Seven days in the Square Mile

Ex-chancellor George Osborne warned Theresa May against triggering Brexit too soon. Lord O’neill, the former Goldman banker seen as an ally of Osborne, quit as commercial secretary to the Treasury. Friends of Mark Carney let it be known that he would like to stay on as Bank of England governor for another term. The chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet, said that 100,000 City jobs had been imperilled by the Brexit vote. Allegedly corrupt ex-employees at HBOS went on trial in London over a £245m loan scam. It is the first case with bankers in the dock since the financial crisis. HSBC took the unusual step of hiring head-hunters to start looking for its next-but-one boss. John Martin, new chief at plumbing merchant Wolseley, announced 800 job losses and a higher dividend for shareholders. Standard Chartered faces a potentially expensive US probe into bribery allegations at an Indonesian power group it controls. The IMF warned that the world is at risk of slipping into a deflation trap, and the WTO warned of a dramatic slowdown in global trade. The Mexican peso rallied after Hillary Clinton was judged to have “won” the first TV debate in the US presidential race; the peso has moved in line with Donald Trump’s performance, falling when the Republican does well in the polls. In Beijing, scores of estate agents accused of “hyping” the property market have reportedly been arrested.