HSBC Holdings Plc successfully fought off a London court claim brought by a group of investors in a £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) lawsuit over tax breaks linked to Walt Disney Co. film financing, Bloomberg News reported. The bank faced allegations that it misled investors over the Eclipse Partnerships, which touted opportunities to back films like Pirates of the Caribbean 2. HSBC’s private bank helped promote the film financing program that was challenged by tax authorities and turned out be worthless, lawyers for the investor group said previously.

The Bank of England found a number of UK banks were unable to measure their exposure to private equity giants and their portfolio companies and ordered them to begin stress testing those relationships, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s Prudential Regulatory Authority reminded lenders’ chief risk officers in a letter Tuesday that it expects them to “comprehensively identify, measure, combine, and record risks” tied to buyout funds and the companies they back.

More than 60 former employees of a collapsed contractor have waited more than five years to be paid money they are owed, ConstructionNews.co.uk reported. A new report, filed earlier this month at Companies House by administrators at Begbies Traynor, said that the ex-employees were still expected to be paid in full, but the liquidators were “continuing to liaise” with the government-backed Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) over their claims.

Former Liverpool and England football star John Barnes has been banned as a company director after his firm failed to pay more than £190,000 ($236,290) in tax, Bloomberg News reported. The UK’s Insolvency Service said on Wednesday that Barnes’ media company paid no taxes between November 2018 and October 2020 despite making more than £400,000 in earnings. The ex-footballer, who makes regular appearances on TV, has been banned for the next three-and-a-half years, it said.

A first cut in the Bank of England’s key interest rate remains some way off, its chief economist said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Huw Pill said there had been little news on the U.K. economy since March, when he laid out his case for leaving the key rate at a 16-year high for the time being. “While we are making satisfactory progress in returning inflation to target, in my baseline scenario the time for cutting [the] bank rate remained some way off,” Pill said.

Hong Kong developer Lai Sun Development Co. is considering options for a planned office tower in the City of London, including a potential sale of a stake in the project, Bloomberg News reported. The group has appointed Eastdil Secured and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to advise on finding a partner for the 100 Leadenhall Street project, according to people with knowledge of the appointments. The financial advisers are currently undertaking due diligence on the project and could seek a funding partner later in the year or in early 2025.

The Bank of England is concerned about the ways that private equity giants value their holdings and how that methodology could amplify any economic shocks in the UK, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s Financial Policy Committee is monitoring the risk as part of its ongoing probe into PE investment across the UK and the worry is that if the economy worsens, buyout funds might need to deleverage their investments in order to repay their debts. That could result in healthy portfolio companies being sold at steep discounts.

Controversial tax rebate agent Brooksdale has entered liquidation, leaving customers of the firm questioning whether they will receive money claimed on their behalf,ThisIsMoney.com reported. The Manchester-based firm held a virtual meeting of creditors last week, where a creditors voluntary liquidation was approved and insolvency firm Fortis Insolvency appointed to manage it. A creditors voluntary liquidation happens when a company cannot pay its debts, and enough of the firm's shareholders agree that it should happen. It represents the start of the process of winding down the firm.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that the U.K. and the rest of Europe are facing less of an inflation threat than the US, opening the prospect of a rate cut for Britain before the Federal Reserve moves, Bloomberg News reported. Inflation in the UK will fall near its 2% target next month and has declined roughly in step with the BOE’s forecast in February, Bailey said Wednesday at a meeting of the Institute of International Finance in Washington, D.C.