Multinational companies are facing a new British law they fear will force them to rethink their compliance strategies and upend their business practices, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The new law, called the Bribery Act, takes effect in April and it resembles the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars companies that trade on U.S. exchanges from bribing foreign government officials to gain a business advantage. The British law, however, is more sweeping than its American counterpart, and corporate legal advisers are uncertain how extensive the fallout might be.

Net mortgage lending by U.K. banks was at its weakest in over 10 years in November as demand for new homes slowed, as is typical for this time of the year, data from the British Bankers Association showed on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Seasonally-adjusted net mortgage lending grew £1.5 billion ($2.31 billion) in October. That was the smallest increase since a £1.3 billion gain in August 1999 and compares with gains of £1.7 billion in October and £2.8 billion a year earlier.

Henderson Global Investors said that it had acquired a major development site in the southeast English city of Winchester for shops and over 300 homes, from the administrators of UK developer Thornfield, Reuters reported today. The 600,000-square-foot Silver Hill project was put on hold after Thornfield entered into administration last January, Henderson said on Wednesday. Henderson said that it got the development through the acquisition of two Thornfield entities from administrators Deloitte for an undisclosed sum.

The British Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has today launched a crack down on doorstep loan providers, warning more than 50 firms they have three months to prove they are in compliance with the Consumer Credit Act, or they could lose their operations license, the Guardian (U.K.) reported today. Over the past 18 months the OFT and Trading Standards officers visited 200 doorstep loan providers and said half of them failed to fully demonstrate competence in a number of different ways.

George Osborne, the British finance minister, insists he does not aim to boost London by soft-pedaling on U.K. regulation of banks in the wake of new U.S. rules, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "I'm not looking for regulatory advantage or arbitrage. If anything, I think we had too much of that in the run-up to the banking crisis," Osborne said. The chancellor, who met with the heads of Wall Street's biggest banks during his visit to the U.S. last week, declined to say whether the British government intends to force banks to make structural changes, as the U.S.

Property developer John Fleming has filed for bankruptcy to a British court, which will allow him to emerge from the process after a year, compared with up to 12 years under the Irish system, the Irish Times reported. The Cork developer, whose construction and investment firms owe €1 billion to their banks, is the first of Ireland’s major developers to make such a move. A receiver is now in control of Mr Fleming’s finances, following a declaration of bankruptcy in an Essex court. The petition gives the address of Mr Fleming and his wife as Billericay in Essex, England.

The CBI is urging the government to delay by a year its plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65, fearing it will create legal confusion and a wave of employment tribunal cases, the Financial Times reported. John Cridland, director-general designate of the employers’ group, said the government’s proposals were “not fit for purpose” and urged simplification of the rules. He said it was the “number one employment regulatory issue” for employers in the coming year and was causing deep concern.

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Bernard Madoff's investment firm joined an English liquidator on Wednesday in filing an $80 million lawsuit against former directors of the convicted felon's London operation, including his sons and brother, and related entities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The suit was filed in the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice Commercial Court by trustee Irving Picard and Stephen J. Akers, a joint liquidator of Madoff Securities International Ltd.

Begbies Traynor, the corporate insolvency specialist, expects interim profits to be £700,000 below the £4.3m ($6.8m) reported for the previous first half as fewer-than-expected companies have gone bust, the Financial Times reported. Ric Traynor, executive chairman, said the recession and its aftermath was proving to be different to previous downturns in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, which ended with a material increase in insolvencies. However, he expected more companies to fail in the first half next year.

Stricken British subprime lender Cattles is trying to cement a so far elusive debt deal with its creditors in the next week to avoid administration, sources close to the matter said on Friday, Reuters reported. Cattles will need support from enough bondholders -- who will recover only a small portion of their investment -- to keep afloat, as months of restructuring talks come to a head. Should that fail, the Hull-based firm will likely call in administrators, three sources said, putting about 3,000 jobs at risk.