An independent assessment by Ernst and Young reiterated on Monday that subprime lender Provident Financial’s doorstep lending unit will likely face insolvency if its 50-million-pound settlement plan is not endorsed by a UK court, Reuters reported. Provident said on Monday that the division, which lent to people who are turned away by mainstream banks, was placed into a managed run-off last month, after a surge in customer complaints against it. Rival Amigo’s rescue plan was rejected by the court in May.

An arm of Sanjeev Gupta's industrial empire which counts Jaguar Land Rover as its main customer faces collapse within days amid last-ditch negotiations with its lender, Sky News reported. Sky News has learned that Liberty Aluminium Technologies (LAT) is in detailed talks with Close Brothers in an attempt to avert the division being placed into administration. Sources said on Monday that LAT, which employs 250 people at three UK sites, could be forced into insolvency proceedings as soon as this week, although there remains hope that such an outcome could be avoided, they said.

British retail sales fell unexpectedly last month as a lifting of lockdown restrictions encouraged spending in restaurants rather than shops, according to official data, Reuters reported. Retail sales fell 1.4% between April and May, the Office for National Statistics said. Food stores suffered the biggest hit, with a 5.7% drop in sales. Separately on Friday supermarket chain Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, reported a sharp slowdown in underlying UK sales growth in its first quarter.

British supermarket group Morrisons has rejected a proposed 5.52 billion pound ($7.62 billion) cash offer from U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), saying that it is far too low, Reuters reported. Britain's fourth largest grocer by sales after Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, said it received the "unsolicited, highly conditional non-binding" proposal of 230 pence a share on Monday. The board of Bradford, northern England-based Morrisons rejected the proposal on Thursday.

British inflation unexpectedly jumped above the Bank of England's target in May when it hit 2.1%, part of a post-lockdown climb in prices that is expected gather pace, Reuters reported. The acceleration of the consumer price index from April's 1.5% largely reflected how weak inflation was in May 2020 when the economy was reeling from its first tight lockdown. The figure represented the first time inflation has gone above the BoE's 2% target in almost two years and was above all 33 forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists which had pointed to a rise in inflation to 1.8%.

Britain’s decision to extend the last remaining Covid-19 lockdown rules another month will cause barely a ripple in the pace of economic growth this year but put thousands of jobs at risk in the industries hit hardest by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. UKHospitality, which represents restaurants, hotels and bars, said its members will lose another 3 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) in sales in addition to the 87 billion pounds foregone during the pandemic, threatening 300,000 jobs across the industry.

Credit Suisse is preparing its first insurance claims on losses stemming from its $10bn of funds tied to collapsed finance group Greensill Capital, the Financial Times reported. The Swiss bank is trying to recoup billions of dollars owed to the group of supply-chain finance funds, which it was forced to close in March. While its recovery team is mainly focused on negotiating with debtors to recover money on behalf of more than 1,000 investors, it has also started the process of claiming on the related insurance, primarily from Japanese group Tokio Marine.

Sanofi’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme has additional insolvency protection of up to £730m for 20 years, following intervention from The Pensions Regulator (TPR), Pensions Age reported. The regulator worked with the global healthcare company to secure the increased financial support for the scheme, which also includes deficit repair contributions and an upfront payment of £37m, after warning that it would take enforcement action if necessary.

The number of employees on British company payrolls surged by a record amount in May as COVID restrictions eased and pubs and restaurants resumed indoor service, though it still remains more than half a million below its pre-pandemic peak, Reuters reported. Tax data released on Tuesday showed that British companies increased their number of employees by 197,000 in May, the biggest single-month increase since records began in July 2014, taking the total to 28.5 million.

Britain and Australia announced a free trade deal on Tuesday which the British government hailed as an important step in building new trade relationships following its departure from the European Union, Reuters reported. Britain said cars, Scotch whisky and confectionery would be cheaper to sell in Australia because of the agreement, which removes tariffs and reduces red tape. Australia said it was a "great win" for Australian agriculture. The deal is the first bilateral trade accord Britain has negotiated from scratch since leaving the EU last year.