The IMF warns on global growth, the human-robot rivalry and the best cities for millenials

Citigroup has set the stage for another batch of lacklustre financial results at the world’s biggest investment banks after warning of further declines at some of its most important businesses.

John Gerspach, chief financial officer, forecast that revenues at Citi’s investment banking operation would drop about a quarter in the first three months of the year compared with 2015. (FT)

In the news:

US investment banks open gap over Europeans

Europe’s top five operators are now making less than half as much revenue as the top five in the US, which beat them on almost every financial measure last year. The US groups had investment banking and securities revenue of $138.5bn last year — more than twice the $60.1bn of the Europeans. (FT)

Turkey’s great deal

In its efforts to hammer out an agreement over the stream of refugees arriving in Europe, Ankara secured a host of sweeteners, including an extra €3bn in funding and access to European visas. (FT)

IMF warns on global growth

The IMF warned that the world faces a growing “risk of economic derailment” and needs immediate action to boost demand in a global economy that is “clearly at a delicate juncture”. The warning came as stocks and commodities faltered after Beijing said exports fell 25.4 per cent in February from a year earlier in dollar terms, the worst monthly decline since early 2009. (FT)

Brazilian businessman jailed

One of the country’s most senior businessmen, Marcelo Odebrecht, was sentenced to 19 years and four months in jail on Tuesday for alleged corruption at state oil company Petrobras in a landmark decision expected to add to pressure on President Dilma Rousseff. (FT)

Iran conducts ballistic missile test

The country’s Revolutionary Guards test-fired several rockets from silos across the country, defying recent US sanctions on its missile programme. (FT)

Flower power fuels iron ore surge

A flower show in the gritty Chinese industrial city of Tangshan has emerged as a major cause of the spike in iron ore prices this week, as steel mills rushed to buy before being forced to close to keep skies blue for 10m expected visitors. (FT)

It's a big day for:

The human-robot rivalry

Lee Se-dol, the South Korean world champion of the ancient Chinese board game Go, takes on Google’s AlphaGo machine in a high-profile contest that could yield a milestone for artificial intelligence. (FT)

Food for thought:

The case for financial disruption

Banking seems inefficient, costly, riddled with conflicts of interest, prone to unethical behaviour and, not least, able to generate huge crises, writes the FT’s Martin Wolf. One hopes new financial technology — or “Fintech” as it is known — could change all that. (FT)

Understanding Tim Cook

The Apple CEO’s experiences growing up gay in the tiny town of Robertsdale, Alabama, are key to understanding how a once-quiet tech executive became one of the world’s most outspoken corporate leaders. Apple has long emphasised the privacy of its products, but today Mr Cook talks about privacy not as an attribute of a device, but as a right — a view coloured by his own history. (WaPo)

Women in business

An FT special report explores how female leaders do better, even as they’re losing out to men in the start-up world, how corporate culture must change to retain more senior female staff and what Gloria Steinem has learnt in her decades as a feminist activist. Listen to the first episode of the FT’s new podcast,Irreverent Questions with Mrs Moneypenny, featuring Ms Steinem. (FT)

The thresholds of human memory

Forgetting why you entered a room is called the “Doorway Effect”, and it may reveal as much about the strengths of human memory, as it does the weaknesses. (BBC)

How to stop North Korea

There are ways of causing Pyongyang enough pain to bring it to the negotiating table, says Robert Manning. The US should look at how sanctions against Iran worked. “It should consider ending North Korea’s use of the Swift payments system that would ban international financial transactions, in effect taking away Kim Jong Un’s credit cards.” (FT)

The world’s best cities for millenials

Faced with debt and unemployment, the number of 20 to 34-year-olds living at home with their parents increased by 25 per cent between 1996 and 2013 in the UK. It is a similar story in the US. Here are thetop destinations for those millenials willing to venture further afield. (The Guardian)

Video of the day:

What the migrant deal means

Turkey and Germany have agreed to turn back all Syrians and economic migrants reaching Greek islands in exchange for sweeteners for Ankara. David Gardner, the FT’s international affairs editor, examines what this means for Turkey, Germany and the EU. (FT)