UK company insolvencies rise over pre-pandemic levels; Germany risks recession– as it happened

The UK house price boom is likely to end next year, while retail sales were boosted by Black Friday and early Christmas shopping

• Latest: Turkish lira tumbles again as financial strains deepen
• Company insolvencies rose in November
• Experts: tough time as pandemic takes its toll
• UK house price boom set to end in 2022
• Retail sales jumped 1.4% in November
• But Omicron hits consumer confidence

Banking giant HSBC has been fined 64m by UK regulators for serious weaknesses in its anti-money laundering controls.

The Financial Conduct Authority imposed the penalty for a series of anti-money laundering failings over eight years, from March 2010 to 2018.

HSBC's transaction monitoring systems were not effective for a prolonged period despite the issue being highlighted on numerous occasions. These failings are unacceptable and exposed the bank and community to avoidable risks, especially as the remediation took such a long time. HSBC continued their remediation to address these weaknesses after the relevant period."

Double-digit losses were recorded in many EU markets, including three of the four major ones: Germany (-31.7%), Italy (-24.6%) and Spain (-12.3%). France saw a more modest drop of 3.2% last month; Bulgaria, Ireland and Slovenia were the only EU markets posting growth.