UK

Reading recent headlines in the financial press, in addition to recent proposals from both US and European regulators, you could be forgiven for thinking banks are undergoing a wave of deregulation.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently published the UK’s net migration figures for the second half of 2025. The data shows that the downward trend from the extreme post-Covid levels continues.

Data published by the Bank of England (BoE) on Friday shows an interesting trend in consumers’ approach to interest rates.

News of governments achieving their budgetary objectives or borrowing less than market forecasts has been a rarity in the last few decades.

Late last month, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) published updated migration numbers for the year to June 2025. As we argued here, immigration will be an important variable to monitor when it comes to assessing the health of labour markets.

After solid stress test results from UK insurers last week, on Tuesday it was the banks’ turn as the Bank of England (BoE) published its 2025 stress test results along with December’s Financial Stability Report.

The wait is over. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her much anticipated November Budget on Wednesday, ending weeks of rumours and leaks that had created a general feeling that all measures were on the table – now investors, businesses and taxpayers alike can fill in the empty cells on their spreadsheets and calculate what’s left.

The private credit exposure of life insurance firms, particularly those with private equity (PE) owners, has been drawing the market’s attention in recent weeks.

Economic data this week will be weird, and for central bankers it might not be wonderful. In the US, not only will we endure the aberration of non-farm payrolls (NFP) data being published on a Thursday, but we’ll also get several late macro data releases with the government shutdown put off until at least January.

The labour market in the UK continues to cool off along the lines of what the Bank of England (BoE) expects. Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), released its monthly labour market data report, highlighting a rise in the unemployment rate and a reduction in some wage inflation measures.

Job creation, or rather a lack of it, has been in the spotlight recently as weak non-farm payrolls data in the US has driven a rally in government bonds and strengthened market projections for rate cuts.

On Thursday, markets received preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) figures for August. As a reminder, PMIs are timely indicators of trends in manufacturing and services, with a number above 50 signalling an expansion and below 50 a contraction.