P45 for Mr Bingley

The manic markets and credit crunch appear to have claimed their latest victim with the imminent announcement that the Bradford and Bingley will follow the footsteps of the Northern Rock down the route of Nationalisation.

The Chancellor is expected to announce at some time before the markets open tomorrow that the Government are going to step in to save the stricken financial institution.

The cause of its demise appears to be the large number of risky mortgages especially buy to let mortgages which are currently seeing a higher than expected number of bad debts. The fall in property prices has not helped the situation as even if people default and the B&B repossess the property they are unlikely to be able to recover all the money they lent.

The Bradford and Bingley has about 2 million savers and whilst the scenes witnessed under the Northern Rocks demise have not been repeated thanks to the Government's Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This guarantees everyone who has savings of less than £35,000 with the B&B that they will get their money back should the business go bust. However, as the bank is expected to be nationalised then even if you have more than £35,000 is savings it is unlikely you will lose out unless the Government goes bust.

The news of the B&B coupled with other financial stories in Europe and the USA are likely to lead to another roller coaster of a ride for shareholders.