Personal insolvency figures are likely to show a slight fall, although many people are still living on the brink with "unmanageable" debts, analysts have warned, The Press Association reported. The Insolvency Service is set to publish its report for the second quarter of this year, after the one for the first quarter showed the number of people declared bankrupt had risen for the first time in a year.

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP’s U.K. administrators proposed liquidating the defunct law firm’s British assets last week a day after the German operations were put in insolvency proceedings by a Frankfurt court, Bloomberg reported. The U.K. partnership, which includes the London and Paris offices, should be moved into liquidation, administrators at BDO LLP said in a July 27 regulatory filing. White & Case LLP attorney Andreas Kleinschmidt was appointed preliminary administrator July 26 in Germany, according to the country’s online insolvency registry. Dewey’s U.S.

Mouchel Group Plc said it agreed to a restructuring that will give its lenders a majority interest in the British infrastructure firm and delist the company to avert an impending debt default, Reuters reported. The restructuring -- supported by Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays -- will result in the lenders releasing 87 million pounds of Mouchel's existing debt for a majority stake in the company. After the debt-for-equity swap, Mouchel will be left with 60 million pounds of outstanding debt.

Creditors of bankrupt refiner Petroplus's UK operations, mainly the Coryton refinery, will be paid a maximum of just 6.4 percent of their claims, said Steven Pearson, a joint administrator at PwC. The creditors will receive $102 million to $135 million, while their claims are estimated to total $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion, Pearson said on Tuesday. He said that losses of $22-$31 million, sustained in runnning the refinery between January and June, had reduced the amount available for distribution and demonstrated why he had to take the decision to close the plant down.

Four years ago, Stephen Hester was cast as the savior of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC as it was being bailed out by U.K. taxpayers. Now the 51-year-old chief executive may risk having his tenure cut short by the latest scandal to hit the state-owned lender, The Wall Street Journal reported. RBS is negotiating a settlement with authorities investigating attempted interest-rate rigging at RBS and other banks, and a deal, including fines, could be announced in the next few months, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.K. firms were gloomier about their own prospects in July, as the global outlook for trade deteriorated while the euro zone's debt crisis deepened, a trend that signals the country's economy could weaken further in the third quarter, a survey by Lloyds banking Group showed Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hiring intentions among U.K. firms also fell and more companies were downbeat about expected profit margins, the survey showed.

The high street continued to be one of the areas of the economy most affected by the slowdown in growth in the UK, as data showed that the number of retail insolvencies rose 10.3 per cent last quarter even as the overall number of companies failing dropped, the Financial Times reported. There were 426 retail insolvencies recorded for the three months to June 30, according to research by PwC, compared with 386 in the same period in 2011. Retail insolvencies accounted for over a tenth of the overall number of corporate insolvencies in England and Wales recorded in the period.

The U.K.'s economy suffered a much larger contraction than expected in the second quarter, heightening questions about the pace and effectiveness of the government's austerity program and fueling the broader debate across Europe about how to tackle the Continent's economic woes, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deteriorating British economy is likely to intensify this debate both within the U.K. and other debt-laden countries in the West about cuts versus stimulus amid increasing evidence that austerity is proving a major drag on growth.

The economic impact of sodden summer was laid bare on Thursday by dire news from major retailers showing that torrential rain had hurt already weak demand in an economy showing few signs of pulling out of recession, Reuters reported. Shops selling everything from home-improvement items to sportswear and goods for mothers and babies were hit. Official retail data also indicated that celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee failed to provide the much hyped and hoped-for boost to spending, raising the question of whether the London Olympics will get the shop tills ringing.

MF Global's European administrator KPMG has won the backing of the British High Court to return 54 million pounds ($84 million) of client assets next month in an early victory for creditors seeking over 1 billion pounds of assets, Reuters reported. KPMG, made special administrator when the broker collapsed in October last year, said on Wednesday the High Court had approved its distribution plan, meaning the administrator can start returning the assets on Aug. 1.