The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are set to leave their key interest rates unchanged Thursday as they await clarity on the duration and scale of the energy shock that has accompanied the conflict in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported. At their last meetings in March, Europe’s leading central banks made it clear that they were prepared to increase borrowing costs in response to the surge in energy prices. That communication led investors to expect a number of rate rises soon.

Two German carmakers are suing a U.K. watchdog over its £9bn car finance redress scheme, The Telegraph reported. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have both launched legal challenges against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over the scheme, which will compensate customers for mis-sold car loans. A Volkswagen spokesman said it had “identified issues that require independent clarification” and so had decided to take the FCA to court. “Our referral is focused on ensuring the redress scheme is applied accurately and fairly,” they added.

More than a year after the parent company of New Brunswick nuclear technology developer Moltex Energy Canada Inc. entered into a British insolvency proceeding, “advanced” negotiations with a potential buyer are progressing, according to an insolvency practitioner supervising the sale, The Globe and Mail reported. The parent company, Manchester-based Moltex Energy Ltd., began the proceedings in March, 2025, with the objective of rescuing itself as a going concern.

All Claire's standalone stores in the UK and Ireland have stopped trading after the accessories chain's financial woes saw it fall into administration twice in a year, BBC.com reported. Administrators Kroll said that 154 stores have shut and more than 1,300 staff have been "notified of redundancy", though its 350 concessions will remain open. Changing consumer tastes also spelled the death knell for the retailer, which has struggled like many High Street firms. Kroll said: "As of 27 April, all Claire's standalone stores in UK and Ireland have ceased trading.

The Mayfair financiers running what used to be WH Smith’s high street empire are gearing up for a make-or-break restructuring that will result in a swathe of store closures, The Times reported. Modella Capital, a private equity fund that specialises in distressed investments, bought the high street arm of WH Smith in a cut-price £40 million deal last year, taking over almost 500 shops from the retail stalwart and renaming it TG Jones.

The collapse of Lord Mandelson’s consulting firm will leave its lenders and business partners with losses of £4.5m, new filings reveal, The Telegraph reported. Global Counsel owed money to HMRC, office administrators, data companies and other business advisory firms when it went into administration in February, Companies House filings show.

The Bank of England has told City firms to bolster their cyber defenses against the threat of new artificial intelligence-powered hacking bots, The Telegraph reported. Banks, insurers and payments firms were summoned to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the cybersecurity risks posed by “frontier AI models”, which include Anthropic’s new Mythos bot that was deemed too dangerous to release to the public. At the meeting, which was held by the Bank of England’s Cross Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG), City firms were urged to strengthen their cybersecurity.

Private credit risks a crunch akin to the squeeze suffered by the banking sector in the wake of the financial crisis, the Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said, while playing down the prospect of wider contagion, Bloomberg News reported. Breeden said on Wednesday that there is a risk of a leverage “layer cake” and a loss of confidence due to the market’s opacity. Read more. (Subscription required.)

U.K. inflation climbed in March as the war in the Middle East drove up energy prices, although it is unlikely to prompt the Bank of England to raise its key interest rate at next week’s meeting of policymakers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The annual rate of inflation rose to 3.3% last month from 3.0% in February, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said Wednesday, the highest level since December.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Wednesday swooped on eight London addresses suspected ‌of illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading in its first ‌such operation with other agencies, the financial regulator said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Working ​with tax officials and police under money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, the FCA said it had issued cease and desist letters at each site. "Evidence obtained during the ‌on-site inspections is supporting ⁠a number of ongoing criminal investigations," the FCA said in a statement.