U.K. consumer borrowing remained resilient in December, shaking off concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of England said unsecured lending rose by 831 million pounds ($1.1 billion), double the pace economists had expected. New mortgage approvals surged to 71,015, defying forecasts for a drop. Consumer borrowing was not far off November’s level of 999 million pounds, which was the strongest month since the lifting of restrictions in July 2020.

British house price growth accelerated in January, marking the strongest start to any year since 2005, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. House prices jumped by 0.8% in January, following a 1.1% increase in December. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.6% increase last month. House prices stood 11.2% higher than their level in January 2021, the fastest annual growth since June and again outstripping the consensus forecast for a rise of 10.8%.

Up to £500 million in Bounce Back loans were given to companies which then went bust, the Mirror reported. Almost 10,000 businesses have stopped trading or gone into administration after taking taxpayer-funded cash to help them in the pandemic. The staggering sum is on top of the £5.8billion extracted by fraudsters from the emergency Covid schemes like furlough and Eat Out To Help Out. The new details emerged after the minister for counter-fraud, Lord Agnew, resigned in anger at the Government’s inability to tackle scams.

France assumed Germany’s traditional role as the driving economic force in Europe after a strong finish to last year, while the German economy contracted in the final three months as it grappled with a resurgence of the coronavirus, official data showed Friday, the New York Times reported. Economists expect growth across Europe to return to pre-pandemic levels in the first part of this year but with the pace varying by country.

A U.K. tribunal against KPMG LLP and several of its former employees raises questions whether junior auditors can be held liable for alleged misconduct, a rare case that comes as the Financial Reporting Council works to broaden its enforcement efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The audit and accounting regulator’s disciplinary tribunal, which on Monday is set to enter its fourth week, centers on the claim that the professional-services firm forged documents and provided misleading information during audit inspections.

Swiss prosecutors are pursuing around 42.4 million Swiss francs ($45.5 million) in compensation from Credit Suisse in a money-laundering trial due to begin on Feb. 7, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC) said on Monday, Reuters reported. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) indicted the bank in December 2020 after an investigation into the activities of a Bulgarian crime ring involving top-level wrestlers accused of laundering profits from cocaine trafficking.

A record number of companies in England and Wales went into a voluntary form of insolvency in the final three months of last year, as COVID support and protection from creditors was phased out, Reuters reported. During the last quarter of 2021, there were 4,175 creditors’ voluntary liquidations - where directors agree to wind up a company without a formal court order - the highest number since records began in 1960, new government figures showed.

Swiss banks have criticised planned new measures designed to cool the country's red hot property market, saying the steps were unnecessary and would do nothing to slow rising house prices, Bloomberg News reported. The government said on Wednesday that from October, lenders must increase their cushion against home lending risks, sounding the alarm over one of Europe's most expensive housing markets, where total mortgage lending has swollen to more than $1 trillion.

Britain hopes to secure significant progress in post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union by February and win the support of pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland opposed to the current arrangements, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, Reuters reported. Truss was speaking on Thursday during a visit to Belfast, where she spoke to politicians and business people about their concerns about post-Brexit restrictions on trade between the British region and the rest of the United Kingdom. "I want to make significant progress by February. That's important.

Two former Deutsche Bank AG traders were cleared by an appeals court in the latest blow to the troubled transatlantic crackdown on manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, Bloomberg News reported. Matthew Connolly and Gavin Black were found guilty of wire fraud in 2018 for rigging Deutsche Bank’s Libor submission. But the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Thursday threw out their convictions, saying prosecutors failed to prove the two men influenced the bank into making false or misleading submissions. Prosecutors in the U.S. and the U.K.