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.

Belfast’s key development sites are now “free from the burden of Nama debt” and the city is once again attracting interest from developers and investors, according to the chief executive of the city council, the Irish Times reported. Suzanne Wylie today launched a new Belfast City Council initiative which aims to attract £1 billion (€1.3bn) of new development investment for Belfast, which she believes will then help to deliver “tens of thousands of jobs”.

The failure of a Government funded events company that collapsed in 2007 with debts totalling £1.6 million represents “one of the biggest scandals” ever investigated by the North’s Public Accounts Committee, its chairperson declared Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. Sinn Fein’s Michaela Boyle said the level of scandal involved in the collapse of the now defunct Northern Ireland Events Company (NIEC) was “completely shocking” and had ultimately resulted in taxpayers in the North footing a £1.6 million bill.

Standard Chartered, an Asia-focused bank based in London, reported on Tuesday an unexpectedly large loss of $2.36 billion for 2015 after being pummeled by its exposure to emerging markets and bad loans, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. It was the latest in a series of weak performances by global banks, amid concerns over a slowing world economy. Standard Chartered also warned that more than 150 current or former executives were at risk of having their bonuses clawed back if they were found to be responsible for the bank’s poor performance.

The pay deals handed to the bosses of Britain’s biggest banks will be in focus this week when they report their results for 2015, at a time when bank shares have been hit by fears of renewed financial crisis, The Guardian reported. Investors will be scrutinising the bonuses handed out staff - it has already been calculated the major high street banks could hand out £5bn between them - and the dividends paid out to shareholders.

The UK has not abandoned its battle against an EU cap on bankers’ bonuses, including it in a list of regulations it says do not work, the Irish Times reported. The Bank of England included the bonus cap in its recent response to an EU review of rules put in place since the financial crisis. Leading the review is Lord Hill, the bloc’s commissioner for financial services, who is also a British Conservative.

Top UK regulators are trying to help three Iranian-owned banks reintegrate into the financial system after years of international sanctions — by deploying a unit designed to aid start-ups, the Financial Times reported. The UK-based Iranian lenders would be among the first beneficiaries of the just-launched unit, which allows participating banks access to services such as a helpline and case officers. The Bank of England officially reactivated the licences of the three banks — Persia International Bank, Melli Bank and Bank Sepah International — two weeks ago.