Scotland's largest mortgage lender collapses

Scotland's hard earned reputation for financial probity and ... prudence ... takes another shocking blow as its largest mortgage lender, the Dunfermline Building Society, collapses with a £26 million annual loss. A government announcement is expected Monday.

This follows substantial government bailouts to Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland. Dunfermline Building Society has taken substantial losses with its involvement with GMAC and Lehman Bros.

The British Government has decided not to directly bail out this institution, deciding instead to take responsibility for its mortgage and loan accounts, the savings side of the business is to be sold off. The Scottish Government has offered a capital injection from public funds, however this seems destined not to be approved by the British Treasury.

Dunfermline lies in the fair Kingdom of Fife, PM Gordon Brown's homeland. I'm surprised he's letting this institution collapse rather than using yet another bailout, perhaps he's taking notice of the warnings from the Bank of England governor about the current imbalances in government income & expenditure, perhaps he's wary about being accused of favouritism by saving jobs in his own constituency.

Either way, it's another nail in the coffin of the Scottish financial sector and a setback for those who advocate independence from the United Kingdom.

BBC News - Dunfermline Building Society Collapses

This is a small problem, i'm sure if they ask Mr. Obama nicely, he would be more then happy to give them 60m in their money, (don't know the currency change price thing).

Or we could always give them a few billion, then they would owe us a huge favor, or tons of little ones, build a few bases around their. And make a great appearance at the G20 boasting that we saved Scotland!!

Farfetched I know.

It is sad to see this happening. I wish I could just hit a giant red STOP button.... don't fear i'm still looking for it.

reply to post by The Lass


Interesting news.

I'm surprised he's letting this institution collapse rather than using yet another bailout, perhaps he's taking notice of the warnings from the Bank of England governor about the current imbalances in government income & expenditure...

It's a bit late for that:

Gordon faces the music

More likely this building society was just too small in comparative terms for him to be worried about the political consequences. It certainly could have implications for the PM north of the border, though.

why invest in houses when you can invest in iraq