Mrs Brown’s Boys actor Daniel O’Carroll was among 73 individuals and firms who made settlements in the latest list of tax defaulters. Other actors from the show were last year linked to an offshore tax structure that helped them avoid hundreds of thousands of euro in tax. Details of the structure, which involved trusts in the Seychelles and Mauritius, emerged as part of the so-called Paradise Papers. The latest tax defaulters’ list, published on Tuesday by Revenue, provides details of 73 taxpayers who have made settlements totalling €12.7 million in the final quarter of last year.

Prime Minister Theresa May will on Monday set out plans for a 1.6 billion pound fund to help to boost economic growth in Brexit-supporting communities, particularly in the north of England, Reuters reported. The “Stronger Towns Fund”, details of which appeared in newspapers last month, is seen by many as part of May’s efforts to win support for her Brexit deal from Labour MPs who represent areas that voted strongly in favour of leaving the European Union.

ILK Bennett is preparing to appoint administrators after its owner struggled to find a new financial backer for the loss-making fashion chain, potentially putting jobs at risk in both the UK and the Republic, the Irish Times reported. Famous for its signature kitten heels, which start at £175 (€203) per pair, the company was founded by the entrepreneur Linda Bennett in 1990.

Britain has just four weeks left as a member of the European Union. Or maybe not. Staying weeks, months, even years longer is the talk of London; but such ideas are getting a frosty hearing on the continent, Reuters reported. When Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, confessed this week to “a certain Brexit fatigue” and his negotiator Michel Barnier said what Britain needs is not time but decisions, they were reflecting a broad impatience that means Britain will struggle to get more than a short delay.

Patisserie Valerie’s top management has been placed on leave two weeks after the collapsed cafe chain operator was bought out of administration, according to the Financial Times, Reuters reported. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Francis who was appointed in November of last year and former Starbucks executive Rhys Iley who joined as the chief commercial officer after an accounting scandal was unearthed at the company are both on leave, the Financial Times report said.

A rogue company director branded one of the worst perpetrators in the nuisance calling game has been banned from running companies in the UK for eight years, The Register reported. Welshman Richard Jones was responsible for setting up two companies that fell foul of Brit privacy watchdog the ICO after breaking direct marketing laws. Your Money Rights was slapped with a £350,000 fine in September 2017 for making 146 million nuisance PPI calls – the highest it had issued at the time for a breach of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Britain’s banks would be resilient to a chaotic Brexit, even if this leads to a spike in bad loans that hits their profits, credit rating agency Moody’s said, Reuters reported. Lenders’ efforts to boost their capital buffers since the financial crisis has put them in a good position to weather any disruption caused by a no-deal Brexit, Moody’s said in a report on Wednesday.

Troubled UK outsourcing company Interserve has agreed new terms for a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders as it tries to appease shareholders and avoid collapsing under its £631m debt mountain, Global Construction Review reported. The original plan would have cut existing investors’ holding to 2.5%, but it was rejected by New York hedge fund Coltrane and Dutch hedge fund Farringdon Capital Management, who together hold approximately one-third of Interserve’s shares. Coltrane had also called for the entire Interserve board to be removed apart from chief executive Debbie White.

In the first half of this decade Greece almost crashed out of the eurozone, or faced having its membership suspended, in a process known as Grexit, the Financial Times reported. With the UK one month from its scheduled withdrawal from the EU, and no one sure what will actually happen, what lessons does Grexit hold for Brexit? George Papaconstantinou published an article on this subject last week on ING bank’s website. As Greece’s finance minister from October 2009 to June 2011, he was at the centre of events during the early phase of his nation’s sovereign debt crisis.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may start discussions with the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) over its privatisation later this year, the EBRD’s manager in the South Caucasus country said. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev ordered in 2015 the privatisation of the oil-rich country’s biggest bank after a clean-up to get rid of distressed assets resulting from poor management, Reuters reported. Two years later the state-run IBA proposed a plan to restructure $3.3 billion of its debt, later receiving approval from creditors holding 93.9 percent of the affected debt.