Shares in Ulster Bank parent Royal Bank of Scotland rose as much as 6 per cent on Thursday after the bank reached a $4.9 billion settlement with US authorities, opening the way for its privatisation and return of cash to taxpayers who bailed it out in the financial crisis, the Irish Times reported. The fine, much lower than expected, resolves a US Department of Justice investigation into the British bank’s sale of mispriced mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the crisis and clears one of its most debilitating hangovers from that era.

A gauge of U.K. house prices dipped to its lowest since in more than five years last month, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, with the slowdown most acute in London and the southeast, Bloomberg News reported. RICS’s gauge of prices dropped to minus 8, the lowest since November 2012, the organization said in a report Thursday. The descent into negative territory follows months of stagnating prices, and surveyors don’t expect any pick-up in the near term. The report is the latest to show strain in the U.K.

Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya lost a U.K. lawsuit filed by Indian banks seeking to collect more than 1.15 billion pounds ($1.55 billion) amid allegations that he committed massive fraud. Judge Andrew Henshaw in London Tuesday said the lenders, including IDBI Bank Ltd., can enforce an Indian court ruling that relates to allegations that Mallya willfully defaulted on about $1.4 billion in debt for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. Henshaw also refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets. The 62-year-old is fighting numerous lawsuits in the U.K.

Restaurant chain Côte is reportedly looking into closing branches in a move to shore up its finances, the Financial Times reported. Sky News reported that Côte, which is owned by private equity group BC Partners, is planning to close a number of branches that trade under the Limeyard and Jackson & Rye brands. However, the closures are unlikely to come as part of a company voluntary agreement, a deal with creditors that a string of distressed high street retailers have already resorted to this year — including Jamie’s Italian and burger chain Byron — in order to avoid insolvency.

Shopping centre landlords Hammerson and Intu are bracing for negotiations with House of Fraser over tenancies and rent reductions after the struggling retailer unveiled restructuring plans that involve store closures, the Financial Times reported. House of Fraser owner Nanjing Xinjiekou, which has not yet disclosed which stores will be affected, said on Wednesday it would look to reach a deal with landlords to reduce its rental bill. Hammerson and Intu are among those landlords that have most exposure to the group.

Brexit and a string of bankruptcies are driving up the cost of UK companies protecting against their customers going out of business, the head of the world’s largest credit insurer has said. Trade credit insurance protects companies against the risk that their customers go bust before paying up for goods or services, the Financial Times reported. More than £340bn of UK trade is being covered by trade credit policies, according to the Association of British Insurers.

British authorities are promising to continue their investigation of Cambridge Analytica, the campaign consultant at the center of the Facebook privacy scandal, even though the company is going out of business, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Cambridge Analytica announced Wednesday that it plans to file for bankruptcy in Britain and the U.S., saying negative publicity surrounding allegations that it improperly harvested data from millions of Facebook users drove potential clients away. The U.K.

House of Fraser is to close stores, potentially putting hundreds of jobs at risk, in a restructuring deal that will give control of the retail chain to the Chinese owner of Hamleys. C.banner is buying a 51% stake in the parent group of the ailing department store group, The Guardian reported. The buyout will involve the acquisition of shares from Nanjing Cenbest, part of China’s Sanpower conglomerate, which will retain a minority stake. C.banner has also agreed to pay a further £70m for new shares leading to a “significant capital injection” in House of Fraser.

Cambridge Analytica, the firm embroiled in a controversy over its handling of Facebook data, should not escape scrutiny through its decision to shut down, the chairman of a committee of British lawmakers said. Cambridge Analytica and its parent, SCL Elections, said on Wednesday they would begin bankruptcy proceedings after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees following reports the company wrongly harvested Facebook users' personal data from 2014, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Lebara announced on Monday that it will not meet a deadline to file audited annual results, putting the telecoms company at risk of defaulting on its bonds and adding to its recent string of financial reporting issues, the Financial Times reported. The terms of Lebara’s €350m bond dictate that it has to file audited annual accounts 120 days after the end of its financial year, which takes it through to the end of April. Lebara’s Dutch holding company Vieo announced on Monday that it would not meet this deadline, however, and would instead publish accounts “in the coming weeks”.