“Such is now the scale of the global banking crisis that news that once would have been counted as sensational – the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley – now barely passes the “so what” test,” writes Jeremy Warner in The Independent.

“Such is now the scale of the global banking crisis that news that once would have been counted as sensational – the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley – now barely passes the “so what” test.

“Against the plethora of previously “inconceivable” events – the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the nationalisation of the US’s two biggest mortgage organisations and of the world’s largest insurer, AIG, the sanctioning by the British Government of the “rescue” takeover bid by Lloyds TSB of HBOS to create a company with 40 per cent of the UK banking market, and so on – this one seems almost small beer. B & B was the always the “also ran” of the independently quoted former building societies. What’s more, it has a high exposure to buy-to-let and other forms of “riskier” mortgage lending, so ever since Northern Rock ran into problems more than a year ago it has been obvious B & B would struggle to survive.”

Read the full story here.