Number of firms in serious financial difficulty is rising

Hello and welcome to our daily digest of business, financial and economic news from around Scotland.

1. The number of Scottish firms getting into serious financial difficulty has risen by 10.6 per cent, according to official data.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy, a Scottish government agency, said there were 313 corporate insolvencies in the July to September period compared to 283 in 2023.

It was the second highest quarterly figure in more than a decade with only the 346 recorded in the first three months of 2023 ahead of it. The highest level in recent history was the 420 in the April to June of 2012.

David Alexander, the head of debt recovery at the law firm Gilson Gray, said: “The increase to corporate insolvencies in