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.

British retail sales slumped in December after consumers did much of their Christmas shopping earlier than usual in November and many people stayed at home due to the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Reuters reported. Economists said that the scale of the hit bolstered their expectations that the world's fifth-biggest economy shrank last month under the strain of Omicron and new government restrictions to slow its spread.

The United Kingdom is cracking down on “misleading” cryptocurrency advertising as more citizens get involved in the digital assets, The Hill reported. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced his plan on Tuesday to amend financial promotion legislation to include cryptocurrency. The finance minister said even though 2.3 million people in the U.K. own cryptocurrency, more than 3 percent of the population, understanding of the digital currency is declining.

Prices in Britain rose at their fastest pace in 30 years in December, according to the national statistics agency, stoking concerns about the strain on household budgets with inflation still months away from its expected peak, the New York Times reported. The annual rate of inflation was 5.4 percent, up from 5.1 percent in November. That’s the highest since March 1992, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, based on data modeling for the period before official records were collected.

The U.K. audit regulator said it expects to pursue more enforcement cases and increase its budget as it looks to tackle new responsibilities and fold into a new regulatory body, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Financial Reporting Council on Tuesday unveiled a three-year plan covering its strategy and priorities during a pivotal transitional period. The FRC is in the process of folding into the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, which the U.K. government announced in 2019. The new regulator is expected to begin its work in 2023. The U.K.

In a warehouse tucked under two railway arches in southeast London is a treasure trove of Greek delicacies, including barrel-aged feta, fresh oregano, Cretan olive oil and cases of nearly a hundred different wines destined for the city’s top restaurants and discerning home cooks. But as Britain phases in Brexit-required customs rules with the European Union, the tempting variety at Maltby & Greek is under threat, the New York Times reported.