European banks risk jeopardising the path to net-zero carbon emissions and the growth of renewable energy unless they stop directly financing new oil and gas fields this year, investors managing assets worth more than $1.5 trillion said on Friday.

Proposals to reimburse hundreds of millions of pounds to scam victims in Britain are "fundamentally flawed" and are taking too long to come into force, lawmakers said in a report published on Monday.

The European Central Bank is expected to push on with its inflation fight Thursday with a fresh rate hike, even as signs grow the eurozone might have passed the worst of an economic shock.

Rising borrowing costs are giving a long-awaited lift to Europe's beleaguered banks, but they come with a sting in the tail.

Whatever new year fillip the euro zone economy got from ebbing natural gas prices, the UK saw none of it - showing just how peculiarly British the downturn there has become and heaping pressure on the Bank of England.

British inflation eased last month after hitting a 41-year high in October, offering some comfort to the Bank of England, but the pressure on households remained intense as food and drink prices rose at the fastest pace since 1977.

European shares were subdued on Wednesday, while UK's FTSE 100 outpaced peers after a long Christmas holiday weekend as investors assessed Beijing's steps towards reopening its COVID-battered economy.

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.

Britain's economy contracted more than first thought in the third quarter of this year, putting it bottom among the Group of Seven major advanced nations ahead of what is shaping up to be a dismal 2023, data showed on Thursday.

The Bank of England will add another 50 basis points to Bank Rate next week and take borrowing costs to 3.50%, despite the economy falling into recession, as it battles inflation running at more than five times its target, a Reuters poll found.

The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates to 3.5% or more next week, but policymakers appear increasingly split on how much tightening is needed to tame double-digit inflation as the economy heads into recession.

Britain has called on banks to support households finding it difficult to make payments on mortgages during the cost of living crisis.

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.

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.

A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever.

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.

New Credit Suisse chief executive Ulrich Koerner, faced with trying to turn around the beleaguered bank following multiple scandals, is set to unveil his strategic road map on Thursday.

British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, who last month sparked a bond market rout with unfunded tax cuts, sought to reassure investors on Monday by bringing forward a budget announcement and naming a Treasury insider to run the department.

Euro zone government bond yields rose on Thursday as German data shifted the market focus to surging inflation, while gilt investors resumed selling after the Bank of England (BoE) stepped in to quell a storm the day before.

A surge in borrowing costs and a likely slowdown in economic growth threaten to trigger a selloff in Britain's housing market with consequences for personal wealth and the broader economy that could resonate for decades.

Sterling steadied on Tuesday, but was perched above its record low only thanks to soaring yields on British debt and the hope of a response from policymakers or politicians, with its gyrations unnerving markets to the benefit of the dollar.

Volkswagen's supervisory board is due to meet on Sunday to move forward with the IPO of its Porsche brand, which will comprise 911 million shares in a nod to its most famous model, two sources close to matter said.

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.

Even though fears of another "sterling crisis" have been wide of the mark for decades, they are harder to bat away this time around as a fourth British prime minister in six years takes the helm.

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.

Fund managers are cutting their holdings in Chinese property bonds by half or even more as the sector lurches from crisis to crisis and blows a deep hole in asset managers' performance.

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.

HSBC has hired Justin Wu as its first co-head of climate change Asia Pacific to lead the development and implementation of the bank's sustainability strategy in the region, a memo to staff seen by Reuters showed.

European electricity prices soared to new records on Friday, presaging a bitter winter as Russia's invasion of Ukraine inflicts economic pain across the continent.