Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Monday, May 4th,

and this is your FT news briefing.

U.S. and European banks are betting on bad loans

to a degree they haven't since the 2008 financial crisis.

And the global market sell-off pushed Berkshire Hathaway to a $50 billion loss in the first

quarter.

Plus the FT's deputy editor, Patrick Jenkins, explains how Black Rock's small consultancy

division came to have a growing influence on a number of governments.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

More than 50 billion dollars, that's how much US and European banks are expected to book against bad loans in the first quarter.

They're bracing themselves for the severe damage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now we've seen some of these numbers come in already. U.S. banks have

been the most cautious booking $25 billion in the first quarter. So far European banks have reported

an increase in provisions to 16 billion euros. But we'll see and report earnings. And when they do, the level of first quarter provisions across U.S. and European

Banks is expected to reach a level not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis.

One outlier, Deutsche Bank. It set aside just 500 million euros in the first quarter.

Then again, while many banks book their highest loan loss provision since the global

financial crisis in the past week, Deutia has posted at least seven quarters in the

past decade with greater loan loss charges. Over the weekend, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a first-quarter loss of nearly $50 billion.

This was brought on by the pandemic-induced sharp global sell-off we saw in March.

But these losses could be softened in the next quarter, considering the recent direction of the

...