Barclays is the latest bank to become embroiled in the global probe into suspected manipulation of currency rates in a setback for the lender’s attempts to improve its image following misconduct scandals, the Financial Times reported. The bank said on Wednesday it had launched an internal investigation into its foreign exchange trading operations. Its admission, disclosed in its third-quarter results statement, came a day after European lenders UBS and Deutsche Bank said they had also been drawn into the probe into the $4tn-a-day foreign exchange trading market.

Blockbuster's chain of film and computer game rental shops in Britain is set to go into administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, for the second time in 10 months after its private equity owner failed to turn the business around, Reuters reported. The firm's British shops originally fell victim to increased competition from supermarkets, the shift towards people watching films over the internet and a harsh economic backdrop.

Royal Bank of Scotland could announce this week the separation of its non-core division into a new “bad bank” following the completion of a review into the business, The Telegraph reported. The taxpayer-backed lender is expected to say it will hive off the more than £50bn of toxic assets still on its balance sheet into a new unit that will focus on running them down, as well as further cutbacks to its investment banking arm.

Home sellers in London raised asking prices 10% in the early weeks of October, as foreign buyers continued stoking the market, adding to concern a fresh property bubble may be forming, The Wall Street Journal reported. The capital's steep price increases have also fueled concern among policy makers that many residents may be forced out of the market.

Britain may avert the closure of the Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plant after union leaders said on Thursday they had accepted demands from the management in an effort to save 1,400 jobs. Scottish government officials met union leaders and management at Grangemouth on Thursday in hopes of persuading the operator, Swiss-based chemicals group Ineos, to re-open the plant, the largest industrial site in Scotland and its only refinery.

A refrigeration installation and servicing company with the UK's leading supermarkets among its clients has gone into administration with the likelihood of imminent closure, putting more than 600 jobs at risk, The Guardian reported. WR Refrigeration, which employs more than 600 staff across the UK, suffered heavy financial losses and cash flow problems after difficult trading conditions, leading to HMRC issuing a winding-up petition this month which triggered a search for extra funding.

Scotland's economy suffered a blow on Wednesday when the owner of the Grangemouth site shut the petrochemical plant and threatened to close the adjoining refinery, putting 1,400 jobs at risk. Swiss owner Ineos halted production last week at the 210,000-barrels-per-day refinery, which provides most of Scotland's fuel, due to a labour dispute with Britain's largest union, Unite. Ineos says the site makes a loss. The decision to close the petrochemical plant comes despite the protestations of Prime Minister David Cameron, who had called on all sides to continue talks.

George Osborne said on Tuesday he would not be able to dilute his austerity programme even though the public finances were doing better than expected, the Financial Times reported. Speaking in London after the official figures were published, the chancellor made a point of saying that lower headline levels of borrowing did not necessarily improve the underlying picture.

The owner of Scotland's largest oil refinery has warned he is not bluffing about threats to close the site permanently this week if 1,300 staff do not agree to pensions cuts, The Guardian reported. Grangemouth, which provides 85% of Scotland's petrol, was shut down last Wednesday in an escalation of a rancorous industrial dispute between Ineos, the plant's owner, and Unite, Britain's largest trade union. Jim Ratcliffe, the chairman of Ineos, said a decision on the site's future would be announced on Tuesday following a staff consultation. "This is not a bluff.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Help to Buy plan to aid home buyers is the wrong policy for Britain, economists said, adding to criticism of an initiative that was ramped up just this week. Two thirds of 31 economists described the measure as “bad,” according to a Bloomberg News survey published today. The prime minister this month accelerated the second phase of the program, which gives people the chance to buy a home with a down payment of as little as 5 percent. The new phase of the plan has heightened criticism it may fuel a bubble in Britain.