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.

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.

The EU’s Brexit negotiators are pushing for a draft UK exit deal by mid-2018 as part of a narrow, divorce-first negotiating approach that would demand an exit bill of as much as €40-€60 billion, the Irish Times reported. Brussels’ rigid plans for the process show it is making a priority of a clean separation settlement – and Britain’s payment of a hefty exit charge – over London’s desire to focus on refashioning trading relations.

UK banks look set to boost their loss-absorbing buffers by issuing callable senior debt after being given explicit sign-off to use the structure by the Bank of England, Reuters reported. Two banks could sell the debt as soon as next week, taking advantage of the better-than-expected market conditions that have followed Donald Trump's US election victory. Barclays is one of the rumoured names.

Siccar Point Energy, a company backed by Blackstone, the US private equity group, has agreed to pay up to $1 billion for the North Sea assets of Austria’s OMV, the Irish Times reported. It marks the biggest acquisition in the UK offshore energy industry since crude prices crashed two years ago and highlights the interest of private equity investors in the North Sea as cash-strapped oil companies shed assets.

Scotland called for more clarity on Britain's Brexit strategy on Wednesday, offering a critical response to the British government's efforts to hold together a fraying United Kingdom as it prepares to leave the European Union, Reuters reported. The London-based British government began a series of meetings with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved administrations designed to reassure them that they will have a say in shaping the country's future ties with the EU.