Britain’s J. Murphy & Sons Limited has bought Carillion’s UK power framework business for an undisclosed sum, the privately held engineering and construction company said on Wednesday. It will take over Carillion’s position on National Grid’s overhead electricity lines, substation and underground cable framework contracts and Carillion employees will join Murphy, the company said.

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says a buildup of debt needs to be more closely monitored to ensure it doesn’t spark the next financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported. “The areas of weakness in the current system are really focused on the amount of debt that exists, not just in the U.S. and U.K. but across the world,” he said on Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. “Debt in the private sector relative to GDP is higher now than it was in 2007, and of course public debt is even higher still.” The level of bad loans in European banks and tax cuts in the U.S.

The European Commission warned financial market volatility poses a threat to the eurozone’s booming economy, as it unveiled new forecasts showing that the currency bloc is growing at its fastest pace for a decade, the Financial Times reported. The Commission estimates the eurozone grew by 2.4 per cent in 2017, exceeding expectations by 0.2 percentage points.

A deal to sell National Bank of Greece's insurance unit to U.S. and Dutch investors looked fragile after a legal row erupted between the two buyers on Wednesday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. U.S. investor Calamos Family Partners (CFP) said in an emailed statement it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Dutch EXIN Financial Services Holdings for defaulting on loans.

The chairman of Carillion said he took “full and complete” responsibility for the construction firm’s collapse, which has put thousands of jobs on the line and left creditors, suppliers and pensioners facing losses of millions of pounds. Employing nearly 18,000 people in Britain, Carillion failed on Jan. 15 when its banks halted funding, triggering Britain’s biggest corporate demise in a decade and forcing the government to step in to guarantee vital public services, Reuters reported.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that, for a leader of the U.K.’s party of business, Prime Minister Theresa May has had plenty of corporate headaches in her 18 months in power. None have been more spectacular than Carillion Plc, the construction giant whose collapse last month threatens to make politically toxic the notion of governments outsourcing to cut costs, Bloomberg News reported. At a parliamentary hearing, lawmakers Tuesday accused its management of being “asleep at the wheel.” Here is a snapshot of how U.K. Plc is going to keep giving May grief.

The U.K. economy is being bailed out by stronger growth in the euro area and the rest of the world, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Bloomberg News reported. A better-than-expected global expansion accounted for about a third of the increase in U.K. gross domestic product last year, explaining the nation’s stronger-than-forecast performance in the wake of the Brexit vote, the think tank said in a report Wednesday. The resulting boost to trade, at a time when future commerce relationships remain uncertain, was “critical” for the U.K.

Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday denied a British lawmaker's allegation that its executives misled a parliamentary committee over the extent to which the bank mistreated small businesses during and after the financial crisis, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The chief executive and chairman of state-owned RBS were questioned extensively last week by Britain's Treasury Select Committee (TSC) over a restructuring unit that is alleged to have pushed struggling firms into bankruptcy in order to be able to pick up their assets on the cheap.

Intesa Sanpaolo on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious four-year plan to almost halve its stock of bad loans and boost net income, the Financial Times reported. The long-awaited strategy reboot aims to rebuild investor confidence after a turbulent period for Italy’s banking industry in which Intesa has remained profitable but has seen momentum slow. Shares in Intesa, one of Italy’s most healthiest banks, rose 1.8 per cent despite volatility on global markets, as Carlo Messina, the chief executive, revealed the new business plan.

Most of Carillion’s Canadian business, including facilities management at airports, hospitals and defence sites, is to be taken over by the insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings for an undisclosed amount, the Financial Times reported. More than 4,500 of Carillion Canada’s 7,000 employees will transfer to Toronto-based Fairfax, which has agreed to take over its support services functions, both companies announced on Monday.