Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Sunday to protect pensioners' income if his Conservative party wins the 2015 election, laying out his first manifesto spending pledge, Reuters reported. Coming at a time when Britain is facing years of cuts to public spending, the promise is designed to win the support of the country's elderly - who polling data show are more likely to vote in elections than younger people.

The UK arm of the business operated by Irish builder Gerry Gannon – whose Irish loans are being managed by Nama – returned to profit in 2012 after securing debt write-offs and the transfer of bank loans, the Irish Times reported. Gannon Homes (UK) Ltd recorded a profit of £6.875 million (€8.3 million) after assigning the company’s bank loans and overdrafts totalling £24.9 million to third-party investors and writing off £1 million owed by the firm to Irish-based Gannon Homes Ltd.

The U.K. government is considering rule changes that would make it easier for new banks and alternative finance providers to provide funding to small and medium-sized companies, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The proposed regulations would help new entrants to the funding market check the creditworthiness of smaller companies, the Treasury said on Dec. 24. Interested parties have been asked to submit their views during a consultation period that runs until Feb. 17, with the government aiming to submit legislation in the next session of Parliament.

Reports of suspected market manipulation soared by 43 percent this year as the U.K. financial regulator investigated the rigging of multiple benchmark rates, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) received 117 reports of suspected “distortion and manipulation” of markets in the 12 months to August, compared with 82 in 2012, according to Bovill Ltd, a financial services consultant in London.

The U.K.'s official statistics agency said Tuesday it plans to change the way it calculates data on the public finances, a move that will revalue the British government's debt upward by more than a hundred billion pounds, The Wall Street Journal reported. The overhaul will reverse an accounting maneuver by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne last year that lowered the government's borrowing figures in the short term. But the new debt calculations would apply retroactively and thus would be unlikely to require a policy response. Mr.

Britain ushered in a new era of banking industry oversight on Monday when MPs gave their final approval to reforms aimed at tackling the structural and cultural failings which led to the near-collapse of the country's financial sector, Reuters reported. The reforms are the result of a lengthy legislative process started after the 2007/8 financial crisis and a series of mis-selling and rate-fixing scandals which shone a light on illegal and unethical behaviour at some of Britain's banks.

British film and computer game rental chain Blockbuster said it is to close 62 stores and lay off 427 employees and warned its remaining 91 stores and 808 staff could face the same fate, Reuters reported. Private equity firm Gordon Brothers Europe, which purchased Blockbuster for an undisclosed sum in March, put it into administration on Nov. 11, when it was trading from 264 stores, employing 2,000. Administrator Moorfields Corporate Recovery said on Thursday it had not received any acceptable offers for the business.

Millions of young workers will be unable to retire until they reach 70 under new government rules, The Telegraph reported. An overhaul of the state retirement system announced on Thursday will mean that people now under 50 will have to work even longer than they had previously thought. George Osborne, the Chancellor, will announce the new rules and argue that they are one of the “difficult decisions” required to put the public finances on a secure footing in the long term.

Savers have been withdrawing money from their accounts at the fastest rate for nearly 40 years, Bank of England figures show. They took £23 billion out of long-term savings in the past 12 months, equivalent to £900 for every household in the country, The Telegraph reported. They either spent the cash – which in many cases was earning little more than 1 per cent interest – or moved it to easy-access current accounts. The Bank’s figures suggest that record low interest rates have convinced many to give up on the prospect of meaningful returns on their nest eggs.

The threat of emergency intervention by the Bank of England into the Co-operative Bank receded on Friday night after thousands of retail investors gave their backing to a £1.5bn lifeline for the troubled high street bank, The Guardian reported. The support of the bondholders is a major step towards avoiding Threadneedle Street having to step in to wind up the bank but is part of a process that will force the Co-op Group – which owns supermarkets, funeral homes and pharmacies – to cede control of its banking business to bondholders, who have been led by aggressive US hedge funds.