Thames Water has blocked a £2.5m bonus payout for nearly two dozen executives after a political backlash, The Telegraph reported. The utility, which is struggling under £21bn of debt, has decided to defer the payment scheme until further notice after MPs labelled the plan an “outrage”. Under the proposal, Thames would have paid 21 senior executives an average of £117,000 each this month as part of a scheme to retain managers who may have quit because of the financial turmoil.

The U.S. Trade Representative on Wednesday announced the implementation of tariff-related ​elements in a trade agreement framework reached ‌with Switzerland and Liechtenstein in November, Reuters reported. The tariff rates announced on ‌November 14 will be retroactive to that date, according to a post in the Federal Register. The notice amends the U.S. tariff schedule to apply either ⁠the most-favored-nation tariff ‌rate or a 15% rate, whichever is higher, to goods from the two ‍countries.

The decade-plus American bankruptcy of property developer Sean Dunne took a major step toward final resolution on Tuesday, after a U.S. judge allowed payments to his two ex-wives, the Irish Times reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Julie A. Manning approved, pending the filing of revised paperwork, more than $2.8 million in payments to Mr Dunne’s two ex-wives. She added she would also rule by Friday on distribution of the remainder of the more than $16 million in the estate.

A council has terminated two multi-million pound government-funded regeneration projects after an audit of one highlighted concerns over governance and finances, BBC.com reported. Somerset Council ended the Life Factory and Glastonbury Food and Regenerative Farming Centre projects, both Glastonbury Town Deal schemes, in November. In a new report, the authority says it is seeking repayment of more than £2.4m in grant funding from Red Brick Building Centre Ltd, a community benefit society (CBS) that was the grant recipient of both projects.

U.K. joblessness climbed in the three months through October as signs of a softening labor market gathered pace, raising expectations that the Bank of England will cut its benchmark interest rate at its final meeting of the year this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The headline rate of unemployment crept up to 5.1% in August-October, from 5.0% in the three months through September, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The BOE’s rate-setting committee is split.

The U.K.’s Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in a long-running $13 billion lawsuit brought by Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) investors, supporting lower-court rulings that narrowed claims against major crypto exchanges over the token’s delisting, CoinDesk.com reported. In a brief decision released on Dec. 8, the court said BSV Claims Limited's “application does not raise an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance”.

Millions of Britons will be allowed to dabble in a risky form of cryptocurrency trading under fresh plans from the City watchdog to regulate digital assets, The Telegraph reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Tuesday said that retail investors will be permitted to access crypto borrowing services, where individuals trade assets such as Bitcoin that they have borrowed but do not actually own. Read more.

Greece completed an early repayment of €5.3bn in loans from its first eurozone bailout programme this week, EuroNews.com reported. The settlement of the debt, originally scheduled to mature after 2031 or even into the 2040s, marks a positive step in Greece’s decades-long effort to stabilise its public finances. Coordinated by the European Commission, the payment is a strong indication that the country is relying less on crisis-era debt and lowering the burden of future interest payments.

German insurers are the most exposed in Europe to illiquid corporate bonds, a top watchdog said in one of the most detailed reports to date on the industry’s investments in private credit. At €91.8 billion ($108 billion), more than 40% of German insurers’ bond holdings were in unlisted notes at the end of last year, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority said on Monday in Frankfurt. Excluding index- or unit-linked investments, European insurers held about €1.2 trillion of corporate bonds, of which some 13% were illiquid or unlisted.

The U.K. economy contracted for a second straight month in October, cementing expectations that the Bank of England will lower its key interest rate later this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Economic activity dipped 0.1% on month in October, the Office for National Statistics said Friday, after a 0.1% fall in September. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a 0.1% increase. The contraction in October makes a rate cut by the BOE at its next meeting on Thursday more likely, as concerns over growth mount.