The Co-operative Bank has closed its doors to new corporate customers as it tries to repair its balance sheet after its bonds were downgraded to �junk� status.

Fears over the UK's continuing energy security were fuelled today after a report claimed Britain came dangerously close in March to its gas supply running out and its lights being switched off.

Brenda Kelly, senior market strategist at IG, said: 'Last night's reassurances from James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, that near-term tapering of Fed quantitative easing is anything but a certainty has helped to settle and create a ...

Fri May 24, 2013 7:05am EDT. For other related diaries, please see; DIARY - U.S. Federal Reserve DIARY - Polling Unit Diary DIARY - Key World Financial Events DIARY - Political and General news DIARY - Index of all Diaries DIARY - G7 Economic ...

The blue-chip index fell 2.1pc to close at 6696.79 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 ended Wednesday at just 90 points shy of the record close of 6930.2 it reached during the 1999 dotcom boom.

A number of U.K. government programs intended to boost bank lending to small firms and home-buyers have yet to have a major impact, data released on Friday shows, and this failure is likely to hinder efforts to generate a sustained pickup in economic ...

FRANKFURT | Fri May 24, 2013 6:19am EDT. FRANKFURT May 24 (Reuters) - Banks will return early 8.123 billion euros ($10.48 billion) of crisis loans to the European Central Bank next week after the ECB cut its main interest rate to a fresh record low of 0.5 ...

The US Senate's probe of Apple's tax affairs this week injected renewed urgency into the global effort to crack down on aggressive tax avoidance, which will feature high on the agenda of the G8 summit meeting in Northern Ireland next month.

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.

Manchester United has struck a new loan deal to cut the amount of interest it pays on its huge debts. The Premier League club, which is owned by the Glazer family, has refinanced �178m of outstanding debt, a move that should save it �10m a year.