Britain has sued the European Parliament and European Union member states over a controversial plan to cap bankers' bonuses, in a last-ditch effort to block the legislation before it enters into force next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The legal challenge was filed with the EU's top court, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, "in the past couple of months," the court's press division said Wednesday. It follows a series of victories for the U.K. over financial services legislation as the country seeks to claw back powers from Brussels. In its lawsuit, the U.K.

Punch Taverns’ attempt to restructure its £2.3bn net debt will take on a new urgency as looming deadlines focus the minds of bondholders and the company itself, according to the pub group’s executive chairman, the Financial Times reported. Punch said it remained hopeful of launching a consensual restructuring of its heavy debt burden this year, as it posted a 68 per cent drop in annual pre-tax profit. Stephen Billingham, executive chairman, said: “We now have a short runway. When you have a long runway, people don’t focus their mind.

The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, formed to spot budding crises, has its eye on the U.K.'s housing market, The Wall Street Journal reported. In its first public comments on real estate, the committee said Wednesday that it would be "vigilant" to potential risks as banks step up mortgage lending and house prices rise. Real estate has long been a hot topic on this property-conscious isle, but in the wake of a government report showing house prices in London rose nearly 10% in the year to July, it has risen to a boil.

The number of bankruptcies awarded in Scotland has fallen by 20% as more people opt to repay their debts through a payback scheme, STV News reported. Figures released on Monday by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB), Scotland's insolvency service, revealed a 40% increase in debtors applying for debt payment programmes (DPP) under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). DAS, which is run by the Scottish Government, helps people resolve multiple debts by freezing interest and fees on the money owed and extending the time within which it must be paid back.

Bank lending to U.K. businesses fell again in August, an indication that a long-standing drag on growth has yet to be eliminated, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lending to businesses has been weak in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, a hindrance to business investment that economists believe has contributed to a significant decline in the productivity of the country's workers.

As the quaterly rent day approaches - when retailers pay three months’ rent in advance – research from insolvency trade group R3 has found 31% of retailers currently have a “higher than normal risk” of entering insolvency, economia reported. By comparison, 25% of all UK businesses have the same risk of failure. Liz Bingham, president of R3, said, "High Street retailers have had a tougher time of it than other sectors in the past few years.

Years of recession and financial crisis have turned almost one in ten of the UK’s 2.5 million companies into “zombies”, threatening a “surge of insolvencies” as they are left behind by the improving economy, The Scotsman reported. In new report published today, financial health monitoring group Company Watch says the number of so-called zombie businesses has soared by 108 per cent in the last five years, to 227,000.

The Treasury will rule on whether to split Royal Bank of Scotland into a "good" and "bad" bank shortly after the Conservative Party conference, according to a report. A review commissioned by the Government is expected to reject carving the part-nationalised bank in two, the Independent on Sunday reported. Meanwhile, RBS is also close to deciding who to sell a package 315 branches to - with a consortium led by private equity fund Corsair said to be in pole position.

Co-Operative Bank Plc said it’s willing to engage with creditors proposing an alternative recapitalization plan as it seeks to raise 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), Bloomberg reported. The U.K. lender, which is being pushed by regulators to bolster capital after incurring losses following its 2009 acquisition of Britannia Building Society, was responding to proposals from Moelis & Company UK LLP, which is advising a group that owns 43 percent of Co-Op’s lower Tier 2 bonds. Bondholders said they want all of the bank’s subordinated bonds and preferred stock converted to common shares.

Pressure is building on the Government to address fears that a debt-fuelled housing bubble is emerging after a leading UK property website tripled its growth forecast for home prices this year, The Telegraph reported. Rightmove started the year forecasting that average national asking prices would rise by 2pc over 2013. The property website, which advertises more than 800,000 properties nationwide, now believes prices are set to increase by 6pc, having previously raised its outlook to 4pc in July.