British consumers increased their borrowing at the slowest pace in more than a year-and-a-half in May and banks offered fewer mortgages, data from the country’s banking industry showed yesterday, adding to signs of a slowdown in the economy.

Consumer borrowing eased back last month as inflation's upward march forced UK shoppers to rein in their spending, according to new figures.

Business leaders in one of Cork’s largest towns will host a special event tomorrow night to celebrate the incredible successes of the National Rowing Centre based nearby.

Mortgage approvals in Britain rose in June to their highest level since March last year, according to data from the British Bankers’ Association which said the housing market is hotting up again.

Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said a return of the company to full private ownership was “within sight” and praised a plan that allowed the British government to sell shares in the open market.

The British Bankers’ Association was told that banks were lying about Libor submissions to suit their trading positions as early as 2007, according to evidence at a London criminal trial.

Mobile phone and internet banking transactions in the UK have reached nearly £1 billion a day, according to a new report.

House prices in the UK have leapt by 11.1% over the last year in the strongest annual growth seen since June 2007, building society Nationwide has reported.

Replacing the quote-based Libor with an index drawing on actual market trades will not happen any time soon, the benchmark’s new administrator said yesterday.

Britain’s banks are to fork out more than £1bn to cover the cost of compensation payments made to UK savers in failed Icelandic banks at the height of the financial crisis.

Net lending to companies rose last month for the first time since January in a sign that business confidence is improving as the British economic recovery gathers pace.

Bantry businesses say they will “keep a watching brief” on a pilot scheme which gets under way today aimed at regulating casual market trading in the town.

Serious Fraud Office investigators are in talks with the City watchdog in Britain over the Barclays rate-rigging scandal that has rocked the banking industry, Chancellor George Osborne said today.

Lending by Britain's top five banks shrank every quarter last year, official figures revealed today, in an embarrassing blow to the British Chancellor's Project Merlin agreement.

The UK’s banks missed targets for lending to smaller businesses in 2011 by more than £1bn, according to figures released today.

Darkening clouds over the UK economy mean the British government would be "barking mad" to press ahead with proposals to reform the banking industry, the director general of the CBI business lobby group said today.

Plans to reform the British banking sector should be put on hold until the UK economy has recovered and taxpayers have been repaid for bailing out the banks, the head of the British Bankers' Association (BBA) has said today.

THE final round of this season’s Dunlop National Rally Championship, the Fastnet Rally, has a new base and headquarters at the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry.

The banking industry today abandoned its legal fight over the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, paving the way for thousands of customers who were mis-sold the policies to receive compensation.

Barclays is set to follow its rival Lloyds Banking Group and abandon its legal fight over the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, it was reported today.

CHANCELLOR George Osborne refused to let the British banking sector off the hook yesterday as he announced another hike in the bank levy to offset corporation tax cuts.

THE British government will tax banks’ balance sheets at a higher rate than first proposed, raising almost £9 billion (€10.68bn) over the next four years.

Britain’s biggest banks are involved in behind-the-scenes talks over a joint plan to cut bonus payouts and boost lending to small businesses, it was reported today.

Britain's biggest banks are planning to launch a multimillion-pound fund to bolster smaller businesses, it was reported today.

Consumers were warned today that there would be no return to the era of cheap money after tough new regulations were drawn up to boost capital reserves held by banks.

British government plans to tighten up regulation of the banking industry threaten to hamstring the sector and further add to the UK’s lending woes, the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) warned today.

Bank margins on financial products have risen amid financial uncertainty, a Stormont committee heard today.

British banks today challenged the Irish Government over its promise to give 100% protection for savers, suggesting the move was anti-competitive.

The British property market showed signs of stabilising last month after figures today revealed a surprise increase in January house purchase mortgage approvals and a hike in remortgaging activity.

Banks are still struggling to secure cash after last summer’s credit crunch despite a drop-off in the rate at which they lend to each other, an industry body revealed today.

BRITISH mortgage approvals dropped 44% in the year as higher borrowing costs and concern that home prices have further to fall deterred buyers, a British Bankers’ Association report showed yesterday.

There was fresh evidence of a cooling housing market in the UK today after mortgage lending slowed further in November, the British Bankers Association (BBA) said.

Mortgage demand in the UK bounced back in May with the highest number of approved home loans of the year so far.

The FTSE 100 Index closed the year on the back foot but the fall was not enough to take the shine off annual gains of almost 11%.

The recent pick-up in the British property market showed signs of running out of steam today, with a fall in the number of new mortgages approved for house purchase.

The FTSE 100 Index racked up its fourth straight session of gains today despite dismay at the latest development in the O2 takeover.

Fading hopes of a bidding battle for mobile phone operator O2 drove the FTSE 100 Index into negative territory today.

Aviation services firm BBA today announced plans to spin off its unit making fibres for products such as nappies, bath mats and shoelaces.

Aviation services and materials technology firm BBA Group today said it had overcome soaring raw material costs to post a 7% hike in half yearly profits.

Mortgage lending rose sharply in July, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicate.

Conflicting data over the state of the British housing market was released today with figures showing that price growth was slowing but mortgage lending booming.

The FTSE-100 Index is within a whisker of the 6,000 barrier as technology and telecoms stocks boost the London market by 57.1 points.