U.K. consumer borrowing remained resilient in December, shaking off concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of England said unsecured lending rose by 831 million pounds ($1.1 billion), double the pace economists had expected. New mortgage approvals surged to 71,015, defying forecasts for a drop. Consumer borrowing was not far off November’s level of 999 million pounds, which was the strongest month since the lifting of restrictions in July 2020.

British house price growth accelerated in January, marking the strongest start to any year since 2005, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. House prices jumped by 0.8% in January, following a 1.1% increase in December. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.6% increase last month. House prices stood 11.2% higher than their level in January 2021, the fastest annual growth since June and again outstripping the consensus forecast for a rise of 10.8%.

Up to £500 million in Bounce Back loans were given to companies which then went bust, the Mirror reported. Almost 10,000 businesses have stopped trading or gone into administration after taking taxpayer-funded cash to help them in the pandemic. The staggering sum is on top of the £5.8billion extracted by fraudsters from the emergency Covid schemes like furlough and Eat Out To Help Out. The new details emerged after the minister for counter-fraud, Lord Agnew, resigned in anger at the Government’s inability to tackle scams.

A U.K. tribunal against KPMG LLP and several of its former employees raises questions whether junior auditors can be held liable for alleged misconduct, a rare case that comes as the Financial Reporting Council works to broaden its enforcement efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The audit and accounting regulator’s disciplinary tribunal, which on Monday is set to enter its fourth week, centers on the claim that the professional-services firm forged documents and provided misleading information during audit inspections.

A record number of companies in England and Wales went into a voluntary form of insolvency in the final three months of last year, as COVID support and protection from creditors was phased out, Reuters reported. During the last quarter of 2021, there were 4,175 creditors’ voluntary liquidations - where directors agree to wind up a company without a formal court order - the highest number since records began in 1960, new government figures showed.

Britain hopes to secure significant progress in post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union by February and win the support of pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland opposed to the current arrangements, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, Reuters reported. Truss was speaking on Thursday during a visit to Belfast, where she spoke to politicians and business people about their concerns about post-Brexit restrictions on trade between the British region and the rest of the United Kingdom. "I want to make significant progress by February. That's important.

Two former Deutsche Bank AG traders were cleared by an appeals court in the latest blow to the troubled transatlantic crackdown on manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, Bloomberg News reported. Matthew Connolly and Gavin Black were found guilty of wire fraud in 2018 for rigging Deutsche Bank’s Libor submission. But the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Thursday threw out their convictions, saying prosecutors failed to prove the two men influenced the bank into making false or misleading submissions. Prosecutors in the U.S. and the U.K.

The U.K.’s markets watchdog warned it will come down hard on struggling firms that leave customers out of pocket when they resort to legal procedures to manage their liabilities, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority has seen an increase in the number of firms developing plans that deploy company or insolvency law, such as schemes of arrangement, to manage how much they owe in claims to their clients, the regulator said in a statement on Tuesday. The FCA said it would take action against companies if their proposals unfairly benefit them at the expense of clients.

A council gave almost £2m in 2021 to a firm it set up to cut the cost of running leisure services to stop it "becoming insolvent," BBC.com reported. Volair, which was launched in 2015 to cut Knowsley Council's annual £2m leisure spend, runs clubs in Halewood, Huyton, Kirkby and Stockbridge Village and a Prescot football centre. The firm said it had seen "significant shortfalls" due to Covid-19's impact. The council has not commented on the bailout.

A U.K. minister in the ruling Conservative Party resigned after accusing Boris Johnson’s government of failing to properly root out fraud in a loan program introduced to help businesses though the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported.