High Street banks plan £17bn Bradford & Bingley deal

According to Sky News, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander, RBS and Nationwide are willing to guarantee around £17bn of financing to the purchasers of the loans.

The lenders are currently liable for interest on the deposit protection program borrowed from the treasury to fund the rescue of Bradford & Bingley.

Britain’s largest banks have collectively paid over £2bn as part of an FSCS levy. since 2009. Bradford & Bingley interest totalled £400m in 2015 alone.

In November, George Osborne agreed a £13 billion sale of Northern Rock mortgages in what is currently the largest ever financial asset sale by a government in Europe.

Earlier this year, UK Asset Resolution, which manages Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley's assets, reduced its balance sheet by a further £8.8bn, bringing the total reduction to £49.7bn - down almost 43% since formation of UKAR in 2010.

Osborne announced during the Autumn Statement that the Government plans to offload a further £7.5bn of assets held in UKAR, but the Bradford & Bingley sell-off is expected to be in addition to this.