The UK’s most senior supervisor of banks and insurers has given his starkest warning to date over the risks the financial system faces from a cliff-edge Brexit without a transition period, the Financial Times reported. Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, said an audit of worst-case contingency plans by banks and insurers had underlined fears of added cost and complexity for business and supervisors, should companies lose their EU “passport” with no time to adjust to a new regime.

The European Parliament is preparing to toughen EU plans to police London’s euro clearing business after Brexit, raising the risk that the UK might lose the lucrative activity, the Financial Times reported. The parliament and national governments will next month begin discussing proposals that would require UK clearing houses handling large volumes of euro-denominated contracts to comply with EU rules and accept European supervision. The plans were presented in June by the European Commission and have already raised hackles in the City of London.

The U.K. may be headed for the door, but its lawmakers and civil servants in Brussels still have their work cut out as the European Union overhauls financial-services rules that will affect firms in London even after Brexit, Bloomberg News reported. Negotiations will resume soon on wide-ranging banking legislation that translates global standards into EU law, as well as a swathe of new rules on everything from pensions to covered bonds and derivatives clearing. All this matters to the U.K.

The directors of small British construction businesses are lending them more money to plug a funding gap as banks set tighter lending criteria and major contractors delay payments, a survey showed on Monday. Directors lent the companies 38 million pounds in 2015/16, up from 29.7 million pounds in 2013/14, said online finance market Funding Options, which surveyed electricians, plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, decorators, scaffolders and roofing businesses, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Brexit will push up costs for banks by as much as 4 per cent and their capital requirements will rise up to 30 per cent, according to the most detailed assessment yet of what Britain’s departure from the EU means for the sector, the Financial Times reported. The findings by consultants Oliver Wyman will make grim reading for its bank clients, many of which are struggling with low profitability. They come a day after HSBC became the first lender to put a price tag on Brexit, saying the immediate disruption would cost it $200m-$300m.

U.K. economic growth remained subdued in the second quarter, as a modest revival in consumer spending offset shrinking industrial production, a sign that a hoped-for shift toward export-led growth remains elusive, The Wall Street Journal reported. Economists say that businesses—particularly exporters—will need to take the baton from consumers squeezed by rising prices if the U.K. economy is to avoid stuttering just as Britain’s exit talks with the European Union get under way.

The battle to control euro clearing once the U.K. leaves the European Union is getting uglier, Bloomberg News reported. LCH, the London Stock Exchange Group Plc unit that dominates euro clearing, wants to stop the European Central Bank from gaining the power to veto its decisions. Eurex Clearing, the Deutsche Boerse AG-owned subsidiary that would probably benefit most if London was stripped of euro clearing, says that clearinghouses should involve the ECB.

A fresh slide for Provident Financial in the wake of last month’s profit warning bucked the trend as the London market recovered from an underwhelming start to the week, the Financial Times reported. Provident was the biggest decliner on the FTSE 100 as a 23 per cent drop in adjusted first-half profits rekindled fears that triggered a 17 per cent fall in shares at the end of June — when the doorstep lender revealed the extent of a botched restructuring of its loan-collection procedures.

UK banks offering easy credit risk endangering “everyone else in the economy”, according to a high-ranking official at the Bank of England. Alex Brazier, who is a member of the bank’s Financial Policy Committee, warned in a speech on Monday that “pockets of debt” pose a growing risk, as household incomes are squeezed by rising prices and weak wage growth, the Financial Times reported. Mr Brazier said there were three aspects of household lending that were of particular concern. Terms and conditions on some credit cards and personal loans have been relaxed.

The International Monetary Fund has cut its growth forecast for the UK economy in 2017, its first downgrade since the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote last year, the Financial Times reported. In an update to its World Economic Outlook, the IMF said annual GDP would expand 1.7 per cent this year, compared to a forecast of 2 per cent growth made in April. The 2018 forecast was unchanged at 1.5 per cent.