Goldman Sachs has relaxed its dress code, allowing its bankers to swap their bespoke suits for a more casual look.

Several buildings at the University of Glasgow and the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters in Edinburgh have been evacuated following reports of suspicious packages.

A group of powerful HSBC shareholders have written to the bank’s CEO, John Flint, urging him to close a loophole in its energy policy that allows the lender to bankroll coal projects in certain emerging markets.

The Bank of England has said that the failure of EU regulators to put in place measures to protect continental banks increased the risk of panicky trading on financial markets in the aftermath of a no-deal Brexit.

Barclays’ former chief executive has defended a 2008 Qatari investment as key to the bank’s global ambitions but distanced himself from negotiations that led to a complex agreement that is at the heart of a criminal trial.

Shares in the food and beverage giant Kraft Heinz fell nearly 25% in Friday trading, a day after the company wrote down by $15.4bn the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands.

UBS has been ordered to pay €4.5bn (£3.9bn) by a French court for helping wealthy clients dodge tax, adding to a raft of violations that stand to leave the Swiss bank almost £8bn out of pocket.

The Barclays chief executive, Jes Staley, has promised to return more money to shareholders in a bid to fend off the attentions of the activist investor Edward Bramson, as the bank reported flat profits for 2018.

Barclays’ board worried that executive pay would be cut if the lender failed to raise private funds and succumbed to a government bailout at the height of the 2008 crash, the lender’s former chairman told a court on Tuesday.

Newham council is suing Royal Bank of Scotland over the terms of about £150m in complex bank loans, making it the latest UK bank to face a lawsuit over lending terms that critics say piled undue pressure on local services.