Payment freezes on personal loans are masking the true nature of deteriorating personal finances, an insolvency expert has warned, Peer2Peer Finance News reported. Analysis by debt industry data company TDX Group found the volume of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) and trust deeds decreased by 39 per cent between the first and second quarter of 2020 and is down 38 per cent annually. However, David Heathcote, personal insolvency expert at TDX Group, is predicting a steep rise in the fourth quarter and next year as borrowers come off payment holidays.

The first Metro Bank branch opened 10 years ago with the aim of making UK banking more like the US. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the gulf that still remains between the two, the Financial Times reported. Metro may have succeeded in introducing an American-style emphasis on customer service. But investors — and regulators — had also hoped to replicate the competitive lending market that helped the US economy recover when the biggest banks were reluctant to offer loans after the 2008 financial crisis.

About a third of jobs at the Evening Standard are to be eliminated in the most far-reaching cost cuts at any large UK publisher since the pandemic upended the newspaper business, according to people briefed on the plan, the Financial Times reported. Staff at the free commuter newspaper were told on Friday morning of management proposals to cut 115 jobs to help save the company, which is owned by Evgeny Lebedev, the Russia-born newspaper proprietor nominated for a peerage last week. The restructuring plan for the London-based title, which has long faced financial difficultie

The AA, the British roadside recovery group whose adverts once said it “gets someone out of trouble every eight seconds”, is in talks about a rescue of its own, the Financial Times reported. Six years after it was brought to the public markets with levels of debt investors would normally deem too risky, the juicy returns hoped for by management and new shareholders have failed to materialise. As the coronavirus pandemic has hit earnings, and repayment deadlines edge into view, the company is finally attempting to bring its more than £2.6bn of debt under control.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. faces a crunch vote in less than three weeks to determine whether a hard-won 1.2 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) rescue goes ahead or if the airline is headed for collapse, Bloomberg News reported. Meetings of four creditor groups will be held on Aug. 25 after the company began a legal process in the U.K. to stop any holdouts from blocking the package. Virgin told a London court Tuesday that it will fold next month if the financing plan fails. It filed an ancillary petition for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

Britain’s banks took a gloomier view than almost all their European peers in their second quarter earnings, as coronavirus fears, Brexit and low interest rates caused them to bake tougher “worst-case” scenarios into their risk models, Reuters reported. Investors had expected a torrid set of half-year results, but Barclays, Standard Chartered, Lloyds, NatWest Group NWG.L and HSBC fell short of these low expectations.

Metro Bank fell to a £241m loss in the first half of the year, becoming the latest lender setting aside hefty sums to deal with expected loan losses as it predicted an even more severe economic downturn than its peers, the Financial Times reported. The bank, which is dealing with the first recession since it was established a decade ago, reported £112m of expected credit losses, up from just £4.4m in the same period last year. The majority of the total — £97m — was due to changes in economic forecasts rather than actual customer defaults.

Trade body UK Hospitality has issued new calls for the government to provide “decisive support” to restaurants, pubs, and bars after a new survey found that over 75 percent of hospitality businesses in the U.K. risk being unable to pay their bills within 12 months, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eater reported. The survey, carried out by UK Hospitality in partnership with data analysts CGA, found that as many as 20 percent of businesses are at “significant risk” of insolvency or “expect” insolvency within the next year.

Drugmaker Mallinckrodt Plc may seek bankruptcy protection to resolve a dispute with the government over its blockbuster Acthar drug and claims that it profited from the opioid addiction crisis, Bloomberg News reoprted. The company is working with external advisers, creditors and litigation claimants and is considering “all options to address legal and financial challenges,” according to its second-quarter earnings statement Tuesday. This could include Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its main business and most subsidiaries.

Privately held restaurant group PizzaExpress said on Tuesday it could shut nearly 15% of its UK restaurants, putting 1,100 jobs at risk, as part of a restructuring deal to help reduce debt and infuse capital, Reuters reported. The company, which operates 449 restaurants in the UK and is currently owned by Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital, said it had started a sale process to find a new owner. PizzaExpress said it will soon launch a company voluntary arrangement in the UK as part of an agreement with some of its secured creditors and its majority shareholder.