The Bank of England on Tuesday said liability-driven investment funds were now better prepared to manage shocks like the one triggered by September's mini budget, and the risk of another "fire sale" dynamic in gilts had been significantly reduced, Reuters reported. "Taken as a whole, LDI funds are now significantly better prepared to manage shocks of this nature in the future," BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said in a letter parliament's Treasury Select Committee.

Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt scrapped Prime Minister Liz Truss's economic plan and scaled back her vast energy support scheme on Monday, making a historic policy U-turn to try to stem a dramatic loss of investor confidence, Reuters reported. Truss's spokesman denied that Hunt was running the country after his new strategy sent the pound soaring and helped government bond prices start to recover from the rout that followed her government's Sept. 23 plan for unfunded tax cuts.

Corporate insolvencies in the UK rose 16% in September compared to a year earlier as experts warn more firms will fold under the pressure of weak consumer demand and rising borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. The Insolvency Service said Friday that 1,679 companies registered for insolvency last month, up from 1,453 in September 2021. It was a reprieve from August when insolvencies shot up 43% on an annual basis. Still, companies face a tough winter amid Britain’s cost-of-living crisis and increasing interest rates.

Kwasi Kwarteng was thrown out as Chancellor of the Exchequer after just 38 days, but he spent more than a decade promoting his small-state, low-tax vision for the UK that proved his downfall -- and which may still cost Prime Minister Liz Truss her job as well, Bloomberg News reported. Neighbors in southeast London and allies in book-writing before rising through government to the two most powerful positions in British politics, Truss on Friday jettisoned Kwarteng, 47, in a desperate bid to save her premiership.

Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt faces an early test of his attempt to stem the crisis of confidence in Prime Minister Liz Truss on Monday when the bond market delivers its verdict on his weekend overhaul of her economic programme, Reuters reported. Truss fired her friend Kwasi Kwarteng and named Hunt as her new chancellor of the exchequer on Friday in the hope of recovering some economic policy credibility and staying in Downing Street, little more than month after she moved in.

U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss’s administration is preparing to abandon a central part of its tax-cutting agenda following weeks of chaos in financial markets, Bloomberg News reported. Officials at 10 Downing Street and the Treasury are drafting options for Truss, but no final decision has been taken, according to a person familiar. The premier could scrap her pledge to keep corporation tax unchanged next year, and instead raise it as planned by her predecessor Boris Johnson.

The Bank of England said Wednesday that its program of bond purchases to support U.K. pension funds would end Friday as planned, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The governor confirmed this position yesterday and it has been made absolutely clear in contact with the banks at senior levels,” the BOE said. The central bank began buying U.K. government bonds on Sept. 28 after an unpopular package of tax cuts sent jitters through the country’s markets. The volatility sparked margin calls for pension funds that use a strategy known as liability-driven investing, or LDIs.

British government borrowing costs surged again on Wednesday after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told pension funds they had three days to fix liquidity problems before the bank ends emergency bond-buying that has provided support, Reuters reported. Twenty and 30-year gilt yields both hit their highest since 2002 at 5.195% and 5.1% respectively, passing above 5% for the first time since the BoE began buying bonds on Sept. 28 to calm turmoil triggered by Prime Minister Liz Truss's tax cut plans.

The number of Scottish companies falling into administration more than quadrupled in the third quarter, new analysis shows, amid fears that worse is to come as surging interest rates and rampant inflation take a toll, Herald Scotland reported. Fourteen companies based in Scotland fell into administration between July and September, up from three during the April to June period, analysis of figures in The Gazette by insolvency and restructuring practice Interpath Advisory shows. Interpath Advisory noted the situation in Scotland “mirrors the UK picture”.

The Bank of England extended support targeted at pension funds for the second day in a row, the latest attempt to contain the fallout of a furious bond-market selloff that has threatened U.K. financial stability, the Wall Street Journal reported. The central bank on Tuesday said that it would add inflation-linked government bonds to its program of bond purchases after a fresh attempt on Monday to help pension funds failed to calm markets. The bank said it would buy up to £5 billion of index-linked gilts each day through Friday, equivalent to $5.5 billion.