• From The BBC:

    The latest bank to find itself the focus of attention from speculators is the Bradford & Bingley.
    Several newspapers report that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is so worried about the bank that it has been trying to line up a potential buyer to rescue it.
    The bank denies it and the FSA is being very coy.
    But there is no doubt the B&B is in a very awkward spot.
    The former building society is heavily exposed to the now shrinking UK property market and last year was the UK’s 8th largest lender of new mortgages.
    Last month, it reported a loss of £27m for the first six months of the year, blaming this on a rise in bad debts and losses on its own investments in dud mortgage-related derivatives.
    Doubts
    Investors in the B&B have had reasons to worry for many months.
    The share price has collapsed from £3.00 a year ago, to 184 pence at the start of May and just 25p last week.
    It had terrible problems earlier this year raising an extra £400m from its shareholders to boost i…

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    Posted by Jon @ 12:22 am

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