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Briefing Notes
International
UK Labour party suffers heavy local election losses to Reform UK, sharpening political risk for Keir Starmer's government and its legislative agenda
Reform's surge tightens Labour's parliamentary bandwidth — every regulatory reform and infrastructure bill faces a more uncertain legislative path.
AI & Law
EU reaches provisional deal to ban AI-generated nudification deepfakes and confirms December 2027 delay to high-risk AI Act provisions in digital omnibus package
The 2027 delay buys time but doesn't cancel the compliance obligation — AI governance programmes can now be phased rather than rushed.
Capital Markets
UAE's Core42 Anchors $235M Minneapolis Data Centre Conversion in Cross-Border AI Infrastructure Push
Sovereign AI capital is repricing US real estate by treating compute capacity as the core asset.
Energy & Tech
Trump's EU tariff ultimatum and the ongoing Iran war send European energy stocks and FTSE futures lower as dual geopolitical pressures compound investment risk
EU tariff uncertainty and Hormuz disruption are compressing the investment window for European energy infrastructure decisions in H2 2026.
Disputes
CMA raises competition concerns over Welltower's UK senior care home acquisitions in a phase one merger review with potential remedies implications
Serial acquisitions in care homes can trigger CMA scrutiny even without formal notification — post-completion reviews are a live deal risk.
M&A
Morrison Foerster recruits three London partners spanning tech M&A, commercial technology, and media transactions in a targeted City build-out
Dedicated tech M&A hubs at US firms in London are chasing AI infrastructure and fintech deal flow that generalist practices can't serve alone.
Banking & Finance
Private credit compensation set to fall 2.5–7.5% in 2026 as muted returns and fundraising slowdown bite after years of exponential growth
Softening private credit returns will shift work from origination to restructuring — a direct pipeline shift for banking and finance practices.
Regulation
FCA issues new guidance on tougher UK payment sector rules as the regulator sharpens its supervisory framework for payments firms
FCA payments guidance forces every e-money institution and payment processor to run an immediate gap analysis against tougher compliance standards.