The number of retail and hospitality business insolvencies declined throughout 2025 as the overall number of company closures remained steady, new data from professional services firm PwC shows, the Irish Examiner reported. The latest PwC Insolvency Barometer shows the number of insolvencies recorded in 2025 hit 848 which is down from the 868 recorded in 2024. However, it is still higher than the 736 in 2023. There was an average 204 insolvencies in each quarter since the start of 2023.

Claire’s Accessories is on the brink of collapse for the second time in six months after it was struck by Rachel Reeves’s tax raid, The Telegraph reported. The jewelery and accessories chain has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk just days into the new year. Fresh turmoil comes just months after Claire’s Accessories collapsed into administration before being rescued in September.

An American oil and gas giant is preparing to mothball one of Britain’s last remaining oil refineries after buying the business out of administration, The Telegraph reported. The Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, one of the last five major oil refineries in the country, will not restart standalone operations after it was sold to Phillips 66 on Monday. The Texas-based oil and gas giant said that the site’s limited size meant it was “not viable in current form”, instead claiming it would integrate some smaller parts of the site into its nearby Humber refinery.

HSBC has started bankruptcy petitions against the brothers Aidan and Howard Barclay amid large debts owed from the family’s collapsed logistics business, The Times reported. The bank filed the cases in the High Court in December against Aidan Barclay, 69, and Howard Barclay, 66, senior members of the Barclay family whose business empire had dramatically unravelled in recent years. HSBC retrieved only about £1.1 million of its £143.5 million secured loan from the administration of Logistics Group.

Hundreds of British hospitality workers face losing their jobs in the coming days as the owner of TGI Fridays finalises plans to buy back a slimmed-down version of one of Britain's best-known casual dining chains, Sky News reported. Sugarloaf TGIF Management, which only took control of TGI Fridays two months ago, is preparing to implement a pre-pack administration of the business in a deal which is expected to take place next week. Insiders said that a transaction was expected to involve the closure of a significant proportion of the estate's 49 restaurants.

Euro zone manufacturing activity shrank further in December but Asia's factory powerhouses closed 2025 on a firmer footing backed by a rebound in export orders and growing demand for artificial intelligence, private surveys showed, Reuters reported. Factory activity in the common currency bloc slid into deeper contraction last month as production decreased for the first time in 10 months on further declines in new orders. The HCOB Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, fell to 48.8 in December from 49.6 in November.

2025 was a difficult year for businesses in Belgium with bankruptcies reaching their highest level since 2013, VRT.be reported. A total of 11,697 insolvency rulings were recorded last year, an increase of 5.9% compared with 2024. The figures come from the financial services company Graydon. The rise in the number of bankruptcies in Belgium was driven entirely by sharp increases in the number of companies filing for insolvency in Flanders and Brussels. In Wallonia there were slightly fewer bankruptcies in 2025 than there were in 2024.

A domestic supplier of electronic components, Quantum, intends to file a bankruptcy petition against Angstrom Research and Production Association, www1.ru reported. The company underpaid more than 20 million rubles for the supply of components. The announcement of Quantum's plans appeared in the register of legally significant information at the end of November 2025. Preliminary, Angstrom Research and Production Association underpaid for the supply of electronic components. In this regard, a lawsuit was filed against the enterprise.

Italy's foreign ministry said on Thursday the United States had sharply lowered proposed duties ​on several Italian pasta makers following a reassessment of ‌their U.S. activities, Reuters reported. In October, the United States said that 13 Italian pasta companies ‌would face an extra 92% duty - on top of the regular 15% rate on most EU imports - from January 2026, accusing two producers in particular, La Molisana and Garofalo, of selling pasta ⁠at unfairly low prices. However, ‌after a review, the U.S.

According to a new Morgan Stanley analysis reported by the Financial Times, more than 200,000 European banking jobs could vanish by 2030 as lenders lean into AI and shutter physical branches. That’s roughly 10% of the workforce at 35 major banks, TechCrunch.com reported. The bloodletting will hit hardest in back-office operations, risk management, and compliance, the unglamorous guts of banking where algorithms are believed capable of tearing through spreadsheets faster and more effectively than humans.