Kuwaiti firm Global Investment House’s decision to use the UK courts could set a new precedent for debt restructuring in the Gulf as the company bypasses Kuwaiti law to push through its second debt deal in three years, the Financial Times reported. The Gulf company is the first to try to use a London court “scheme” to force a minority of creditors to accept the terms of its new $1.7bn restructuring plan, which aims to grant creditors a 70 per cent stake in the investment company.

UBS AG was fined 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) by the U.K. and told by the Swiss that it may have to increase capital levels for operational risks as regulators levied penalties after Kweku Adoboli’s $2.3 billion trading loss, Bloomberg News reported today. The Financial Services Authority in the U.K. issued the fine today, saying that the loss revealed serious weaknesses in management systems and internal controls. Finma, the Swiss regulator, said that it instructed UBS to appoint an independent third party to report on the progress and completion of a program to fix these failings.

The developer of the tallest skyscraper in London's financial district faces a legal challenge that could force it out of business after a dispute with the tower's builder, Reuters reported yesterday. Contractor Brookfield Multiplex launched a legal claim for about 16 million pounds ($25 million) against the owners of the 63-storey Pinnacle skyscraper this summer for payments relating to a 593 million pound construction contract.

Britain and France are heading for a showdown in Brussels over the next EU budget, amid rising hopes in Downing Street that the debate is shifting in favour of the tough settlement demanded by David Cameron, UK prime minister, the Financial Times reported. Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, has proposed a compromise budget that approaches Mr Cameron’s demands for a freeze on spending – indeed on one measure he is proposing a cut.

Payday loans companies are failing to adequately check whether loans will be affordable for borrowers and have been warned by the regulator over "aggressive" debt collection practices, The Guardian reported. The Office of Fair Trading has written to all 240 payday lenders highlighting "emerging concerns" over poor practices in the market, and has opened formal investigations into several payday lenders over how they pursue borrowers who have defaulted on their repayments.

Britain's banks should be forced to fully separate their retail arms from investment banking operations if they try to circumvent new rules designed to protect the taxpayer, a top regulator warned, Reuters reported. Andrew Bailey, head of banking supervision at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said banks should face the threat of being broken up if they fail properly to comply with proposals to ring-fence retail deposits from riskier activities. Bailey said there was a risk that banks would try to "tunnel under" any ring-fence that was set for them.

British aero engineer Hampson Industries Plc, which has been struggling with a heavy debt load, on Monday said it planned to appoint administrators, less than four months after it terminated a sale process, Reuters reported. The company, which supplies tools and components to planemakers Airbus and Boeing Co, put itself on the block in February but warned that the sale process was likely to result in little or no value to the company's shareholders.

Britain's housebuilders face a dose of harsh economic reality next year as government steps to kickstart sales falter and strategies to bolster their balance sheets run out of steam, Reuters reported. Housebuilders have enjoyed stable sales for 18 months as the government put housing centre-stage in its battle to spark economic growth, with plans like NewBuy and Funding for Lending, and any slump would hit these wider ambitions.

Struggling paper, packaging and signage merchant PaperlinX has announced more restructuring and cost cuts in its business in the United Kingdom in response to depressed trading conditions in Europe, The Australian reported. The company said on Thursday that the UK restructuring would cost $3 million, but combined with cost cuts, would deliver $13 million in annual benefits.

Years of poor governance and mismanagement have turned London's local government pension schemes into a "ticking time-bomb" that could mean a massive bill for taxpayers, a new report has found. The report by think-tank Pensions Institute published on Monday said that by "shopping around" for the most favourable actuarial assumptions, local government pension schemes were understating the real value of their pension liabilities and repeatedly deferring funding recovery plans.