Britain's banks discover on Wednesday how much extra capital they need to keep regulators happy when the outcome of an inquiry into their financial health is revealed, Reuters reported. The Bank of England will release the capital requirements on Wednesday morning. The BOE's Financial Policy Committee, tasked with spotting system-wide risks, said in November that the shortfall could be anywhere between 24 billion and 60 billion pounds. Analysts expect the final number to be around the middle of that range.

Britain's 'bad bank' running down the loans of two bailed-out lenders repaid 4 billion pounds to the government last year, chipping away at a total owed of more than ten times that amount, Reuters reported. UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), a 'zombie bank' that does not take new business, owes the government 43.4 billion pounds, down from 48.7 billion when it was created in October 2010. Chief Executive Richard Banks said he was "very confident" taxpayers would get back all the money the government spent on rescuing Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley during the 2008 financial crisis.

The DVD and games rental store Blockbuster has been sold to restructuring specialists Gordon Brothers Europe after filing for a form of U.K. bankruptcy earlier this year, the Associated Press reported. The company had gone into administration - a form of bankruptcy in Britain - in January. Blockbuster U.K. at the time had 528 stores. Hundreds of shops were shut in the weeks after its financial collapse. Administrators for the company from accounting firm Deloitte said Saturday that Gordon Brothers Europe had purchased Blockbuster for an undisclosed sum, saving 2,000 jobs and 264 U.K. stores.

The government launched incentives to help struggling home buyers on Wednesday as it looks to support growth in a real estate market it sees as key to reviving the country's ailing economy, Reuters reported. Chancellor George Osborne said Britain would commit 3.5 billion pounds over the next three years to shared equity loans for new-build homes worth less than 600,000 pounds, allowing buyers to purchase them with a 5 percent deposit. "For newly built housing, government will put up a fifth of the cost," he said in a budget speech to parliament.

Lloyds Banking Group is considering the sale of about €650 million of Irish real estate loans as the lender extracts itself from Western Europe's biggest property crash, according to a person with knowledge of the planned transaction, the Irish Times reported. The UK's second-biggest government-aided bank will have to sell at a discount, the person said without being more specific. He declined to be identified because the sale plans haven't yet been finalised. Lloyds spokesman Ian Kitts, declined to comment.

A plan to devolve potentially billions of pounds of public spending to local authorities and businesses in Britain to boost a stagnant economy won a green light from the government on Monday, Reuters reported. The Treasury said the coalition government had approved almost all the recommendations in a blueprint drawn up by Michael Heseltine, a former Conservative deputy prime minister. The scheme will see public money for projects such as housing and transport, now controlled by various government departments, pooled into a single pot from 2015.

National Australia Bank Ltd.'s restructuring of its U.K. operations is on track and the unit is now profitable, however it continues to face challenges in a difficult U.K. market, its chief executive said, The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch reported. Consumer and business confidence in Australia also remains "fragile," and both companies and individuals here will likely remain reluctant to commit to major investments until sentiment regarding the economic outlook improves, Cameron Clyne said Sunday in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Inside Business program. Mr.

The government has launched a review of pre-pack insolvencies, the controversial practices that can enable companies to dump pension liabilities, Professional Pensions reported. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the review, announced during a parliamentary debate, would begin in "late spring" although a timescale had yet to be set. Pre-packs involve arranging the sale of a business before an insolvency is triggered, with the transaction going through as soon as an administrator is formally appointed.

The UK government’s Insolvency Service is all but insolvent, the Financial Times reported. Experts suggest the group, which polices bankrupt companies, liquidates failed businesses and disqualifies unfit directors, would be broke had it not received an emergency injection of cash from the government. After reporting an underlying deficit of £12m last year, the agency is heading for a deficit of £5m to £7m for 2012-13, according to Whitehall officials.

The Bank of England warned on Thursday that the next phase of the UK's six-year financial and economic crisis may be triggered by the collapse of debt-laden companies bought by private equity firms in the boom years before the crash, The Guardian reported. In its latest quarterly bulletin, Threadneedle Street said the need over the next year to refinance firms subject to heavily leveraged buyouts posed a systemic threat.