Wonga co-founder Errol Damelin used to tell critics that “we are the good guys”, who would reach a $1bn Nasdaq listing by disrupting traditional banks that treated customers unfairly, the Financial Times reported. But when the company fell into administration on Thursday — having never made it to IPO — many observers were celebrating its demise. The company is the most prominent among hundreds of payday lenders that have gone out of business in the UK since the Financial Conduct Authority enforced a cap on charges in 2015.

Activity in UK factories expanded at the slowest rate in more than two years during August as weaker global growth led to the first fall in export orders since 2016, a survey of executives said on Monday. The monthly IHS Markit purchasing manufacturers index fell to 52.8 in August compared with 53.8 in July, anything above 50 is said to indicate an expansion while anything below means a contraction, the Financial Times reported. This was the survey’s lowest reading for 25 months. Analysts had expected the pace of growth in the sector to remain the same as the previous month.

Britain’s biggest payday lender Wonga Group collapsed on Thursday, putting its operations in the country into administration, Reuters reported. Privately owned Wonga, which initially enjoyed rapid growth via its short-term, high interest lending often to troubled borrowers, fell into difficulty in recent years after scrutiny of its practices led to a cap on interest on payday loans. “A decision has been taken to place Wonga Group Limited, WDFC UK Limited, Wonga Worldwide Limited and WDFC Services Limited into administration,” Wonga said in an email.

Deep cost cutting at the troubled newspaper publisher Johnston Press helped it maintain profits despite a dip in digital revenues as Google and Facebook tightened their grip on the online advertising market, The Telegraph reported. The publisher of the i, the Scotsman and scores of local titles is in a race against time to agree debt restructuring with its lenders before a repayment deadline next summer that threatens to tip it into administration. First half turnover was down 10pc on last year to £93m, as among the main lines of business only the i registered growth.

When a company goes under, or is teetering on the brink, news of its plight is usually greeted with genuine sympathy for its employees, along with nostalgic recollections of how the business used to be in its heyday. But not if that company is Wonga. Reports of the impending collapse of the notorious payday lender, which fleeced and frightened its vulnerable and desperate customers throughout the financial crisis, have been greeted with undisguised glee on social media, The Irish Times reported.

Directors who have dissolved companies to avoid paying staff or pensions could be fined or disqualified for the first time, the government has announced. In a package of reforms announced today, struggling companies will be given more time to explore rescue options while shareholders will be given more powers to hold boardrooms to account, the Financial Times reported. Greg Clark, business secretary, launched a consultation into corporate governance and insolvency in March, in the wake of what it called “recent corporate governance failures”.

The U.K. government said it will move forward with plans to punish directors who fail to safeguard their workers from the effects of a company’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. New powers announced Sunday will be given to the U.K. Insolvency Service, including the ability to issue fines or even disqualifications to company bosses if they are found to have tried to avoid paying a dissolved company’s debts.

The British government issued its first contingency plans on Thursday for leaving the European Union without an agreement, seeking to prepare the public for possible disruptions without spreading alarm that could undermine support for the entire undertaking, the International New York Times reported. The government emphasized that it hoped and expected to hammer out a deal with the European Union.

It was a seething, stomping protest in this ordinarily genteel medieval town: Throngs of residents, whistling and booing, swarmed the county hall. “Criminals!” they shouted. They held up banners that read: “Tory councilors wanted for crimes against people in Northamptonshire.” The crime? The bankruptcy of their Conservative-led local government, which has a budget deficit so big that councilors are stripping away all but the minimum services required by law, the International New York Times reported.

AQ/AQ founder Julie Lingard has filed a notice to creditors to continue trading her business, despite filing for insolvency in July, Retail Gazette reported. Lingard was the managing director of AQ/AQ when it appointed liquidators on July 4. Insolvency specialists AABRS were brought in to handle the liquidation after a special resolution passed by the company to voluntarily wind up the business. However, Lingard has since filed a notice to creditors on July 25 to allow ”the re-use of a prohibited name”.