UK alternative finance market set to surge in 2015
LONDON - Britain's alternative finance market is forecast to more than double this year and next, said a study published on Friday, as peer-to-peer lending, invoice trading and crowdfunding shift into the mainstream.
UK hiring and pay growth slow in October
LONDON - Permanent hirings by British firms via recruitment companies rose at the slowest pace in nearly a year in October and growth in starting salaries also weakened, a survey showed on Friday.
UK banks face break-up threat as competition probe launched
LONDON - Britain's big banks could be broken up after the country's competition watchdog launched a full-blown investigation into services for small business customers and personal accounts because of a lack of competition.
Osborne urges petrol firms to pass on falling oil costs
LONDON - Chancellor George Osborne urged petrol retailers on Thursday to lower their prices in line with a fall in oil costs, saying he would be watching them carefully to ensure savings were passed on to consumers.
UK house prices show surprise fall in October
LONDON - British house prices unexpectedly fell last month and recorded their smallest quarterly increase in nearly two years, adding to signs that the market is cooling, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Thursday.
Bank of England looks set to signal no rate hike until mid-2015
LONDON - The Bank of England, once widely expected to start weaning Britain off near-zero interest rates this month, now looks set to signal no rise in borrowing costs until the middle of next year.
UK tribunal backs holiday overtime pay, prompting business fears
LONDON - A British employment tribunal ruled on Tuesday that companies should factor in overtime when calculating workers' holiday pay, a decision that employers' groups warned could put some smaller firms out of business.
UK women "work for free" from now until end of year
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British women, you're working for free for the rest of the year.
UK consumer morale edges down as economic outlook clouds
LONDON - British consumer morale edged down for a second month in October as households showed less faith in the outlook for the economy, a survey by researchers GfK showed on Friday.
Momentum in Britain's housing market eases further
LONDON - British house price growth eased for a second month in a row on an annual basis in October, adding to evidence that a previously rapid upturn in Britain's housing market is losing steam, a survey showed on Thursday.
New legal powers for Bank of England to regulate mortgages
LONDON - The government published proposals to give the Bank of England new legal powers to control residential mortgage lending on Thursday, but said it wanted more evidence before deciding on a BoE request to regulate lending to landlords.
UK defined benefit pension scheme funding up in year to end-March
LONDON - British defined benefit pension scheme funding rose to 97 percent at the end of March 2014 from 84 percent a year earlier, industry data showed on Thursday.
Sterling forecasts cut as early BoE hike hopes dim - Reuters poll
LONDON - The outlook for the pound versus the dollar has dimmed in the past month as expectations for the first interest rate rise by the Bank of England have been pushed back to later next year, a Reuters poll found.