There is “significant uncertainty” about the ability of weaker UK home owners whose debt was bundled into residential mortgage-backed securities to repay the principal when the loans mature, according to Fitch Ratings, Bloomberg News reported. Sharp rises in mortgage rates have led to a spike in so-called nonconforming borrowers failing to make their full monthly payments. In an index of those home loans tracked by the ratings agency, arrears of one month or more surged 11.1 percentage points to 24.2% from December 2021 through November 2024.

The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it will share $50 million in forfeited assets with Estonia in recognition of Estonia's assistance in the successful prosecution of Danske Bank and related forfeiture, Reuters reported. The bank became the subject of several investigations after an internal probe in September 2018 uncovered about 200 billion euros ($207 billion) of payments made through its now-shuttered Estonian branch, with many payments appearing suspicious.

Northvolt AB is asking for shareholder approval to keep building battery cells while the bankrupt electric-vehicle supplier seeks the new funding needed to emerge from chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported. The extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Northvolt’s Stockholm headquarters is billed as a “procedural step” by the company. The gathering, announced in December, is required when equity falls below one-half of registered share capital, spokesman Martin Hofelmann said in an email.

The U.K.’s long-term borrowing costs surged to the highest level in more than a quarter of a century, raising the prospect of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves needing to raise taxes again in order to meet her fiscal rules, Bloomberg News reported. The yield on 30-year gilts climbed four basis points to 5.22% on Tuesday after the first of a string of bond sales due over the coming weeks.

A surge in Christmas holiday spending wasn’t enough to rescue U.K. retailers from anemic growth for 2024 as a whole, with economic woes continuing to depress confidence among British shoppers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail sales increased by 3.2% on year in the four weeks to Dec. 28, a vital shopping season when consumers buy gifts, food and drinks for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

A crafting company founded by Sara Davies, the entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den panellist, is set to appoint administrators as part of a pre-pack insolvency of the business, The Times reported. Crafter’s Companion, which Davies, 40, turned from a start-up in her university bedroom into an international seller of paper craft, art and sewing products, is preparing to appoint administrators at Interpath as part of a fast-track process. A notice of intention to appoint administrators was filed at the High Court in recent days by Growth Partner, the business’s majority shareholder.

Switzerland’s inflation rate edged down in the final month of 2024, reinforcing the Swiss central bank’s decision to cut its key rate for the fourth-straight meeting last month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 0.6% higher in December than the same month of 2023, down from the annual inflation rate of 0.7% posted in November, the country’s statistics agency said Tuesday. December’s rate was the same as October’s level, which was the lowest since June 2021.