By Matt Scuffham. LONDON | Fri May 24, 2013 4:15pm BST. LONDON (Reuters) - The Co-operative Bank has stopped offering loans to new business customers, part of measures designed to quell growing concerns over its capital position.

The BBC has scrapped a �98m digital production system, which its director general said had "wasted a huge amount of licence fee payers' money".

Britain's gas supplies ran "dangerously" low in March as high demand in cold temperatures and overseas supply problems coincided.

News Corp, which will separate its highly profitable television and entertainment arm from its troubled newspaper and book publishing assets next month, set out plans for the new structure on Friday, ahead of a meeting with investors next week.

U.S. factory sector appears to be slowing slightly, according to an early reading of May activity released Thursday. The flash purchasing managers' index compiled by data provider Markit fell to 51.9 in May from a final April reading of 52.1.

Households paid off �241m more mortgage debt than they borrowed in an effort to get on top of their debts. Before May last year, net lending had never been negative since the BBA started collecting the data in 1997.

CALLS are growing for a public inquiry into failures to clean up coal mines across Scotland after a new report revealed a potential �60m shortfall in funds for one region alone.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was hit by another IT failure on Friday morning that left customers unable to access their accounts through the mobile banking app.

British private equity investor 3i Group has made an offer to buy Barclays' European infrastructure fund management unit, as it seeks to boost assets under management.

As many fine musicians have pointed out, sometimes the way you say nothing can say a lot. And in the modern world of hyper-managed messaging from politicians, companies and celebrities, there's plenty of nothing being said.