Private investors facing multimillion-pound losses in the £2 billion collapse of a UK mortgage lender have met to discuss “collective action” to protect their interests, The Times reported. Individual investors and Wall Street and City institutions have been caught up in the failure of Market Financial Solutions, a provider of bridging loans and buy-to-let mortgages. The Mayfair-based group was placed into administration last week after a High Court judge said insolvency practitioners needed to investigate claims of fraud.

Unions have expressed their anger at the way hundreds of Brewdog staff were told they had lost their jobs during a 15-minute conference call, BBC.com reported. Parts of the Aberdeenshire-based independent brewer and pub chain were bought by beverage and cannabis firm Tilray for £33m on Monday after Brewdog went into administration. But 484 staff were made redundant as the company announced the closure of dozens of bars which were not included in the rescue deal. The announcement came after Tilray bought the company's UK brewing operations, brand, and 11 pubs.

British and U.S. regulators are divided over how to ​test blockchain-based versions of financial securities, with Britain pushing for a more cautious approach in talks aimed ‌at boosting crypto collaboration, Reuters reported. The U.S. and Britain announced in September a taskforce for reducing regulation for companies seeking to access each other’s markets and to improve digital asset cooperation. The split shows how financial regulators globally have to contend with a pro-crypto U.S. under President Donald Trump. The ​U.S. has eased crypto regulation and encouraged cryptocurrency adoption.

Manroland Sheetfed has entered into a “protective shield” form of insolvency proceedings, with the support of parent Langley Holdings, PrintWeek.com reported. Last month Langley Holdings said that mounting losses at the “beleaguered” press manufacturing subsidiary had become unsustainable – the business lost €43.2m (£37.64m) last year – and the board was considering its options for the business. Today (3 March), Langley announced that Manroland Sheetfed had entered ‘Schutzschirmverfahren’ insolvency proceedings, similar to chapter 11 in the US, with Langley providing financial support.

Eurozone inflation rose unexpectedly in February, fresh data showed on Tuesday, complicating the European Central Bank’s (ECB) disinflation narrative just as a fast-moving war in Middle East threatens to reignite a new energy shock for Europe, EuroNews.com reported. Euro area annual inflation came in at 1.9% in February 2026, up from 1.7% in January, according to Eurostat’s flash estimate. Economists had expected the rate to hold steady. On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased by 0.7% — the strongest monthly rise since March 2024.

The U.K. government is on track to cut borrowing and reduce its debts, although the attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel have made the outlook more uncertain, Treasury Chief Rachel Reeves said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the first of two annual presentations to lawmakers, Reeves cited new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility that estimate the budget deficit for the fiscal year ending early next month will be 4.3% of annual economic output, the smallest gap between expenditures and revenues since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

British dealmaking reached a 26-year high in the first two months of the year as foreign buyers raced to snap up UK companies, The Telegraph reported. Almost $90bn (£68bn) worth of deals were agreed in January and February this year, including a number of major foreign takeovers such as a multi-billion-dollar deal for insurer Beazley. The $89.9bn of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity marks the highest total for the two months since the same period in 2000, when the value of deals reached $131bn.

The spread of stablecoins in the euro zone could weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy, siphon deposits away from ‌banks and reduce lending to the real economy, a study published by ‌the European Central Bank showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Stablecoins, crypto assets designed to maintain a stable value, remain ​niche but their rapid growth has raised concerns that regulation is not keeping pace with a product that could reshape commercial and central banking.

Prices in the Irish economy rose by an average 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to the end of February, according to a flash estimate for inflation published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Irish Times reported. The latest estimate of price growth comes at a pivotal moment for the global economy with conflict in the Middle East causing a sudden spike in energy prices.

The European Central Bank should be prepared to quickly move its key interest rate in either direction if some of the potential threats to the eurozone economy arising from a fresh increase in uncertainty come to pass, Austria’s central bank governor said, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB has kept rates on hold since June last year, with annual inflation having hovered close to the bank’s 2% medium-term target for much of 2025.