Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people. Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last. In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley colliery, Britain’s last deep coal mine, is scheduled to close for good. In the mine’s empty parking lot, Mr. Jamieson, 50, is already thinking about the moment in a few weeks’ time when the last group of miners is hauled to the surface.

Barclays said on Thursday that it expected to spend an additional 1 billion pounds, or about $1.5 billion, over the next three years to meet new regulatory requirements intended to shield its retail customers from other parts of the bank during any future financial crisis, the International New York Times reported. The British bank cut its profitability target for 2016, saying that the coming structural changes required by regulators in Britain and in the United States would drag on its results. The changes include the so-called ring-fencing of its retail operations in Britain.

Britain’s ‘bad bank’, which is running down the loans of two bailed out lenders, said it repaid £500 million to the government in the six months ended September, the Irish Times reported. UK Asset Resolution Ltd (UKAR), a state-run ‘zombie bank’ that does not take on new business, said it had now returned £14.6 billion, or 30 per cent of the loan to the government. The bank said it had reduced the size of its balance sheet by £8.5 billion during the period.

Britons are finally as well-off as they were before the crisis, the Office for National Statistics has said, with households benefiting from higher earnings and rising employment, the Financial Times reported. However, the gains have not been equally shared: workers are still poorer than they were in 2007/8, while retirees are significantly better off. The figures are a boost for George Osborne, suggesting that living standards in the UK are finally higher than before the crash, thanks to economic growth and a strengthening labour market.

The fate of emerging market currencies is looming ever larger in the outlook for interest rates in The House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, issued a rare rebuke to the government Monday over plans to cut tax rebates for working families, a widely unpopular part of a budget-cutting strategy that would affect thousands of British householdsm The Wall Street Journal reported.

Standard Chartered, the Asia-focused bank based in London, said on Monday that it planned to exit its equity derivatives and convertible bonds units as its new chief executive, William T. Winters, reshapes the company, the International New York Times reported. The decision to wind down those businesses followed the bank’s decision to close its institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital markets operations in January.

“Constant tinkering” with pensions rules is saddling British business with unmanageable cost and compliance burdens, company chiefs have warned, the Financial Times reported. The CBI employers’ group surveyed 160 businesses employing more than half a million people and found that eight of out 10 executives think the government should stop making changes to the pensions regime, after complex reforms. Business leaders are also concerned staff may stop saving for their retirement if tax benefits continue to be eroded as pensions become more complicated, the CBI found.

AIB and Bank of Ireland are among a number of banks who have been criticised in the UK for not working hard enough to compete for customers, the Irish Times reported. However, in a move that will be welcomed by Britain’s biggest financial institutions, none are to be broken up or forced to ditch free banking services to improve competition in the industry.

Barclays appears to be considering ways to defy the strict separation of its high street operations from its investment bank, in a move likely to inflame the debate over whether rules designed to prevent a second banking crisis are being watered down, The Guardian reported. The bank, which is poised to name ex-investment banker Jes Staley as its next boss, is considering a plan that would put its retail banking arm under the ownership of its investment bank. Although temporary, the arrangement could last years.

Tata Steel, the biggest steelmaker in Britain, may cut about 1,200 jobs as part of plans to restructure its struggling operations, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The move would be another blow to the UK steel sector, hit by weak steel prices, after the liquidation of the UK's second-largest steelmaker SSI UK was announced this month. Tata plans to halt production of steel plate, which would lead to about 900 job losses in Scunthorpe in northern England and 270 in Scotland, plus a small number at other sites, it said in a statement.