U.K. mortgage approvals fell for a second month in July but remained well above pre-pandemic levels, suggesting demand for property is holding up despite the tapering of a tax break on purchases, Bloomberg News reported. Banks and building societies authorized 75,152 home loans, the least in a year and down from 80,272 in June, the Bank of England said Tuesday.

Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has filed papers in the UK high court seeking permission to appeal against his bankruptcy order, the Times of India reported. Mallya was declared bankrupt by the insolvency and companies court (ICC) of the high court on July 26 this year. His name is now listed in the individual insolvency register. A spokesman for the chancery division of the high court told TOI that Mallya had on August 16 filed a notice seeking permission to appeal the decision of Chief ICC judge Briggs, who had declared him bankrupt.

Britain's accounting watchdog plans to strengthen "significantly" its audit firm governance code, it said on Thursday, after a number of issues around audits of UK firms in recent years, Reuters reported. The Financial Reporting Council's code applies to the Big Four accounting firms - Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC - and to other firms auditing FTSE 350 companies, the FRC said in a statement. In future it will also apply to firms which audit other types of public interest entities, the FRC said.

A takeover of Morrisons by either of its two suitors could "materially weaken" the security of the supermarket's pension schemes if no additional protection were agreed, the trustees said in a letter to the company published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The British retailer is at the heart of a $9.5 billion bidding war between U.S. private equity groups Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) and a consortium led by SoftBank owned Fortress Investment Group.

Britain's competition regulator said on Monday it has started its investigation into whether business information provider S&P Global's $44 billion purchase of London-based peer IHS Markit Ltd would hurt competition, Reuters reported. S&P Global last year agreed to buy IHS Markit, creating a new data powerhouse serving Wall Street and the corporate world. The Competition and Markets Authority said it has set a deadline of Oct. 19 for its phase 1 decision. The regulator had invited comments from interested parties in June.

A Belfast man is to stand trial in connection with an alleged multimillion-pound banking fraud, a judge ordered on Monday, the Irish Times reported. Ciaran Brendan Barr is accused of multiple offences against his former employer Santander. He is charged with 66 counts of fraud by abuse of position, and two further frauds by false representation. It is alleged that he caused a loss to Santander in relation to applications for banking services made on behalf of companies and individuals. The charges cover a period from March 2013 to February 2018.

Shares in British supermarket chain Morrisons spiked higher Friday after New York-based private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice trumped a previous offer for the company with a 7 billion-pound ($9.5 billion) bid, the Associated Press reported. Morrisons’ board has accepted the offer and said shareholders should vote in favor of the takeover at a meeting due in early October.

The remnants of Greensill Capital, the U.K. financing company that collapsed earlier this year, filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in the U.S., aiming to halt litigation filed by one of its biggest clients, a coal-mining company owned by the governor of West Virginia, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Greensill’s U.S. bankruptcy filing on Wednesday seeks to halt a lawsuit brought earlier this year by coal supplier Bluestone Resources Inc. and its owners, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family, according to court papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

A London court on Wednesday approved a 10 billion pound-plus ($14 billion-plus) class action against global payments processor Mastercard that claimants said could entitle 46 million British adults to roughly 300 pounds each if it is successful, Reuters reported. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) had been expected to certify Britain's first mass consumer class action, brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, after the UK Supreme Court overruled objections to it in December.