Mortgage approvals in the United Kingdom fell and consumer credit dropped to the lowest in a decade in April, Bloomberg News reported today. Lenders granted 107,000 loans for house purchases, down from a revised 112,000 in March, the lowest in a year, the Bank of England said today in London. Borrowing by consumers on credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts fell to £498 million ($983 million), the least since March 1997. The report suggests consumers are not adding to record debts to fuel spending in shops or on homes, whose prices have risen about 10 percent in the past year. Investors are speculating the Bank of England will raise the benchmark interest rate a fifth time from a six-year high of 5.5 percent, which may further cool demand for loans.

HSBC Holdings PLC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan said measures taken to deal with the bank’s subprime-mortgage problems in the United States are working, the Wall Street Journal reported today. “Deterioration has been contained,” Geoghegan said. “In the first four months of the year, the rate of increase in delinquency has slowed.” However, Geoghegan said the situation may worsen. “In the second half of the year more loans in this portfolio will reset and will undoubtedly have some problems for some customers,” he said. To further alleviate the situation, the lender said it will restructure up to $4 billion of subprime mortgages on more manageable terms this year and is seeking to securitize some of these subprime assets.

Werner Co. has asked the bankruptcy court for more time to retain control over its chapter 11 case, arguing that the company has been too focused on selling off its assets to put together a feasible reorganization plan, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. The bankrupt ladder maker asked on Wednesday for the court to give the company until June 30 to submit a reorganization proposal and Aug. 1 to solicit votes from creditors, respectively. If Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey signs off on Werner’s request, it would mark the fourth time that the court has granted Werner an extension of its exclusive rights since the company filed for bankruptcy in June 2006. The latest deadline for Werner’s exclusive right to file a plan was set to pass on May 17, and its exclusive lobbying rights were set to expire on July 16.

The worst of the economic slowdown has passed, private economists said in the latest WSJ.com forecasting survey, but they don’t see any reason to expect a significant acceleration, the Wall Street Journal reported today. By a more than 5-to-1 margin, the economists said they believe the first quarter’s 1.3 percent growth — the weakest in four years — marked the low point in the slowdown that gripped the economy much of last year. However, they expect growth to stay below 3 percent into early 2008, leaving 2007 on track to have the slowest economic growth since 2002. On the whole, the 60 economists predict that the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, will grow at a 2.2 percent annual rate this quarter. Over the second half, they expect growth of about 2.6 percent, which is a slight reduction from what they had forecast in a survey conducted last month. They don’t expect growth to reach 3 percent until the second quarter of 2008.

A coalition of consumer groups and union leaders yesterday urged securities regulators to throw their weight behind investors suing major banks for their role in the devastating Enron fraud, the Washington Post reported today. Activists and former shareholders in the Houston energy trading company implored the Securities and Exchange Commission to file court briefs supporting their legal position in an effort to revive a case against such banks as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston and Barclays. William S. Lerach, a plaintiffs lawyer in California, has collected more than $7.3 billion from financial institutions and others on behalf of investors whose life savings and retirement funds were depleted. However, his effort to proceed against nearly a half-dozen remaining banks was thwarted on the eve of trial by a federal appeals court. The panel ruled in March that the banks could not be held liable for standing by silently as Enron executives reported phony profit and concealed mounting debts.

FLYi Inc. has asked a bankruptcy court to reduce a number of claims that have been filed against the bankrupt carrier, arguing that the claims assert liabilities in excess of amounts the airline actually owes, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. FLYi said that the Independence Air Distribution Trust has reviewed the proofs of claim and has determined that each reduction claim asserts liabilities in excess of the amounts currently reflected in the carrier’s books and records with respect to the underlying obligations under the Bankruptcy Code. FLYi is also seeking to reclassify other proofs of claim to ensure that the reclassification claimants do not receive a disproportionately large distribution or receive a general unsecured claim with respect to those portions of their claims that are secured by setoff or similar rights.