A UK distressed debt investor that has been at the centre of a rescue plan for Italy’s third biggest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Sienna, has emerged as the leading bidder for a niche bank being sold in Dublin, the Irish Times reported. Sources said Attestor Capital in London is the preferred bidder for EAA Covered Bond Bank in Dublin, which is being sold under the wind-up of failed German bank WestLB.

Eight years after the financial crisis, we were all getting bored of bank stress tests. Most of the institutions are so much stronger and better capitalised than they were, and the laggards were so obvious that the tests were starting to get dull, the Financial Times reported. But on Wednesday, the Bank of England turned up the heat, hitting Britain’s seven largest banks with tougher stress tests. Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered and Barclays all failed to clear some of the hurdles, although only RBS was ordered to find more capital.

UK banks' Additional Tier 1 bonds would be fair game and converted into equity if they hit severe problems, the Bank of England's most stringent stress tests yet showed on Wednesday. This year's test was the third annual healthcheck by the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and was more severe than in 2014 and 2015. It was the first based on the central bank's new approach to stress testing, which includes potential misconduct costs, Reuters reported.

The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday that it would further bolster its capital position after failing regulatory stress tests that measure the ability of large banks to weather a financial crisis, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The annual stress test, by the Bank of England, also identified capital inadequacies at Barclays and Standard Chartered. But the central bank did not require them to issue revised capital plans, given actions they had already taken to strengthen their balance sheets.

Falling commercial real estate prices after the UK’s vote to leave the EU pose a threat to bank stability because of the market’s reliance on foreign capital, Bank of England said. Values have declined 2.6 per cent since the referendum and may drop further from their current high levels, according to the central bank’s twice-yearly assessment, the Irish Times reported. Continuing declines would affect companies’ access to finance because many use commercial real estate as collateral.

Britain's biggest energy suppliers have submitted bids to take over 160,000 customers left behind by bankrupt energy provider GB Energy, which collapsed on Saturday after being caught out by rising market prices, Reuters reported. All of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers, EDF Energy , Innogy's Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power, SSE and Centrica's British Gas, have submitted bids in a tender run by regulator Ofgem to supply GB Energy's customers, sources familiar with the matter said. Npower confirmed it had submitted a bid. Centrica, EDF Energy, SSE, E.ON and Scottish Power declined to comment.

British workers are facing the longest period of wage stagnation in at least 70 years as faster inflation and lower productivity eat into pay packets, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said, Bloomberg News reported. Real earnings in 2021 are on course to be below their level in the 2008 financial crisis, the London-based research group said. It said Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts published Wednesday suggest real earnings will be 3.7 percent lower by 2021 than estimated in March.

Britain has cut its stake in Lloyds Banking Group to just below 8 per cent in a renewed attempt to return the lender to full private ownership over the next year, the Irish Times reported. Lloyds said in a statement on Tuesday the government had reduced its stake in the bank by about 1 percentage point to 7.99 per cent. UK Financial Investments Limited, which manages the government’s stake in the bailed-out bank, last month resumed share sales that were shelved almost a year ago because of market turbulence.

Britain’s first budget plan since the Brexit vote will not include a big new spending push because of “eye-wateringly” high public debt levels, but will have some help for the economy and struggling families, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer has said, the Irish Times reported. Philip Hammond, who will spell out the economic priorities of the new government on Wednesday, said on Sunday he wanted to keep some fiscal “head-room” as two years of negotiations about leaving the EU approach.

Prime Minister Theresa May came under international and domestic pressure to bring order to her Brexit strategy amid accusations it’s in disarray, Bloomberg News reported. “There’s lots of chaos and we don’t understand what the position is,” Italy’s economic development minister, Carlo Calenda, said in an interview. “Somebody needs to tell us something, and it needs to be something that makes sense.” Calenda was not alone in expressing concern that there is confusion and disagreement within the U.K.