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Ex-U.S. defense secretary Esper: No end in sight for the Iran war. By Alejandra García - October 8, 2026 President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper address the daily White House coronavirus response briefing with members of the administration's coronavirus task force at the White House in Washington, March 18, 2020. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters The U.S.-Iran war could drag on for years, putting America at risk of overlooking China's rise to power, according to President Donald Trump's former defense secretary. During a panel discussion at LSEG and Eurasia Group's GZERO Summit in London, Mark Esper said on Thursday he saw the conflict continuing "well into 2027," with a possibility that it could be handed to the next U.S. administration in three years' time. "At some point, we will reach a point where maybe both sides are willing to come to the table and find a negotiated settlement, but the challenge for president Trump will be he's going to have to get a deal that returns the Strait of Hormuz to the status quo, which is going to be really hard, and is a deal that's better than what [former President Barack Obama] got out of the JCPOA, and I think that's going to be very difficult too," he said. "So the question is, will he be willing to make that deal and live with the consequences or how the critics judge that deal? And so you can see another path where it gets handed off to the next administration in 2029." Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the event, Esper said he does not see an end to the war "in the foreseeable future." Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) servicemen stand in front of an Iranian national flag at Iran's first military training base for "self-sacrificing" forces in southern Tehran, Iran, on September 24, 2026. "I think it continues at this type of pace where we see the American blockade continue, we see occasional outbursts from either side, and it drags along," he said. The war, now in its eighth month, has reached an impasse, with Trump saying Wednesday that making a deal with Tehran "isn't really something that I want to do." According to reports, U.S. officials are considering a resumption of large-scale military operations in the coming weeks. Esper, who served as U.S. Secretary of Defense during Trump's first presidential term from July 2019 to November 2020, said he had long been an advocate for "the economic strangulation" of Iran. But he said such a policy was vulnerable to impatience in Washington. "The challenge is that policy requires time, discipline and patience, and those aren't things that the states are typically good at doing," he said. "So, if allowed to, I think it could have an impact. It doesn't mean it'll actually bring them back to the table, which would be my end, but it's the least worst option at this point in time." Over the summer, Trump announced an intensification of sanctions and economic restrictions on Iran, a strategy he labeled "Economic D-Day." The administration has since touted the success of its economic warfare strategies. A White House official told CNBC Thursday that the U.S. was in "a very strong position with control of the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian economy collapsing." "Iran has been decimated, and things will go one of two ways; the easy way or the hard way," they said. "President Trump will not be played by the Iranian regime," the official added. "The President is satisfied letting the inevitable Iranian collapse play out." Advantage China. But Esper warned Thursday that with attention in Washington focused on the Iran war, America's "greatest adversary" was building up its capabilities. "China is our greatest adversary," he said. "It's the lurking threat out there that we're not paying attention to because we're so focused, and have been for 20 plus years now, on the Middle East, and Europe is focused on Russia." Beijing, he said, was continuing to build economic, technological and diplomatic power, having executed "the largest military buildup in history." "We're just not paying enough attention to the Chinese," Esper told CNBC. "They've told us by 2049 they want to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and the world for all intents and purposes. They want to be able to call the shots and dictate global governance." China had been working to this end for at least 30 years, he said. "Certainly, since their entry into the WTO, they've used the world trading system against us to build their own economic and military power, and they have a game plan," Esper said. He highlighted Beijing's domination of certain industries and goods, such as electric vehicles, rare earths, solar panels and critical materials. This, he said, had been achieved thanks to the Chinese government's ability to "consolidate control" and direct the country's economy in a certain direction. "They have a game plan, and they're and they're executing it," Esper said. "I would focus our efforts on China, and I would do it in partnership with our European and Asian allies, and that would include not just military [alliances], but diplomatic, economic and technological as well." CNBC reached out to the Chinese government for comment. The new era of interactive journalism

HM Treasury appoints Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, others for Digital Gilt Instrument pilot (DIGIT). October 7, 2026 @ 8:29 am By Omar Faridi The United Kingdom has moved its first digitally native government bond closer to market by naming the banks that will lead the pilot sale. On 6 October 2026, HM Treasury appointed Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest and RBC Capital Markets as joint lead managers for the Digital Gilt Instrument, known as DIGIT. The selection, disclosed by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby during a keynote at Digital Assets Week, closes the procurement stage and clears the way for outreach to potential investors. The six firms were chosen through a competitive process that judged candidates against open, objective criteria. Their brief covers conventional lead-manager work: underwriting the issue, engaging investors, and distributing the bond on the day it is sold. Treasury said the group combines experience in ordinary sovereign issuance with familiarity in digital markets, which the government regards as necessary for a transaction that sits at the intersection of both. DIGIT is intended as a short-dated gilt created and recorded on a distributed ledger from the outset, rather than an existing security later represented in digital form. The pilot is scheduled to take place by the first quarter of 2027. It will examine how distributed ledger technology can be used through issuance and the subsequent life of the bond, including settlement recorded on the chain itself. The instrument will be issued on a platform operating inside the Digital Securities Sandbox, a regulatory test environment for new market infrastructure, and will remain outside the government's main debt management program. Rigby described digitalisation as central to the aim of keeping the United Kingdom a global center for digital assets, and called the commitment to a digital gilt a core part of that agenda. She said the appointment of lead managers was a significant step toward an issuance early next year. Officials frame the exercise as a way to test new technology in practice and to turn broader ambitions for digital markets into a concrete transaction. The announcement follows two earlier milestones. In February 2026, HSBC was selected as the distributed-ledger supplier for the pilot. In July, HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group signed a memorandum of understanding to build a bilateral link between digital securities depositories. Treasury expects DIGIT to be listed on the London Stock Exchange's main market as part of the pilot. The government presents the project as one element of a wider effort to digitalise wholesale financial markets and to preserve the UK's competitiveness as ledger-based systems reshape how finance operates. By testing infrastructure itself and by helping set conditions in which firms can innovate and invest, ministers say they are taking an active role in that shift. The pilot has two stated aims: to let the government examine how distributed ledger technology might be applied to sovereign debt issuance, and to encourage the growth of UK-based ledger infrastructure and wider adoption of the technology across domestic financial markets. As other financial centers explore similar systems, officials argue that the scope for growth is clear and that launching a pilot now places the UK sector in a better position to participate. Design features confirmed for the instrument include native digital issuance, a short maturity, operation inside the sandbox, on-chain settlement, and separation from the ordinary gilt program. Sponsored Links by DQ Promote

Devexperts names former Thomson Reuters executive CEO as Ben Hurley leaves. Wednesday, 07/10/2026 | 00:53 GMT-7 by Damian Chmiel * Rainer Fuchsluger took over immediately, two years after his predecessor rose from running the Irish office. * His brief covers cloud and AI as the trading software developer nears its 25th anniversary in 2027. Devexperts has appointed Rainer Fuchsluger, a former senior executive at LSEG and Thomson Reuters, as global group chief executive in place of Ben Hurley. The trading software developer announced the change today (Wednesday). It said Hurley had decided to leave to pursue new opportunities. The move puts an executive from market data and exchange technology in charge of the developer of DXtrade, a white-label platform licensed by retail brokers and prop trading firms. Devexperts says its software is used by more than 20 million traders every day. Hurley joined in 2022 as country manager for Ireland and led a restructuring of the company's operations before he took over as CEO from founder Michael Babushkin in October 2024. He stayed more than four years in all, two of them in the top job. Asian deals in Hurley's final weeks. His last months brought a run of deals in Asia. In September, Devexperts offered South Korean brokers a packaged route into US stock trading, combining DXtrade with dxFeed market data and execution. Five days later it said Indonesia's Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) had cleared DXtrade for use by local brokers. It plans to seek approval from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to serve crypto clients next. A career in market data and exchange technology. Fuchsluger has spent 25 years in financial software, with senior roles at Wolters Kluwer and SS&C Technologies as well as LSEG and Thomson Reuters, the company said. He has worked in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Switzerland. He arrives a year before Devexperts turns 25. His brief at Devexperts is to push cloud computing and AI across the product range and speed up international growth. AI already runs through more than half of its software development pipeline, the privately held company said. "My priority is to stay close to our clients," Fuchsluger said in the statement. Other suppliers of trading software have changed leaders in the past two years. Deus X Capital put former IG technology executive Dom Bradley in charge of TradeLocker, which sells a platform to brokers and prop firms, in July 2025. Devexperts has more than 800 employees across 10 offices, according to the company. Damian Chmiel is a Senior Analyst & Editor at Finance Magnates with more than 15 years of experience in the CFD and online trading industry. Active as both a trader and journalist since 2010, he focuses on broker coverage, fintech innovation, and regulatory developments across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. His work includes interviews with C-level leaders at major brokerages and fintech platforms, as well as co-authoring Finance Magnates' quarterly industry benchmarking reports. Damian's reporting is data-driven, market-aware, and grounded in direct industry engagement. His analysis and commentary have also been cited by external media outlets, including Investing.com, Binance, The Asset, Stockhead, and Dispatch. Education: MA in Finance and Accounting, Cracow University of Economics * 4023 Articles * 117 Followers