Britain's financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed tougher rules for approving financial promotions after a sharp rise in misleading marketing online, Reuters reported. Currently, marketing information can be approved by a firm regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) without its direct nod. But under the new measures, which are part of a draft financial services and markets bill before the parliament, firms approving the promotions will have to show they have the right expertise.

Cineworld Group Plc said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy intact after senior lenders were said to be considering a sale process for its east European operations, Bloomberg News reported. The London-based company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas in September to cut a near $9 billion pile of debt and leases. “Cineworld remains committed to working with its key stakeholders to develop a Chapter 11 reorganization plan that seeks to maximize value for the benefit of moviegoers and all other stakeholders,” a spokesperson said on Sunday.

U.K. finance chiefs finally know what’s coming: Higher taxes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Faced with a weaker currency, rising financing costs and surging inflation, finance executives’ already fraught budget planning was upended earlier this fall after the country’s government announced sharp, debt-funded tax cuts, only to withdraw them after the pound tumbled to a 37-year low and financial markets gyrated. Now, under a new prime minister, the government is pledging fiscal austerity, accompanied by an increase in the corporate tax rate to 25%.

Next Plc has bought UK retailer Joules Group Plc out of insolvency for £34 million ($41.5 million), winning a bidding war against rival store owners, Bloomberg News reported. The clothing and housewares retailer has teamed up with Joules founder Tom Joule to snap up the chain, which fell into administration on Nov. 16. The maker of colorful coats and Wellington boots had failed to secure bridge financing or raise equity, after warning that it would struggle to repay a £5 million loan due at the end of November.

Rangers FC could still be sued for £9.5million by the administrators of the Elite Sports Group despite the sports goods distributor going insolvent, the Scottish Daily Express reported. The Ibrox club is facing a civil court action over claims Rangers breached a contract related to the provision of kits for the Glasgow team. Elite is the exclusive brand partner to Danish sportswear firm Hummel and it instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Elite won a bid to force Rangers to disclose sales data to them last month.

UK mortgage approvals fell by 10% last month, from 66,000 in September to just under 59,000, after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget sparked chaos, Bloomberg News reported. According to the latest data from the Bank of England (BoE), this was the lowest number of approved mortgages by UK lenders since June 2020, when the property sector was hit by COVID-19 restrictions. It was also down on the 69,489 seen in October of last year. A handful of British banks pulled their mortgage deals after the mini-budget in September, while others hiked the interest rate on their offers.

Big Four firm KPMG LLP missed multiple red flags when it audited the financial statements of Carillion PLC, the liquidators of the defunct construction and outsourcing firm said, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.K. government officials sued KPMG seeking in January £1.3 billion—equivalent to around $1.55 billion—and claiming the audit firm failed to spot misstatements that would have led the company’s management to take different actions.

More than two out of every five (41%) established small and medium businesses (those with between 10 and 100 employees) across the UK expect to shut their doors permanently, be forced to conduct mass redundancies or close locations within the next 12 months, the Business Leader reported. And more than one in three (39%) fear their business will be fatally or critically impacted by any forthcoming recession, while a similar number (43%) say they will have to borrow money just to keep their business afloat or refinance existing debt (37%).

Britain's 'highly concentrated' consumer credit ratings market used for obtaining loans is not working well, and a new industry body to help improve the quality of scores is needed, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion make up almost all of the Britain's 800 million pound ($946.32 million) credit reference agencies (CRAs) sector. Switching between them is difficult, the FCA said in an interim report, which found no competition concerns that require immediate action.

Nexo is being sued in London by a family of fintech entrepreneurs who allege that it froze their ability to withdraw up to £107 million ($126 million) of their assets and then intimidated them into selling it all to the crypto lender at a 60% discount, Decrypt.com reported. According to a report by City AM, brothers Jason and Owen and cousin Shane Morton together held millions of Nexo’s NEXO token, along with tens of millions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They claim to have first aired concerns about Nexo’s compliance and transparency in December 2020.