A cross-party coalition of U.K. lawmakers has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to step in and ensure Britain’s regulatory framework for stablecoins doesn’t stifle innovation or drive capital overseas, warning that the Bank of England’s current proposals risk risks undermining the City of London's appeal as the global financial hub, CoinDesk.com reported. In a letter dated Dec.

Nationwide has been hit with a record fine after failing to spot a customer’s £27.3m furlough fraud, The Telegraph reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ordered the British lender to pay £44m as a result of its failings, which included the incident during Covid. The City watchdog revealed in a ruling on Friday that a Nationwide customer deposited £26m into their current account over the space of eight days, having received 24 furlough payments totalling £27.3m over 13 months. HMRC was able to recover £26.5m from the fraud, but roughly £800,000 remains unaccounted for.

Leon is preparing to shut 20 restaurants and cut jobs as its co-founder scrambles to turn around the business, The Telegraph reported. John Vincent, who repurchased the fast food chain in October, said Leon would reduce its estate from 70 to 50 locations across the country. The struggling chain has hired administrators to oversee a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a legally sanctioned restructuring that will allow the business to push through closures.

Manchester United swung to a first-quarter net loss on Thursday, weighed by lower broadcasting revenue and ticket sales as the club sits out European competitions this season, Reuters reported. The Old Trafford club posted a net loss of 6.6 million pounds ($8.83 million) for the quarter ended September 30, compared with a profit of 1.4 million pounds a year ago. Total revenue for the quarter fell 2%, with player and staff wages falling 8.2% due to job cuts.

Homeowners have taken on the largest amount of risky mortgages since 2008 as new buyers stretch the budget to get on the housing ladder, The Telegraph reported. The proportion of home loans made with deposits of less than 10pc has jumped to 7.4pc of all mortgage advances, according to Bank of England figures on Tuesday – the highest level since the second quarter of 2008. This was 0.8 percentage points higher than a year ago and echoes mortgage debt levels not seen since the run-up to the catastrophic 2007-08 financial crash.

A major £13.8m redevelopment is set to begin in the new year - despite the council facing bankruptcy, BBC.com reported. Gloucester City Council's cabinet members will vote later on releasing £4m to start phase one of the Greyfriars Quarter, which will see Eastgate Market relocated to Bell Walk. Under the wider scheme, a new market and food hall will also be created, as well as a park and gardens, all set within the grounds of the 13th Century Greyfriars monastery.

U.K. household spending fell at its fastest pace since the pandemic last month, as families cut back amid growing fears over the economy, The Telegraph reported. Spending on credit and debit cards fell 1.1pc compared with November of last year, according to data from Barclays, the steepest annual drop since February 2021, when the country was still battling strict Covid restrictions. The fall comes despite weeks of discount offers in the run-up to Christmas, particularly those relating to Black Friday late last month.

Scottish mountain bike brand, Deviate Cycles Limited, is insolvent, and the directors have been working with their professional advisers to try to find a buyer. Offers made were deemed insufficient, and so co-founder Ben Jones has stepped in to buy the company's assets, PinBike.com reported. Jones explained that Deviate Cycles, like too many bicycle brands, found itself in financial difficulty in the latter half of 2025 after major delays to stock availability. Stock that was supposed to arrive in the UK and be available for sale in summer did not arrive until late autumn.

Administrators to Petrofac, the collapsed oilfield services company, are racing to secure a sale of its North Sea operations by Christmas - a move which could save thousands of British jobs. Sky News understands that Teneo, which is handling Petrofac's insolvency, received a handful of bids for its profitable UK business late last week. City sources said the administrators wanted to sign a deal with a purchaser before the end of the year.

The Bank of England said on Thursday that it was launching a stress test of how the $16 trillion global private equity and private credit industries would deal with a major financial shock, Reuters reported. The central bank said the system-wide exploratory scenario will produce a final report in early 2027 which will focus on the impact on the British economy as a whole, rather than publishing details on the vulnerabilities of individual firms. "Private equity and private credit play an increasingly valuable role in helping UK companies to innovate, invest and grow.