Two Bank of England officials warned that Britain’s departure from the European Union is helping to stoke inflation and is one of the factors pushing up interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Economist Huw Pill said Monday the trade blow dealt by Brexit adds to risks of the UK economy overheating. Policy maker Catherine Mann earlier in the day said Brexit was a “unique” shock that’s fueling inflation in the UK.

British consumers would be limited to holding a maximum of 20,000 pounds ($24,000) each if the Bank of England goes ahead with a digital version of the British currency, BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Britain's government said on Monday that it and the BoE were pressing on with work on a possible digital pound that was likely to enter circulation in the second half of this decade, though no final decision has been made on whether to go ahead.

Britain's financial watchdog warned crypto businesses on Monday to get ready for a rule change on advertising later in the year, warning that any breaches by company officials could mean up to two years in prison, Reuters reported. Britain's finance ministry said last week it would set out secondary legislation this year to allow crypto firms which comply with the Financial Conduct Authority's anti-money laundering safeguards to issue their own promotions until new crypto regulation is introduced, probably sometime in 2024.

House builders slammed the brakes on construction at the start of 2023 as a surge in mortgage interest rates causes activity in the property market to freeze over, Bloomberg News reported. The industry suffered its biggest contraction in almost three years in January after a slump in property prices and home loans gathered pace, S&P Global’s construction purchasing managers’ index showed Monday. Britain’s biggest house builders are scaling back new developments amid warnings of large house price falls in 2023.

Britishvolt Ltd’s administrator selected Australian startup Recharge Industries as the preferred bidder to acquire the majority of the insolvent UK battery firm’s business and assets, Bloomberg News reported. The acquisition is expected to take place within the next seven days, according to a statement Monday by EY, Britishvolt’s administrator. Recharge Industries is a subsidiary of Scale Facilitation Partners LLC. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

For more than a decade, the British government has run its National Health Service, the world’s largest government-run healthcare system, on a tight budget. The NHS prided itself on being one of the leanest healthcare systems in the developed world, spending less per head on average than its large European neighbors—and far less than the U.S. Now the state-funded service is falling apart, the Wall Street Journal reported. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than 1½ hours on average for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full they are turning patients away.

Britishvolt Ltd.’s administrators received two bids for the insolvent UK battery startup when the deadline for proposals ended on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. A consortium of former Britishvolt investors and Australian battery startup Recharge Industries submitted bids, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is confidential. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

In the space of just five years, a little-known company on the outskirts of London has grown into a payments-industry powerhouse, processing more than 1 billion euros ($1 billion) in transactions every month. Backed by licenses from regulators in the UK and Lithuania, Transactive Systems Ltd. touted itself as “one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe,” with an ability to service clients from “compliance-intense industries” including cryptocurrencies, gambling and foreign-exchange trading, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.

The Bank of England raised interest rates for a 10th consecutive time on Thursday, by half a percentage point, as policymakers kept up their vigilant stance against inflationary pressures, the New York Times reported. The bank’s policymakers lifted the key rate to 4 percent, the highest since 2008. But after more than a year of rising interest rates, inflation in Britain and several other major economies appears to have peaked, and the bank’s officials softened their tone on the future path of rate increases as the economy enters a contraction.

The UK government hopes to embrace the technological innovations emanating from the blockchain industry with a new set of plans to regulate digital assets, protect consumers, and make Britain "a global hub for crypto-asset technology," YahooFinance.com reported. The Treasury has released proposals for regulating crypto-exchanges, lending activities, and how digital assets are stored, describing crypto assets as having "a range of potential benefits, as well as posing risks to the consumer".