Efforts to boost take up for examinerships appear to have failed, with insolvent Irish firms shying away from the process despite the chance it offers them to continue trading, Independent.ie reported. Just 3pc of insolvencies were examinerships in 2018, the same figure as in 2017, according to figures compiled by Deloitte. Deloitte said the level of examinerships was unexpectedly low. Examinership gives an insolvent firm a 100-day grace period from its creditors, within which time it can seek to come up with a scheme for survival.

The engineering arm of Monarch Airlines, the holiday carrier that collapsed in 2017, has been put into administration with the immediate loss of 408 jobs, the Financial Times reported. Administrators KPMG were called in after Monarch Aircraft Engineering, the last remnant of Monarch Airlines and which provides aircraft maintenance services and has a training academy, ran into financial difficulties and failed to find a buyer. The engineering business had been bought by Greybull Capital, the private equity group, after the collapse of Monarch.

Ireland is likely to issue an increasing number of authorisations for financial groups seeking to move operations to Dublin from London ahead of Britain’s March 29 departure from the EU, as worries grow about a no-deal Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Dublin wants to become a hub for previously UK-based institutions to service EU clients and the shift by financial services companies has been accompanied by similar moves by groups in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and the law.

Uncertainty is hanging over the investments of 14,000 customers who put their money into a UK company promising 8 per cent returns after the financial regulator banned it from paying out any interest over concerns about its marketing, the Financial Times reported. London Capital and Finance, which claimed as much as £214m was invested in its individual savings accounts, or ISAs, has been barred from touching any money in its bank accounts after the Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation.

Uncertainty will hobble UK business investment and depress consumer spending in 2019, stunting long-term growth even if Britain manages to avoid a disorderly Brexit, according to a poll of more than 80 leading economists, the Financial Times reported. The best the UK can expect over the year is uninspiring growth remaining at its current level of about 1.5 per cent, even if the economy eventually enjoys a modest rebound on the back of a deal with the EU, the FT’s annual survey on the UK’s economic outlook suggests.

The U.K.’s top law-enforcement body is examining allegations that an employee leaked information to a suspect in exchange for money, undermining a probe into a suspected network of European insider traders, the Wall Street Journal reported. The internal corruption unit of the National Crime Agency, the U.K.’s equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is assessing whether a government translator who had access to wiretap recordings tipped off the target of an insider-trading investigation.

For the past 20 years, the border has existed on paper alone: Britain and the Republic of Ireland are both members of the European Union and its common marketplace. So people, goods and livestock can come and go as they please, traversing the mostly invisible line without tariffs or bureaucratic hindrance. But Britain’s looming exit from the European bloc, known widely as Brexit, threatens to make the old border real again — a factor that has long collided with any prospect of a smooth divorce, according to a New York Times analysis.

Over 300 employees at a technology factory in Livingston, Scotland, lost their jobs on Christmas Eve - and been told they won’t get paid, The Daily Record reported. Workers at the Kaiam manufacturing plant were told the news at a meeting on Monday with 312 of the 338 staff being made redundant. And in a further blow to employees they were told they will not receive their outstanding wages and will have to go through the Insolvency Service to get their money, which could take weeks.

Interserve said it had reached a deal with its lenders to defer a debt payment due early next year and was considering handing them its profitable building materials business RMDK as it works to avert a Carillion-style collapse, Reuters reported. “The key commercial principles on which the Deleveraging Plan is expected to be based have now been conditionally agreed between Interserve and all lenders,” the British construction and services company said in a statement on Friday.

Six “rogue directors” have been disqualified for a total of 54 years after misleading more than 300 people to invest millions of pounds in property developments across the north of England, the Yorkshire Post reported. An international investigation began after Liverpool-based Absolute Living Developments collapsed in 2016, owing at least £12m to buy-to-let investors. Among the company’s developments were three former office buildings in Bradford which were being turned into flats.