ICE Futures Europe has suspended the membership of London-based emissions brokers CarbonDesk Limited until further notice, the exchange said, after the firm said it could no longer pay creditors and named administrators. Last November CarbonDesk Group PLC said in a statement that its subsidiary had entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) as it no longer had enough cash to pay its debts, and it named administrators to take over management. A CVA enables a company to reach an agreement with its creditors on the repayment of outstanding debts over a period of time.

Britain's economy is at risk of contracting in the first half of this year after stagnating in the final quarter of 2011 due to the euro zone debt crisis, a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The BCC - which polled nearly 8,000 members - stopped short of forecasting an outright recession, saying only that one quarter of negative growth was likely over the next six months, but warned this hinged on government action to help business. "A new recession is not a foregone conclusion.

Kuwaiti retailer Alshaya has bought 60 La Senza UK stores, rescuing about 1,100 jobs, from the administrators of the stricken lingerie chain, Reuters reported. Alshaya bought the shops and UK brand in a so-called pre-pack deal after KPMG was appointed administrator to the company on Monday. Another 84 stores and 18 concessions had closed, the administrators said, resulting in about 1,300 job losses. The company was owned by Lion Capital, which had announced 81 of the closures on December 30.

The number of retailers in England and Wales falling into administration rose 11 percent in 2011, with a higher rate of failure in the normally lucrative Christmas quarter, according to research by Deloitte, Reuters reported. A total of 42 retailers went into administration in the final quarter compared with 33 in the previous three months, a rise of 27 percent. Administrations for the year totalled 183. The data from the business advisory firm Monday came within days of outdoor goods retailer Blacks Leisure announcing it would go into administration and then be sold.

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.