United Kingdom

Excessive pay for bosses at struggling companies represents a market failure and shareholders will be given more powers to block bumper deals, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Cameron told the British Broadcasting Corporation in a television interview that shareholders will be given binding votes on pay deals, particularly severance deals, in an effort to limit excessive "rewards for failure" for senior executives.

D2 Jeans, a small British clothing retailer, has entered into administration, highlighting the plight of many of the country's fashion companies as they battle against a stagnant economy, Reuters reported yesterday. Business restructuring company BDO LLP said yesterday that its partners James Stephen and David Hill had been appointed as the administrators for D2 Jeans and added that 200 jobs would be eliminated.

The trustee for the MF Global Inc. brokerage said he's disputing as much as $700 million in customer assets with the administrators of a U.K. affiliate, Business Week reported Wednesday. Trustee James Giddens, who has said he's trying to retrieve U.S. commodity customers' assets from foreign affiliates, told the administrators the funds were held for customers' foreign trades and should be returned, he said in a statement. The administrators said the assets didn't fit the classification of segregated funds under U.K. law, he said. The assets he's fighting for in the U.K.

The "bleak" financial situation faced by the younger generation has been laid bare, as official figures showed that more people aged between 25 and 34 are turning to a type of insolvency known as a debt relief order (DRO) than any other age group, the Sunday Sun reported today. One in four people who have taken out DROs in England and Wales since they were introduced fall into this age category, according to the Insolvency Service, which has launched a Dealing With Your Debt campaign encouraging people to seek help early.

Legal authorities unwinding the brokerage operations of MF Global Holdings Ltd. in the U.S. and U.K. could be heading for a legal clash over $600 million to $700 million in customer money that both sides consider to be their responsibility, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. James Giddens, the U.S. trustee unwinding MF Global's domestic brokerage unit, on Friday disputed the stance of KPMG, which is unwinding MF Global's London-based arm, over the legal classification of the money.

U.K. retailer La Senza has said that it intends to enter administration, according to BBC News on Friday. The lingerie chain blamed "trading conditions" and "the overall macro environment" for its decision. An administrator will now be chosen within 10 days, in accordance with the U.K. Insolvency Act. The retailer, which has some 2,600 U.K. staff at 146 stores and 18 concessions, said that it continued to trade as normal, and there have been no unplanned redundancies or store closures.

The government should clarify responsibilities and strengthen oversight over the new, powerful regulators in its sweeping overhaul of the country's regulatory system, a key parliamentary committee said on Monday, Reuters reported. However, the joint committee looking into the draft Financial Services Bill, which will make the Bank of England the key player in the regulation of the country's financial sector, backed regulators' call for more discretionary powers to avoid the shortfalls of a fully rule-based regulation approach.

Britain is to propose stricter rules for mortgage lending that aim to prevent a recurrence of irresponsible practices -- such as "liar loans" -- that led to the global financial crisis, Reuters reported. The UK financial watchdog -- the Financial Services Authority -- will discuss these proposals with banks and other lenders in a consultation that follows on from initial plans the FSA put forward in July to tighten up mortgage regulation.

The number of unemployed Britons has soared to the highest level for 17 years, increasing pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to fuel growth and raising fresh questions about the wisdom of his government's fierce austerity drive, The Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless total rose 128,000 in the three months to October to 2.64 million, the highest level since the third quarter of 1994, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The jobless rate rose to 8.3%, its highest level since the three months to January 1996. Mr.

Unite, the union representing cabin crew at Thomas Cook Group's U.K.-based airline, said Tuesday that it struck an agreement with the company over pay and job cuts late last month to avoid putting the troubled travel group's future in jeopardy, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. The agreement, which neither Unite or Thomas Cook had disclosed until now, preceded an emergency-financing deal in late November in which Thomas Cook's bankers agreed to an extended GBP200 million ($310.7 million) loan facility and relaxed financial covenants on existing loans.