A hard Brexit would put 1,400 more UK companies into insolvency than a soft Brexit, according to new forecasts, the Financial Times reported. Compared with this year, by the end of 2019 the number of failing companies could jump almost a third to more than 26,000 if the UK leaves the EU with no new trade agreement in place, says Euler Hermes, which insures companies against the risk that creditors will not be able to pay their debts. A hard Brexit — a complete break with no access to the single market — would increase the risk of more bankruptcies, it says.

The pound slumped in late trading on Tuesday, firmly establishing sterling as the worst major performing currency this year as investors grow increasingly alarmed at the prospect of a severe rupture between the UK and EU, the Financial Times reported. Traders warn that a disorderly sell-off in the pound poses a major challenge for the Bank of England as it spurs inflation and ultimately prevents a further easing in its monetary policy that can offset weaker growth in the economy.

Britain crashing out of the European single market could cost banks and associated businesses in the U.K. almost 40 billion pounds ($51 billion) in lost revenue, undermining a key sector of the economy, an industry report warned on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. Finance firms are making a fresh bid for special status in upcoming Brexit negotiations with the EU after U.K. government officials this week indicated banks will get no favors.

British financial-services companies will get no special favors in Brexit negotiations from Prime Minister Theresa May, who wants to change the relationship between the government and the City of London, Bloomberg News reported. According to three senior figures in May’s administration, the government will refuse to prioritize the protection of the sector after the U.K. has left the European Union. Her team has also dismissed the key business demand for an interim deal with the EU to help ease the transition out of the bloc, one of the people said.

Research by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP showed that U.K. company pension deficits fell by 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) in September but remained close to the previous month’s record high of 710 billion pounds, Bloomberg News reported today. The funding gap for defined-benefit pensions, which pay retirees fixed amounts based on factors including length of service, stood at 690 billion pounds as of September 29, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

A new petition is urging the British government to ban cold-calling about pensions and investments in a bid to protect people from fraudsters, the Telegraph reported today. Financial advisers – backed by former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann – have started a petition calling for it to be illegal to call or email someone unbidden to discuss their pension or investment opportunities. Fraudsters often lure in savers with offers of a “free pension review” before encouraging them to invest in high risk, unregulated investments or transfer their pension to suspicious schemes.

As the debate over how to carry out Brexit intensifies, the City of London finds itself in the firing line, the Wall Street Journal reported today. To some hard-line Brexiters, repeated warnings from bankers about the costs of quitting the European single market and losing passporting rights—which allow U.K.-based firms to sell financial services anywhere in the European Union—smack of special pleading. Passporting is a red herring, they say, because the U.K.

At the end of May 2016 a total of £2.2 billion was owed to banks – a rise of £177 million on the previous year, and the seventh year in a row that debt levels have increased, The Courier reported. In addition to this, farms have an estimated £1.4 billion of liabilities from hire purchases, lease arrangements and money borrowed from family members and other sources, according to Scotland’s Chief Statistician. The figures, which show bank farm debt is the highest since records began in 1972, come after problems with a new IT system caused delays getting European subsidies to farmers.

Three former Tesco executives have been charged with fraud in connection with an accounting scandal that rocked the British supermarket giant two years ago, investigators said on Friday, the International New York Times reported. The charges stem from a criminal investigation dating to October 2014, after the company announced that it had overstated its first-half profit by 263 million pounds, about $420 million at the time, and that it had suspended several executives for accounting irregularities.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has left open the possibility of further cuts in UK interest rates this autumn despite acknowledging the risk of recession had receded in the past month, the Financial Times reported. Mr Carney took credit for the bounce in August’s business and consumer surveys, telling MPs during a parliamentary hearing that part of the recovery in sentiment was “because the bank took timely, comprehensive and concrete action and that action has had an impact”.