British bank Barclays PLC unveiled plans Tuesday to increase its capital levels by nearly $20 billion, one of the boldest recent attempts by a European bank to put to rest questions about its financial strength, The Wall Street Journal reported. Even as Barclays addressed one of regulators' main concerns about the bank, however, a new problem emerged: A British regulatory agency is planning an enforcement action against the bank over a 2008 fundraising deal with Qatari investors, people familiar with the probe said.

HM Treasury has proposed applying bank insolvency to credit unions, warning a lack of formal legislation for winding up credit unions poses significant risks as currently “considerable intervention” is needed from the regulators, FT Adviser reported. In a new consultation paper, Industrial and provident societies: growth through co-operation, the government is seeking views on the merits of applying bank solvency rules in the Banking Act 2009 to credit unions.

The insolvency profession has welcomed the long-debated ruling in Nortel and Lehman Brothers v The Pensions Regulator , after a four-year battle over pension fund debts after a company has entered administration, Economia reported. The case stems from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the Canadian telecoms group Nortel Networks four years ago, which left behind major UK pension funds deficits. The European administrators of Nortel brought the issue to the Supreme Court - along with the administrators of Lehman Brothers – following a $3.1bn claim from the UK pension scheme on insolvency.

British antitrust regulators said that large companies should be required to put their auditing contract out to tender every five years in a move that falls short of proposals from the European Union to spur auditor competition, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The requirement to tender auditing contracts every five years should apply to companies in the FTSE 350 Index, the U.K. Competition Commission said yesterday. The regulator stopped short of proposing that companies be forced to switch auditors, a move it was considering in February.

The Nicole Farhi name will stay on Britain's high streets after the fashion chain was purchased by Fenn Wright Manson owner Maxine Hargreaves-Adams, the firm's administrators said yesterday, Reuters reported. Zolfo Cooper, which was appointed as Nicole Farhi's administrator on July 3, said that the disposal comprises six stores, nine concessions and the wholesale and e-commerce parts of the business. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Read more.

Thirty-three U.K. lenders including HSBC Holdings Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc agreed to allow customers to switch their checking accounts between lenders in seven days, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. From September, lenders will redirect payments and deposits for customers moving their account to another bank, the Payments Council said. Customers will be refunded any charges should the process go wrong, according to the body, which is funded by banks and mutual lenders. Moving accounts can take as long as 30 days at present.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. economy is “healing” and that should allow the government to cut taxes, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. With recent data showing strength in the economy, Cameron may find it easier to achieve his deficit-reduction goals as part of the biggest fiscal squeeze since World War II. Due to a weaker-than-expected recovery after the global financial crisis, Cameron’s Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners have had to extend budget cuts until 2017-18, beyond the country’s next general election in 2015.

Terry J. Farr, a former broker who was charged on Monday as part of an investigation into manipulation of global benchmark interest rates, was “a minnow in a very large pond,” his lawyer said yesterday, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. Katie Wheatley, a partner at the law firm Bindmans, which represents Farr, said that it was “regrettable” that the Serious Fraud Office had decided to charge Farr in the continuing investigation into the rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor).

The average asking price for residential property in the U.K. rose to a fresh all-time high in the early weeks of July, with further price increases expected in the coming year, fueling concerns that the government's Help to Buy program could be creating a fresh housing market bubble, The Wall Street Journal reported. Alongside robust housing data, a separate survey Monday showed that small and medium-size U.K. businesses were increasingly upbeat about their prospects in the second half of the year.

The number of companies close to insolvency dropped sharply in the second quarter, underpinning hopes of a sustainable recovery in the UK’s economy, the Financial Times reported. This is the third quarter in a row that the number of companies on the verge of insolvency has fallen, according to Begbies Traynor, the restructuring specialists whose red flag alert monitors early signs of distress in small and medium-sized companies across the UK. The number of companies showing critical signs of financial distress fell 39 per cent from June 2012 to June this year, Begbies said.