The Bank of England is in no rush to raise interest rates while the outcome of the Iran war remains uncertain and the UK’s growth rate stays weak, its governor, Andrew Bailey, has said, the Guardian reported. In a signal that borrowing costs will remain at 3.75% at least during the summer, Bailey said it was tolerable for inflation to stay above the Bank’s 2% target during the current crisis. However, that would change if a more permanent increase in prices began to take effect, he said.

French inflation this month climbed to its highest level in more than two years as energy prices continued to rise in response to the war in Iran, putting the European Central Bank on course to raise interest rates for the first time since 2023 when it next meets in June, the Wall Street Journal reported. Annual inflation in the eurozone’s largest economies had been trending downward toward the end of last year, reaching 0.4% in France in January. However, it rose sharply in March after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drove prices of oil and natural gas higher.

EasyJet is facing a potential takeover from US private equity giant Castlelake as the low-cost airline grapples with the fallout from the Iran war, The Telegraph reported. In a statement released on Friday evening, Castlelake confirmed that it is in the “early stages of considering a possible offer” for the FTSE 250 airline. It added that “no approach has been made to the board of easyJet” and there was no certainty that it would make a bid for the company.

UK Insolvency and Companies Court judge Mark Mullen has lambasted global firm Pinsent Masons over twice misusing artificial intelligence in its work, CanadianLawyerMag.com reported. The judge called out London-based partner Steven Cottee and solicitor Samantha Poulton for failing to check the work of a junior lawyer, whose name was not disclosed. The junior lawyer, who was given the moniker “LA,” had included AI-hallucinated references in the firm’s submissions in the matter of Cork & Anor v Smith.

First Abu Dhabi Bank is at risk of being pulled into insolvency proceedings tied to 60 London property companies connected to the collapse of mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions, TradersUnion.com reported. The exposure centres on loans made by the bank’s Swiss unit over the past year against residential assets in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Kensington.

Thousands of people in the U.K. have told a parliamentary inquiry that they did not understand the terms and conditions on their student loans before they took them out, BBC.com reported. More than 52,000 people responded to a call for evidence by the Treasury Committee for its inquiry on the taxation of graduates - more than half said they did not understand what they had signed up for. The inquiry is looking at all student loan plans in England and whether repayment terms are "reasonable".

The British government sanctioned crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun’s global crypto exchange HTX on suspicion of supporting the Russian government, placing a spotlight on a billionaire who until recently was a key backer of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. Foreign Office said that HTX provided financial services to two businesses strategically significant to authorities in Russia: a Kremlin-backed crypto network called A7, and a Moscow-based crypto exchange named Garantex. Both have been previously sanctioned by U.S. authorities.