The Bank of England’s corporate-bond purchases, one of the stimulus measures announced after the Brexit vote, could conclude as early as this month as the program nears its 10-billion pound ($12.5 billion) target, Bloomberg News reported. After starting purchases in September, BOE officials have found investors more willing to sell company debt than they expected and are on track to meet their target within weeks.

Nine years after the beginning of a 45-billion-pound ($56 billion) bailout by the British government, Royal Bank of Scotland is emerging from its restructuring process a shadow of what was once the biggest lender in the world, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. RBS had a balance sheet of 2.4 trillion pounds in 2008 - almost double Britain's annual economic output at the time - having staged a meteoric rise from being a small Scottish lender in the early 1990s.

Principal Financial Group Inc. accused the managers of Liongate Capital Management LLP of hiding investments with Bernie Madoff while negotiating to sell half of their London hedge fund to Principal, Bloomberg News reported. Founders Randall Dillard and Jeff Holland, and Head of Research Benjamin Funk sold the stake in March 2013 without disclosing secret investments in the largest of several Madoff "feeder funds,” according to legal filings produced by Principal. It may be seeking as much as $66 million in damages in its London lawsuit.

One of the big fights in the negotiations over the U.K.’s exit from the European Union will be over money: the EU’s so-called “divorce bill.” The idea of having to pay the EU to leave is controversial in the U.K. after a referendum campaign in which the British contribution to the bloc was an important argument used by campaigners for Brexit, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Brussels blog reported. The Leave campaign claimed erroneously that the U.K. sent the EU £350 million ($435 million) a week, money it suggested could be better used to finance Britain’s state-run health service.

Banks are treading carefully, enacting two-stage contingency plans, to avoid losing nervous London-based staff as they work out how many jobs will have to move to continental Europe as Britain exits the European Union, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger formal EU divorce proceedings on Wednesday, launching two years of negotiations that will shape the future of Britain and Europe as well as London's place as a global financial centre.

Global banks have warned they could move thousands of jobs out of Britain to prepare for the expected disruption caused by the country's exit from the European Union, endangering London's status as a major financial centre, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Leading financial firms warned for months before last June's Brexit referendum that they would have to move some jobs if the "Leave" side won, and have been working on plans for how they would do so for the past six months.

Banks in London that relocate operations to the euro zone after Brexit are likely to be spared a lengthy entry test by regulators, making it easier for them to shift, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The European Central Bank, the euro zone's banking supervisor, has had many inquiries from British-based banks wanting to come under its watch, prompting it to look at fast-tracking licence applications, according to the sources.

Philip Hammond, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, pledged to make the country “the best place to do business” in his Spring Budget, days ahead of the UK’s formal notification to Brussels of its intention to leave the EU, the Financial Times reported. Basking in better forecasts for the economy and public finances this year, Mr Hammond praised the resilience of the UK since the EU referendum. “Last year, the British economy grew faster than the United States, faster than Japan, faster than France,” he said.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond announced 435 million pounds ($530 million) of relief for small retailers and pubs struggling to cope with higher property taxes, though he faced immediate criticism that he’s not doing enough. Measures include a 300 million-pound fund that will enable local authorities to give discretionary relief to the hardest-hit, Bloomberg News reported.

For European leaders struggling to contain hostility to globalisation, few things can be as unwelcome as a cross-border takeover threatening mass lay-offs in a treasured industry, the Financial Times reported. When the industry in question is car making — so often a symbol of national pride or decline — the stakes are even higher. Yet despite the disquiet felt in Germany and the UK at PSA’s purchase of Opel, both countries need to accept the logic of consolidation in a sector where politicians have too often intervened to protect jobs at the expense of long-term competitiveness.