The Nicole Farhi name will stay on Britain's high streets after the fashion chain was purchased by Fenn Wright Manson owner Maxine Hargreaves-Adams, the firm's administrators said yesterday, Reuters reported. Zolfo Cooper, which was appointed as Nicole Farhi's administrator on July 3, said that the disposal comprises six stores, nine concessions and the wholesale and e-commerce parts of the business. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Read more.

Thirty-three U.K. lenders including HSBC Holdings Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc agreed to allow customers to switch their checking accounts between lenders in seven days, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. From September, lenders will redirect payments and deposits for customers moving their account to another bank, the Payments Council said. Customers will be refunded any charges should the process go wrong, according to the body, which is funded by banks and mutual lenders. Moving accounts can take as long as 30 days at present.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. economy is “healing” and that should allow the government to cut taxes, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. With recent data showing strength in the economy, Cameron may find it easier to achieve his deficit-reduction goals as part of the biggest fiscal squeeze since World War II. Due to a weaker-than-expected recovery after the global financial crisis, Cameron’s Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners have had to extend budget cuts until 2017-18, beyond the country’s next general election in 2015.

Terry J. Farr, a former broker who was charged on Monday as part of an investigation into manipulation of global benchmark interest rates, was “a minnow in a very large pond,” his lawyer said yesterday, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. Katie Wheatley, a partner at the law firm Bindmans, which represents Farr, said that it was “regrettable” that the Serious Fraud Office had decided to charge Farr in the continuing investigation into the rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor).

The average asking price for residential property in the U.K. rose to a fresh all-time high in the early weeks of July, with further price increases expected in the coming year, fueling concerns that the government's Help to Buy program could be creating a fresh housing market bubble, The Wall Street Journal reported. Alongside robust housing data, a separate survey Monday showed that small and medium-size U.K. businesses were increasingly upbeat about their prospects in the second half of the year.

The number of companies close to insolvency dropped sharply in the second quarter, underpinning hopes of a sustainable recovery in the UK’s economy, the Financial Times reported. This is the third quarter in a row that the number of companies on the verge of insolvency has fallen, according to Begbies Traynor, the restructuring specialists whose red flag alert monitors early signs of distress in small and medium-sized companies across the UK. The number of companies showing critical signs of financial distress fell 39 per cent from June 2012 to June this year, Begbies said.

Upmarket British designer fashion chain Nicole Farhi has gone into administration, a form of bankruptcy in the U.K., a business restructuring firm said Wednesday. Zolfo Cooper, a company providing restructuring services, said it is in talks to sell the brand, one of Britain's best-known luxury clothing chains and a regular at London Fashion Week, the Associated Press reported. "As with many other fashion retailers, the decline in high street spend coupled with rising costs has led to increased financial pressures on the business," said Peter Saville, a partner at Zolfo Cooper.

Profits at the insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor have halved because fewer UK companies are going bust, The Guardian reported. The firm, which has been administrator to indebted groups from Port Vale FC to Rotherham-based United Carpets, reported that pre-tax profits were down £2.4m for the year until the end of April, compared with £5.5m the previous year. Revenues fell by more than 10% to £51m. In a statement the board blamed the profit fall on a 10% decline in insolvency cases, which it said had reached historic lows compared to previous recessions.

Bank of England policymakers said on Tuesday they would press ahead quickly with a new curb on banks' risk exposure and would not be deflected by industry lobbying against the plan, Reuters reported. Paul Tucker, the central bank's deputy governor for financial stability, told British lawmakers that the new rule, which would require UK banks to meet a limit on lending as a proportion of their capital, should be introduced now. Ratcheting up the pressure on banks, Tucker said lobbying was "completely unacceptable", pointless and regulators would not be deflected "one iota" from their tasks.

Britain's biggest coal producer, UK Coal, will be placed in administration and most of its mines and pension liabilities transferred to a state-run pensions agency in a bid to save 2,000 jobs, according to a union leader and a newspaper report. The British coal industry has struggled to break even in recent years because of rising costs, hefty pension liabilities and competition from cheap imports from Colombia and the United States, Reuters reported.