The Bank of England is poised to become the outlier among big central banks, with UK policymakers favouring a “wait and see” approach as their US and European counterparts prepare fresh stimulus, the Financial Times reported. The US Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates this week, and the European Central Bank last week paved the way to cut rates and relaunch asset purchases in the face of persistently low inflation. But the UK’s monetary policy committee (MPC) is in an anomalous position.

Sterling plunged to 28-month lows on Monday and headed for its biggest daily fall against the dollar since November as investors scrambled to factor in the risk of a no-deal Brexit and the possibility of a snap election, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A still-deeper fall in sterling remains on the cards; all metrics show that a disorderly British exit from the European Union is far from being fully priced in.

German car parts maker Leoni has started holding meetings with prospective buyers for its wire and cables division, which it has put on the block in a bid to bolster its cash position, people close to the matter said, Reuters reported. After sending out information packages earlier this month, Leoni’s management is holding informal talks with potential bidders, they said. Preparations for a listing of the unit have been put on the backburner given market conditions, they added.

Harland and Wolff, the historic Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, is racing to find a buyer to avoid collapsing into administration as workers called on Boris Johnson to intervene to avert its closure, the Financial Times reported. Workers locked themselves inside the gates and warned they would not leave until a resolution is found to enable the 158-year-old yard to remain open. The collapse of one of Britain’s oldest shipyards would be likely to raise questions about the government’s national shipbuilding strategy.

Allied Irish Banks reported lower first-half profits on Friday as costs rose and exceptional charges slowed its recovery a decade after Ireland’s banking crash. Profit before tax was 436 million euros ( £390.46 million ), including exceptional items of 131 million euro, Reuters reported. That compared with 762 million in the same period last year. Chief Financial Officer Donal Galvin told Reuters two exceptional items affected performance in the first half, namely a 35 million euro provision for a tracker mortgage fine and a provision related to a loan documentation issue.

Struggling British baby products retailer Mothercare Plc said on Friday its annual underlying pretax profit would not grow, as it grapples with an uncertain and volatile home market along with fragile consumer confidence, Reuters reported. Mothercare, which floated in 1972 and has been a mainstay of British shopping streets, has closed a third of its British stores over the past year through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).

The largest shareholder in Cobham has come out against the company’s agreed £4bn takeover by US private equity fund Advent International, arguing that it does not see the deal as “compelling,” the Financial Times reported..

Earlier this week BlackRock executive Rick Rieder urged the European Central Bank to stimulate the eurozone economy by printing money and using it to buy equities, the Financial Times reported. This idea has attracted rather less comment than it should have, even though it’s not a new idea. The Bank of Japan has been buying domestic equities for years: it owns about 75 per cent of the country’s exchange traded fund market and is a top 10 shareholder in 40 per cent of Japan’s listed companies.

Primark is asking landlords to cut its rents in an attempt to compete with rivals that used insolvency proceedings to reduce costs and remain open, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information, Bloomberg News reported. The fast-fashion retailer is asking for cuts of as much as 30% on contracts with several years left in exchange for lease extensions or refurbishments, according to the newspaper. Primark has 189 stores, most of which are leased, it said.

Croatian food company Fortenova Grupa, the Balkan region’s biggest firm by sales, said on Friday that more than 80% of its shareholders had supported the issuance of a four-year bond worth up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), Reuters reported. The bond is aimed at financing a 1.1 billion euro liquidity loan the firm, formerly known as Agrokor, took two years ago to avoid bankruptcy, the company said in a statement. That followed an expansion drive based on high and expensive debt.