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    Helen Thomas

    Business columnist

    Helen Thomas writes about British business and finance for the FT. She has previously written for the Lex column, for FT Alphaville as well as covering M&A and the mining sector. From 2013, she worked at the Wall Street Journal and at BBC Newsnight before rejoining the FT in 2021.
    Email Helen Thomas @helentbiz  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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    • Friday, 27 January, 2023
      Financial services
      The UK led the world in open banking — and then got left behind

      A genuine tale of innovative success risks stagnating as global imitators push adoption harder

    • Wednesday, 25 January, 2023
      White collar crime
      Are we really making headway in holding corporate villains to account?

      A proliferation of offences that aren’t prosecuted seems unhelpful for everyone

    • Tuesday, 24 January, 2023
      Corporate governance
      It is time for a boardroom entente at UK plc

      Tension between FTSE boards and their investors seems more symptom than cause of the London market’s woes

    • Friday, 20 January, 2023
      Legal services
      Watch law firms, not banks, to judge the City’s deep freeze

      For now, the strategy is to wait and see. But recent poaching and bidding up of salaries will not help

    • Wednesday, 18 January, 2023
      Technology regulation
      Where the UK’s ‘world-leading’ online rules lost their way

      What is left looks like a regulatory hodgepodge, something that parliament could yet address

    • Tuesday, 17 January, 2023
      Retail sector
      Is this the high street’s last stand?

      Bricks and mortar retail has shown signs of a revival but hailing the triumph of square footage over pixels would be wishful thinking

    • Friday, 13 January, 2023
      Pensions crisis
      Can we talk more about my pension this year?

      Comfortable world of defined benefit schemes has dominated UK news — what about the rest of us?

    • Wednesday, 11 January, 2023
      Unilever PLC
      What Terry Smith gets wrong (and right) this time on Unilever

      Veteran stockpicker says long-term shareholders have not been listened to

    • Tuesday, 10 January, 2023
      UK energy
      UK still ducking the issue on gas storage

      Discussions over the full reopening of Centrica’s Rough facility appear to have stalled

    • Thursday, 5 January, 2023
      UK retail industry
      The consumer strains in the UK’s era of less for more

      Customers may not be able to keep up the spending while juggling high energy bills and rising mortgage costs

    • Wednesday, 4 January, 2023
      UK business & economy
      This UK steel bailout requires a hands-on approach

      Government should impose conditions on emissions, structure, strategy and governance

    • Thursday, 22 December, 2022
      Financial services
      Let’s fix the dodgy plumbing of our shareholder democracy

      There is currently no good way to scrap paper shares while maintaining the rights of individual investors

    • Wednesday, 21 December, 2022
      UK politics & policy
      The long, long reach of the UK’s national security laws

      Legislation to monitor China has also been used to protect the country’s commercial interests

    • Tuesday, 20 December, 2022
      Private equity
      Private equity’s debt tower is teetering

      What was once a simple story of buy, fix, sell is more complicated, after years of cheap money and keen investment

    • Friday, 16 December, 2022
      UK financial regulation
      Fix the process not the principles of senior banker rules

      The loudest complaints about the so-called senior managers’ regime concern delays

    • Thursday, 15 December, 2022
      UK housebuilding
      This Nimby charter isn’t only a problem in housing

      The government is making promises on planning that seem fantastical, all unicorns and rainbows

    • Wednesday, 7 December, 2022
      Employment
      Workers need more than platitudes about ‘green jobs’

      The net zero transition is a social challenge as well as a financial and technological one

    • Friday, 2 December, 2022
      UK financial regulation
      The false promises of a bank ringfencing boom

      Overhauling the regulatory regime introduced after the financial crisis has plenty of risks and few obvious benefits

    • Wednesday, 30 November, 2022
      Rail
      No way to run a railway: UK’s trains have veered off track

      Stalled reform and lack of strategic direction is holding back any chance of functioning system

    • Friday, 25 November, 2022
      Commercial property
      Commercial real estate faces similar reckoning to retail

      Structural change is biting and wishful thinking will not make UK remote workers return to their offices

    • Wednesday, 23 November, 2022
      UK energy
      Why is this £6.5bn Bulb blowout still in the dark?

      The failed energy supplier’s bailout is still shrouded in secrecy and there must be a rethink about who bears risk

    • Tuesday, 22 November, 2022
      Semiconductors
      Muddle over Welsh semiconductor company is a lesson in strategy

      Saga of Newport Wafer Fab is one of passing government interest and neglect

    • Thursday, 17 November, 2022
      Autumn Statement
      The Rishinomics growth plan is back — only worse

      Government serves up an underwhelming Autumn Statement for business

    • Wednesday, 16 November, 2022
      City of London
      Honey, I shrunk the Brexit dividend

      Rising rates have cut the promised bonanza from relaxing Solvency II

    • Tuesday, 15 November, 2022
      Healthcare
      A tussle over medicines pricing is looming in Britain

      Agreement to limit the size of the NHS drugs bill under strain

    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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