170 years, Wells Fargo built a reputation as an all-American Main Street lender. Now, it is charting a new path and pushing into investment banking, something that many other banks have tried and failed to do. The FT’s US banking editor Joshua Franklin and US banking correspondent Akila Quinio discuss what Wells Fargo does — and doesn’t have — going for it as it pursues this...

Saks Global, the parent company of the historic luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move occurred a little more than a year after the company purchased Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in a debt-fuelled takeover. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and the US investment editor Eric Platt walk through how that acquisition...

Every January a collection of the world’s top business and political leaders head to the Swiss town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The event is a week of panels and networking meant to promote dialogue among elites. But a scandal last year threatened to overshadow the 2026 meeting, which begins in a few days. Critics have also questioned the event’s relevance in a...

From the artificial intelligence bubble to trade policy, Michela asks Martin Wolf, the FT's chief economics commentator, how the biggest stories of last year will affect the economy in 2026. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For further reading:Forecasting the world in 2026 Why the world should worry about...

The surge in scams, phishing attacks and digital fraud is raising serious liability questions. So who should be doing more? In this live recording from this year’s FT Global Banking Summit, Michela poses that question to executives from Citi, KPMG and Open Banking Excellence. The conversation was recorded on December 2, 2025.The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.- - - - - - - -...

Economists like to model people as rational creatures who make self-interested decisions. But humans don’t act that way. Why do investors, politicians and ordinary people act against their best interests – and how can they be nudged into making better decisions? To find out, FT economics commentator Chris Giles speaks to Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioural economics. Thaler is a...

Despite its relatively low profile, Fidelity Investments is a sprawling beast when it comes to financial services. Last year, the firm’s revenues surpassed the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, by more than 50 per cent. The FT’s Emma Dunkley explains how Fidelity has come to dominate the sector, the secrets behind its success, and what hurdles it may have to jump through in the coming...

In the UK, whistleblowers are encouraged to report wrongdoing, but often at cost to their livelihoods and careers. One solution would be to pay corporate whistleblowers for coming forward. However, many in government have held the idea for years that doing so is not very “British.” But now, longtime opposition to the idea seems to be shifting. Suzi Ring, the FT’s legal correspondent in London,...

In this special episode of Behind the Money, the FT’s senior business writer Andrew Hill interviews author Stephen Witt about his book The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip. Witt and his book won the FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year for 2025. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

For years, corporate whistleblowers in the UK have found themselves in an unenviable predicament. They’re encouraged to report wrongdoing, but at the same time they often feel like they’ve risked everything: their careers and livelihoods in exchange for little. In this special two-part series, we explore why critics think this system is failing whistleblowers and what the UK can do to change...