Britain’s largest life insurers have passed a key stress test from the Bank of England amid fears a shadow banking bubble could leave them vulnerable to a market crash, The Telegraph reported. The 11 insurers, including Aviva and Legal & General, were given a clean bill of health by the watchdog after being tested with an imagined market meltdown that wiped out almost £9bn of their capital.
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The UK's Serious Fraud Office said on Thursday it was investigating the collapse of a $28 million cryptocurrency scheme, urging investors to step forward after two men were arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, Reuters reported. In its first major crypto investigation, the SFO said Basis Markets had raised cash from two public fundraisers in late 2021 by selling non-fungible tokens and used the funds to create a crypto hedge fund. In June 2022, investors were told that the project was being scuppered by proposed new U.S. regulations, the SFO noted.
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A U.K. procurement firm said it worked with the bankrupt Indian educational-technology startup Byju’s to move a half-billion dollars away from a group of U.S. lenders who have battled for years to track down the missing funds, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A former adviser to the London-based supply-chain logistics firm OCI helped Byju’s send nearly $506 million to the U.K. with the intent to pass those funds on to a corporate entity tied to Byju’s in Singapore, according to a sworn declaration filed in a U.S. court by OCI CEO Oliver Chapman.
Inflation in the U.K. fell to a four-month low in October, official figures showed Wednesday, in a move that has raised expectations of another Bank of England interest rate cut next month, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics said the annual rate of inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index, fell to 3.6% in October from 3.8% the previous month. Though the rate was the lowest since June, it was a bit higher than the 3.5% that most economists were forecasting for the month.
Liverpool cult hero Steve Finnan is facing a bankruptcy battle following a multi-million pound row between the Champions League winner and his brother, the Daily Mail reported. Irish full-back Steve Finnan, 47, enjoyed a successful Premier League career, winning Champions League and FA Cup winners' medals while with Liverpool in the 2000s, but has been embroiled in a decade-long legal tussle with his brother Sean after the pair got involved in a disastrous property business together.
A total of 115 company insolvencies were registered in Scotland in October this year, the same number as in October 2024, according to the latest UK Government Insolvency statistics., ScottishFinancialNews.com reported. The total number of company insolvencies was comprised of 61 CVLs, 50 compulsory liquidations and four administrations. There were no CVAs or receivership appointments. The figures also revealed that the total insolvency rate in Scotland in the 12 months to October 2025 was 52.0 per 10,000 companies on the effective register, as shown in Figure 7.
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A bidder for Thames Water has returned with an improved offer in an attempt to break the impasse between the crisis-hit utility’s £20 billion debtholders and the industry regulator over how to prevent it falling into insolvency, The Times reported.
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he French government is preparing to sue a British private equity firm over claims it short-changed a failed local steelmaker, The Telegraph reported. Roland Lescure, the French finance minister, said the government would be “uncompromising” as he accused Greybull of failing to follow through on investment pledges for Novasco, which is based in Hagondange, a city in north east France. The situation has led to months of uncertainty for the 700 people employed by Novasco, after the company was placed into administration in August – a year after it was taken over by Greybull.
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Hundreds of learner drivers have been left more than £164,000 out of pocket after a driving school closed down and are "unlikely" to get their money back, an insolvency firm has said, BBC.com reported. NxtGen Driving Academy, part of NG Driving Group Ltd, taught students across the East of England but ceased trading on 3 November. Documents seen by the BBC show that, before the firm was shut down, 399 customers had paid the company for driving lessons that will not be fulfilled.
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A local NHS board has approved the takeover by an “AI-powered” digital health company of a distance selling care home pharmacy that entered administration this year with £5m debts, PharmacyMagazine.co.uk. reported. UK-based MedPal AI, whose core product is a health data app offering personalised recommendations, first announced on October 1 that it was entering the online pharmacy market with its acquisition of Universal Pharmacy, pending approval by Norfalk and Waveney Integrated Care Board which was recently granted.
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