U.K. retail sales posted a surprise fall in November, marking a fourth straight month without growth for the first time since at least 1996, Bloomberg News reported. The volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.6%, the largest decline this year, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Economists had expected a 0.2% increase. Sales excluding auto fuel also dropped 0.6%. The headline measure has now failed to increase since July, the longest period without an expansion since the ONS’s records began 23 years ago.

Britain took a step into uncharted territory this year, aiming to make its banks safer. But it might have just driven risk to places where it’s less manageable than before, Bloomberg News reported. The experiment -- the result of an analysis of how the financial crisis damaged Britain’s economy -- began Jan. 1. Big lenders were “ring-fenced”: retail deposit-taking was legally separated from riskier activities, primarily investment banking. Advocates compared ring-fencing to the U.S. Glass-Steagall act, passed after the 1929 crash.

As part of a global restructuring plan, the staff of ESL UK have taken voluntary redundancy (layoffs), the regional entity’s Managing Director James Dean has confirmed, The Esports Observer reported. Event UK series such as the ESL Premiership will continue under the support of centralized teams in Poland and Germany.  “The ESL UK mission has always been to grow UK esports and we remain 100% committed to that cause,” said Dean in a press release.

British accountants could be required to look for fraud at companies they audit under proposals made in a government-backed review of recent corporate scandals which went undetected, Reuters reported. Lawmakers called for a shake-up of auditing after the collapses of construction company Carillion, retailer BHS and travel firm Thomas Cook and commissioned a review by former London Stock Exchange chairman Donald Brydon.

Irish banking stocks fell in Dublin on Tuesday as the Bank of England ordered lenders with businesses in the UK hold additional capital to absorb losses in the event of a sudden downturn, The Irish Times reported. Sentiment towards the sector was further dented as UK prime minister Boris Johnson put the threat of a no-deal Brexit back on the table as he outlined plans to legislate to ensure the transition phase of the European Union withdrawal will not extend beyond the end of 2020.

Sports Direct, the British sportswear retailer controlled by founder Mike Ashley, reported a 22 per cent rise in first-half core earnings, as it stemmed losses in its premium unit which includes fashion store Flannels and House of Fraser, The Irish Times reported. The group also repeated its belief that it would not be on the hook for any “material liabilities” from a €674 million bill it received from Belgium’s tax authority in July.

The eurozone's stagnating economy has suffered its worst performance for six years with uncertainty over Brexit partly to blame, economists said today. A survey by global data providers IHS Markit said manufacturing and job creation had slumped with 'gloomy prospects for the year ahead,’ the Daily Mail reported. Chris Williamson, the London firm's chief economist, said Brexit was a factor in the EU's difficulties.

A decisive victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in the British election sent investors scrambling to buy U.K. stocks and pushed the pound to its highest level against the dollar since May 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported. The FTSE 100 index, which tracks the U.K.’s largest companies, rose 1.9 percent, marking its biggest gain since February. The rally was led by gains in stocks such as house builder Taylor Wimpey PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.