By any definition, Bradford & Bingley, the UK mortgage lender, has been badly run. Assuming it is wholly or partly nationalised, the bank’s demise can be blamed on the poor quality of its assets, rather than a Northern Rock-style funding crisis. Most of its mortgage loans, including those purchased from other providers, were to landlords hoping to profit from a property boom or to people who gave no proof of their salary. Little surprise that its rate of arrears is well above that of other lenders. It was always a likely victim of any significant downturn in house prices, particularly in a global financial crisis.

Systemic consequences of its widely anticipated collapse should not be far-reaching. The bank is relatively small, at about half the size of Northern Rock when the latter was nationalised. But confidence in banks and in the financial system in general is now so fragile that the effects of any high street lender’s failure are hard to predict. The sight of savers rushing to withdraw their money as the bank struggled for funding would be unnerving.