A British fintech company that was forced into insolvency just over six months ago has secured a multimillion-pound funding boost as it sets its sights on a more measured growth path. Sky News understands that Railsr, the trading name of Embedded Finance, will announce in the coming days that it has struck a deal with investors to raise $24m (£19.8m). The funding is predominantly from existing investors, including D Squared Capital and Moneta Venture Capital, which people close to Railsr said reflected their confidence in the company's growth potential and strategy.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde just visited the scene of one of the bleakest moments in the euro’s history, and managed to avoid creating another one for now, Bloomberg News reported. Speaking in Athens after one of the ECB’s occasional gatherings away from its Frankfurt home, she unveiled the first pause in interest-rate hikes since June 2022, and insisted any faster wind-down in bond holdings — a prospect that could heap pressure on highly indebted Italy — wasn’t even discussed.

On Oct. 26, the European Central Bank snapped a 15-month streak of rate hikes by keeping borrowing costs on hold at a record high, echoing the recent actions of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. The stage is now set for the world's major rate setters to telegraph how long it will take them to declare their battle against inflation over and to start cutting rates, following the most aggressive monetary tightening cycle in decades, Reuters reported. So far, nine developed economies have raised rates by acombined 3,965 basis points (bps) in this cycle, starting September 2021.

The risk premium on Italian government debt fell on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates on hold and said it would keep reinvesting the proceeds of its pandemic-era bond purchases until the end of next year, Reuters reported. The ECB held interest rates at the record high level of 4%, ending an unprecedented streak of 10 consecutive hikes. The euro and European stocks pared earlier losses as investors also digested strong U.S. growth data.

Russia’s reimposition of capital controls achieved in one go what three interest-rate increases by the central bank couldn’t do for the ruble, Bloomberg News reported. It doesn’t mean policymakers are done hiking. Despite the world’s biggest currency rally over the past month, the Bank of Russia is set on Friday to extend a cycle of monetary tightening that began in July when the pace of the ruble’s depreciation was just picking up. The exchange rate later weakened to levels unseen since the aftermath of last year’s invasion of Ukraine.

It might never be possible to know precisely how an economy is performing in any given moment. But recently it has gotten harder to get a clear picture of Britain’s economy, particularly the labor market, the New York Times reported. This month, Britain’s Office for National Statistics delayed the release of its flagship report on jobs to give itself more time “to produce the best possible estimates” of how many people are working or not.

Corporate insolvencies in Scotland rose 19.9% during the second quarter, when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and rose by 4.8% compared to the same period last year, Business Insider reported. Meanwhile, personal insolvency numbers in Scotland saw no real change, with a decrease of just 0.05% - which equates to a single case - to a total of 2,074. Personal insolvency numbers also fell by 40.2%, when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Landlords have been warned that the Renters (Reform) Bill could cost them dearly, despite plans to abolish Section 21 evictions being kicked into the long grass, PropertyIndustryEye.com reported. According to Landlord Licensing & Defence, the bill will bring in a raft of new enforcement measures against landlords that could result in massive fines and “even bankruptcy for some”.

Germany’s business outlook improved slightly, supporting expectations for Europe’s largest economy to rebound modestly — even as it faces a possible second recession in just over a year, Bloomberg News reported. An expectations index by the Ifo institute rose to 84.7 in October, up from a revised 83.1 the previous month. That beat the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey for an increase to 83.5. A measure of current conditions unexpectedly advanced. “What we see here does suggest that we see a certain stabilization,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.

Interest-rate cuts by the European Central Bank could come as soon as March and will be more significant than markets currently price in, strategists at NatWest Markets write in a note. They expect 100 basis points of ECB rate cuts in 2024, more than the close to 60 basis points priced in by the market. “Even if a March cut does not materialise, we do think that we could see more priced in relative to current market pricing and perhaps in quicker succession,” they write.