Global mergers and acquisitions rose to the highest level in four years this quarter, as a surge in U.S. deals provided ground for optimism and salvaged what had been the worst year for takeovers since the financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported today. Companies worldwide have announced $691.9 billion in purchases in the final three months of the year, the most since the third quarter of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Lending by U.K. banks to companies fell sharply in November, underscoring the fragility of the British economy and raising doubts about the prospects of the Bank of England and U.K. Treasury's flagship program to boost the credit supply, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Figures from the British Bankers' Association today showed lending to companies outside the financial sector fell by £3.1 billion ($5.0 billion) in November, the steepest drop since June.

The government is considering a radical overhaul to the insolvency process in the wake of Comet's collapse, according to business secretary Vince Cable, The Guardian reported. Answering business questions from MPs, Cable said that the demise of the electricals retailer had caused "great distress" and hinted that it might be necessary to rethink the UK's insolvency regime after reports that administrators made millions out of the collapse. But he added that a report into the affair would not be made public.

Britain needs to introduce legislation that could break up banks if standards slipped because current reform proposals fall short of what is needed, an influential panel of MPs said, Reuters reported. The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards also said the government could set tougher rules for how much leverage banks were allowed, adding the committee itself would consider next year whether to propose banning proprietary trading. The PCBS said on Friday banks should be allowed to sell simple derivatives within their ring-fenced operation, which had been a point of contention.

Britain will get the go-ahead to force banks to shield their routine retail operations from riskier investment banking activities when MPs announce the conclusions of an inquiry into banking reform on Friday, Reuters reported. The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards will also recommend that the government can resort to a "nuclear option" of breaking up banks if they try to find ways around the new rules, commission sources said.

British electrical retailer Comet will close its remaining stores for the final time on Tuesday as part of a deal that will cost the British government more than 23 million pounds ($37 million), its administrators said, Reuters reported. Deloitte said in a report about the group's collapse that the cost of making almost 7,000 people redundant would reach 23.2 million pounds, a fee that will have to be met at least initially by the government. The country's tax authority also looks set to miss out on 26.2 million pounds from the closure.

Bank lending to Britain's property market is at its tightest since the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, a report showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Though lending has picked up since Lehman collapsed in 2008, the protracted euro zone debt crisis and shaky domestic economic data has hit confidence among banks, making them more wary of offering new loans to property companies.

A banking union will help the euro zone resolve its debt crisis but Britain must obtain safeguards to avoid its banks being damaged by a too-powerful European Central Bank, a Peers report said, Reuters reported. Like the government, the report by the European Union Committee of the Lords, backs a euro zone banking union in principle to help stabilise the sector, but it stressed the need to get key details right. Finance ministers from all 27 EU states will try to thrash out a deal on the banking union on Wednesday for EU leaders to endorse at a summit on Thursday and Friday.

For two centuries, London has reigned as the financial capital of Europe. Now, that supremacy is being challenged by European politicians who question why so much business and trading in the euro is done in a country that does not even use the currency, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. These policy makers are proposing changes that could shift power from the British capital to its longtime rivals, Frankfurt and Paris.

US and UK regulators will unveil the first cross-border plans to deal with failing global banks on Monday, outlining proposals to force shareholders and creditors on both sides of the Atlantic to take losses and to ensure sufficient capital exists in the banks’ headquarters to protect taxpayers. Writing in the Financial Times, Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, say this represents the first concrete steps to end the “too big to fail” problem of large international banks.