clipped from: business.timesonline.co.uk   

Bradford & Bingley's army of small shareholders were stunned yesterday. Not only did the value of their shares sink well below the float price of eight years ago, but they discovered that the cosy former building society, with its bowler-hatted past and reassuringly provincial name, was propping up American trailer parks.

ts £94 million writedown is just a taster of the horrors to come.
B&B may rue being first in the line of fire this year. But if the most gloomy housing predictions are right, the first bank to report next year will be kicking off a truly bloody reporting season