If you have to nationalise a bank, time it so that you get to hawk deposits when banks are scrambling for that kind of cash. The UK government is taking over Bradford & Bingley’s mortgage book, the fourth top-10 mortgage lender to be either nationalised or rescued since 2007. But it is handing the £20bn of deposits and 200 or so branches to Spain’s Santander for about £400m. That neatly helps defray some of the potential losses on B&B’s souring mortgages. It also makes the ideological point that this is not a government keen on taking over the running of entire banks from the private sector.

It may seem counter-intuitive to charge someone for taking away a load of liabilities, which is what deposits are. But for Santander, the value is mainly in the access to cheaper funds, as well as to a customer base to whom Santander’s Abbey can sell other financial products. Assuming that funding a banking business with deposits is 50 to 100 basis points cheaper than funding it wholesale at the moment, then getting hold of £20bn in one fell swoop is probably worth anywhere between £250m and £500m, once capitalised.