Ireland faces 85,000 potential job losses and a sharp economic slowdown if the UK crashes out of the EU in October, the country’s finance minister has said, in a stark warning about the effect of a no-deal Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Paschal Donohoe said 50,000 to 55,000 jobs could be lost within two years of the UK exiting the EU without a deal, with another 30,000 at risk in the medium term if there were no resolution to political chaos in Westminster over Britain’s departure from the bloc.

UK financial services companies have racked up a Brexit bill of close to £4bn as they prepare to shift people and capital to the EU, according to EY, the consultancy, the Financial Times reported. Some of Britain’s biggest financial services groups have disclosed £1.3bn in relocation costs, legal advice and contingency provisions since Britain voted to leave the EU three years ago, plus an extra £2.6bn in capital injections as they set up non-UK headquarters, EY’s quarterly Brexit tracker said.

Fashion retailer New Look more than doubled full-year losses and revealed it had discovered historical accounting irregularities within the account used to track supplier payments, the Financial Times reported. The company, whose biggest shareholder is the Brait investment vehicle controlled by South African billionaire Christo Wiese, reported £402m of charges, largely related to its move private some years ago.

In communities across Britain, funding from London was shrinking to nothing — the central equation of national austerity, the Internation

Five more people have been arrested in the investigation into the collapse of British cafe chain Patisserie Valerie after accounting irregularities were discovered last year, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Sunday, the Irish Times reported. The new arrests bring the total detained to six. Patisserie Holdings’ former finance director Chris Marsh, who had helped grow the company from eight stores to more than 200, was arrested and released on bail over the scandal last year. Police did not name those arrested this month.

Morningstar has suspended its rating on a fund run by H2O Asset Management because of its holdings of illiquid bonds, after a Financial Times investigation into the substantial holdings related to a controversial German financier, the Financial Times reported. The agency, whose assessments are used as a key guide for investors, suspended its bronze rating on H2O’s Allegro Fund, citing concerns over “the liquidity of certain bonds”.

U.K. hotel operator Whitbread Plc and leather-goods maker Mulberry Group Plc reported lower sales in their home market as the uncertainty around Brexit erodes business prospects, Bloomberg News reported. Whitbread said Wednesday that first-quarter comparable sales dropped 3.7%. Mulberry reported U.K. revenue fell 6% in the year through March, driving it to a 5 million-pound ($6.3 million) pretax loss. The reports add to a litany of U.K.

The Central Bank will be able to fine and disqualify senior bankers for failings under their watch without first proving wrongdoing by their employers under planned new laws being drawn up in the wake of the tracker-mortgage scandal, The Irish Times reported. More than a decade after the financial crash and three years after Britain introduced a senior manager regime, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe received the go-ahead from Cabinet on Tuesday to push through similar measures in the Republic. It is expected to come into force from next year.

Bosnia’s aluminium smelter Aluminij Mostar is seeking a strategic partner to avoid bankruptcy and a consortium led by London-listed miner and commodity trader Glencore has shown interest, its general manager said on Monday, Reuters reported. Aluminij, based in Bosnia’s southern town of Mostar and one of the Balkan country’s biggest exporters, has been in trouble for years over heavy debt accumulated because of high alumina and electricity prices.

Kier is to cut 1,200 jobs and sell large chunks of its business as a crisis of confidence in the UK government contractor’s financial position forces it to begin paying suppliers in advance, the Financial Times reported. Andrew Davies, chief executive, said the company had briefed the government’s Cabinet Office, which accounts for 60 per cent of revenues, ahead of an announcement on Monday in which it said it would divest its mainly private sector-focused businesses in housing, property development, environmental consultancy and facilities management. “We are in regular di