Concern about the rising number of pensioners becoming bankrupt has been raised by campaigners following an analysis of debt figures, the BBC reported. Bankruptcy among all age groups has risen in the past 10 years, with the highest prevalence among 35 to 44-year-olds, the UK Insolvency Service said. But the service and charities have pointed to pensioners as being the fastest growing group of bankrupts. The elderly face debts at a time when their income drops, charities warn.

Mortgage lenders have warned that an imminent crackdown by the FSA on lending practices could keep the market in the “doldrums” for the foreseeable future and even jeopardise the economic recovery, the Financial Times reported. Under proposals from the City watchdog, lenders will have to do more to ensure borrowers can afford their mortgages. That could mean a curtailing of interest-only products, self-certified mortgages and products of longer than 25 years. Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, recently claimed the changes would only marginally affect most would-be borrowers.

Multinational companies are facing a new British law they fear will force them to rethink their compliance strategies and upend their business practices, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The new law, called the Bribery Act, takes effect in April and it resembles the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars companies that trade on U.S. exchanges from bribing foreign government officials to gain a business advantage. The British law, however, is more sweeping than its American counterpart, and corporate legal advisers are uncertain how extensive the fallout might be.

Net mortgage lending by U.K. banks was at its weakest in over 10 years in November as demand for new homes slowed, as is typical for this time of the year, data from the British Bankers Association showed on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Seasonally-adjusted net mortgage lending grew £1.5 billion ($2.31 billion) in October. That was the smallest increase since a £1.3 billion gain in August 1999 and compares with gains of £1.7 billion in October and £2.8 billion a year earlier.

Henderson Global Investors said that it had acquired a major development site in the southeast English city of Winchester for shops and over 300 homes, from the administrators of UK developer Thornfield, Reuters reported today. The 600,000-square-foot Silver Hill project was put on hold after Thornfield entered into administration last January, Henderson said on Wednesday. Henderson said that it got the development through the acquisition of two Thornfield entities from administrators Deloitte for an undisclosed sum.

The British Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has today launched a crack down on doorstep loan providers, warning more than 50 firms they have three months to prove they are in compliance with the Consumer Credit Act, or they could lose their operations license, the Guardian (U.K.) reported today. Over the past 18 months the OFT and Trading Standards officers visited 200 doorstep loan providers and said half of them failed to fully demonstrate competence in a number of different ways.

George Osborne, the British finance minister, insists he does not aim to boost London by soft-pedaling on U.K. regulation of banks in the wake of new U.S. rules, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "I'm not looking for regulatory advantage or arbitrage. If anything, I think we had too much of that in the run-up to the banking crisis," Osborne said. The chancellor, who met with the heads of Wall Street's biggest banks during his visit to the U.S. last week, declined to say whether the British government intends to force banks to make structural changes, as the U.S.

Property developer John Fleming has filed for bankruptcy to a British court, which will allow him to emerge from the process after a year, compared with up to 12 years under the Irish system, the Irish Times reported. The Cork developer, whose construction and investment firms owe €1 billion to their banks, is the first of Ireland’s major developers to make such a move. A receiver is now in control of Mr Fleming’s finances, following a declaration of bankruptcy in an Essex court. The petition gives the address of Mr Fleming and his wife as Billericay in Essex, England.

The CBI is urging the government to delay by a year its plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65, fearing it will create legal confusion and a wave of employment tribunal cases, the Financial Times reported. John Cridland, director-general designate of the employers’ group, said the government’s proposals were “not fit for purpose” and urged simplification of the rules. He said it was the “number one employment regulatory issue” for employers in the coming year and was causing deep concern.

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Bernard Madoff's investment firm joined an English liquidator on Wednesday in filing an $80 million lawsuit against former directors of the convicted felon's London operation, including his sons and brother, and related entities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The suit was filed in the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice Commercial Court by trustee Irving Picard and Stephen J. Akers, a joint liquidator of Madoff Securities International Ltd.