Updates next week from Britain's biggest retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer are expected to confirm that while Christmas was not the disaster that some had feared, consumer demand is set to weaken in 2023, denting profit.

Bankers in New York and London are bracing for year-end bonuses that recruiters estimate are 30% to 50% lower, while some may receive none at all as dealmaking sputters and economic gloom sets takes hold.

Corporate earnings growth is expected to slow in the year ahead in many countries as higher inflation and rising interest rates take an even bigger toll and companies brace for the likelihood of a global economic downturn.

The dollar firmed on Monday after data showed producer prices in the United States rose more than expected last month, pointing to persistent inflationary pressures and stoking fears the Federal Reserve would need to keep rates higher for longer.

Barclays has promoted 85 people to managing director (MD) in its investment bank, it said on Thursday, with by far the majority of the coveted titles this year being taken by men.

HSBC is closing a quarter of its branches across the United Kingdom from April 2023 after the bank failed to recover customer loss since the pandemic.

European stocks were subdued on Friday, with retail shares coming under pressure on fears of a bumpy holiday shopping season due to high inflation and slowing global economic growth.

UK police on Thursday said their biggest ever counter-fraud operation had disrupted an international criminal network targeting hundreds of thousands of victims in millions of spam phone calls.

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has indicated that Apple iPhone 15 Pro models will feature haptic buttons rather than mechanical buttons.

It's the best of times, it's the worst of times. At least when it comes to mining coal.

Bond dealers expect Britain to trim debt issuance plans for the current financial year, compared with those made just after September's "mini-budget", but see a big jump in issuance next year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Having hiked mortgage rates after political turmoil drove up the cost of borrowing, British banks are now cutting home loan prices, albeit slowly, as markets calm since Liz Truss's government collapsed and Rishi Sunak took power.

Barclays beat forecasts with a small rise in third-quarter profit on Wednesday lifted by a record performance in fixed income trading, but costs and loan charges crept higher in a sign of ongoing challenges.

The euro on Wednesday surged back above parity with the dollar, with the US currency sliding against its main rivals on concerns over the world's biggest economy.

Amazon.com Inc is launching a home insurance portal in Britain and has signed up three big-name insurers as it pushes further into financial services across the globe.

UK pension schemes are racing to raise hundreds of billions of pounds to shore up derivatives positions before the Bank of England calls time on support aimed at keeping them afloat.

The Bank of England has in less than a year hiked its interest rate to 2.25 percent from a record-low 0.1 percent in a bid to cool decades-high inflation.

The bank had failed to implement any internal controls to track such transactions in real time, the SEC found.

Wall Street giant JPMorgan is planning to double the size of its workforce at fledgling British retail bank Chase to at least 2,000 within two years, the CEO of the venture told Reuters, despite losses and some investor scepticism.

The Bank of England is likely to deliver a "significant policy response" to finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng's huge tax cuts but it should wait until its next scheduled meeting in November before making its move, BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill said.

Britain on Wednesday announced a six-month plan to pay about half of energy bills for businesses.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it would move to a "more British style of regulation" for the country's huge financial services industry as it seeks to take advantage of Brexit.

Lloyds Banking Group has been hit by more than 300 million pounds ($348 million) of suspected fraud linked to COVID-19 pandemic-era recovery loans for small businesses, the highest among big bank peers, according to government data.

HSBC, its online arm First Direct, and Metro Bank have joined a fraud-reporting hotline as the cost of living crisis increases the number of financial scams, an industry body said on Tuesday.

India's lower-than-expected economic growth in April-June is unlikely to alter the course for the Reserve Bank of India that is anchored to taming inflation with more rate hikes, analysts said.

In less than two years at the helm of Citigroup Inc, Jane Fraser has unveiled plans to exit Russia in a bid to pare down risky assets and cull consumer businesses in 13 other countries to focus on multinational companies and the wealthy.

Canadian software company OpenText said on Thursday it would acquire Britain's Micro Focus International Plc in an all-cash deal that values the enterprise software maker at $6 billion including debt.

Banking giants such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America collectively face more than $1 billion in regulatory fines for employees' use of unapproved messaging tools, including email and apps like WhatsApp.

In the battle to contain red-hot inflation, which topped nine percent in June, the Fed has hiked rates four times

German chancellor Olaf Scholz faces lawmakers' questions this week over his role in tackling a multibillion-euro tax fraud as a sprawling probe into the scheme threatens to undermine him as he grapples with an energy crisis and the fallout of war.