The Bank of England said on Tuesday that it would increase the size of a capital buffer it requires banks to hold to ensure they can provide lending and other essential banking services in times of financial stress, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Lenders in Britain would be required to set aside the equivalent of 0.5 percent of their assets as weighted by risk by March 29, 2017, the central bank’s Financial Policy Committee said on Tuesday.

British department stores group BHS has won support from its creditors for a rescue plan that should allow the retailer to stay in business thanks to big cuts in its rent bill, Reuters reported. The 88-year-old firm, hit hard by intense competition in the retail sector, said on Wednesday creditors to BHS Limited, which covers 125 of its 164 stores, had voted to approve its proposal for a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) - a form of compromise agreement to avoid administration or liquidation.

The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Tuesday that it had made a final payment of 1.19 billion pounds, or about $1.7 billion, to the British government, fulfilling a condition of its bailout package that gave the government priority for dividend payments, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The British government owns about 73 percent of R.B.S. after having injected £45 billion into the bank during the financial crisis. As part of that bailout, the government received a so-called dividend access share, which gave it “enhanced rights” for dividends paid by the bank.

A British vote to leave the European Union could cost the economy £100 billion (€1.28bn) and 950,000 jobs by 2020, according to research commissioned by employers’ group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Irish Times reported. The CBI said “Brexit” would deliver a serious shock to the British economy, regardless of any trade deals the country could negotiate with its former European partners.

Gulf Keystone shares plummeted to seven-year lows on Thursday after the struggling oil explorer warned that it might not meet significant debt repayments due next month. Shares in the London-listed group lost more than 13pc to hit lows not seen since March 2009, at just below 10p a share. The Kurdistan-based oil producer admitted it is "unlikely" to succeed in selling off assets or completing a full corporate sale to cover its multi-million dollar debts.

Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Howard Davies said a British vote to leave the European Union would risk cutting the state-owned lender off from its Irish Ulster Bank division. “We would be very concerned if we were detached from that bank,” Mr Davies, 65, said on Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. With Ulster Bank headquartered in Dublin, RBS is considering “what it might mean if we were out whilst owning a bank within the euro zone” as part of its contingency planning, he said, ahead of Britain’s June 23rd referendum on its EU membership.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne started the week of his eighth budget by warning that he must set out more austerity measures as economic conditions remain difficult, Bloomberg News reported. "My message in this budget is that the world is a more uncertain place than at any time since the financial crisis," Osborne told the BBC’s "Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. "We’re going to have to make further savings." Osborne has indicated some savings in the budget to be unveiled Wednesday will come from further public-sector spending cuts.

The Bank of England is preparing to protect British banks from running out of funds in the event of a Brexit vote by flooding them with a wall of money in the latest sign of the authorities’ nervousness surrounding the EU referendum, the Financial Times reported. The central bank has announced it will give commercial banks three exceptional opportunities just before and after the June 23 poll on Britain’s membership of the EU to borrow as much money as they like to offset any threat of a run on banks and prevent a repeat of the chaos of the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.

UK households and companies started 2016 in a free-spending mood, loading up on debt to finance cars, mortgages and corporate loans, the Financial Times reported. Figures from the Bank of England showed unsecured lending to households, mostly car loans rather than credit card debt, grew 9.1 per cent in the year to January, the most for a decade. Mortgage approvals have recovered from the 2015 dip, and loan growth to small and large companies is growing again on an annual basis, for the first time since a consistent series began in 2012.

British financial regulators said on Monday that they would continue to exempt small banks and similarly sized financial institutions from European rules that cap bankers’ bonuses, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.