http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle3602076.ece

They have been downgraded from C+ to Crap.

Next rating is D for Dead in the water.

isn't C turd? or is this a different rating system base?

Completely f***ed. Northern Rock Mk II

garr, those bradford and bingley f+ckers.

And I remember when they used to pride themselves on being a secure home for your money! How times have changed (for the worse) - they should have stayed a building society.

Nice one Bloomberg,

The surge in credit costs has choked off lending to consumers in the U.K., especially for new home loans. Banks including Alliance & Leicester Plc, Bradford & Bingley Plc and HBOS Plc Scotland have withdrawn loan offers and raised the cost of borrowing in recent weeks.

Just found it ominous

I'm pretty sure it doesn't go down to D. Anything below BBB- is considered "junk" (or high risk of default). The ratings cuts means ****** all in some cases though. If you look at MBIA (ticker: MBI) it was down over 90% of it's value in mid January from its high in July, and it still has AAA rating (but that's another story).

You may laugh at this, but I did an internship in "Structured Credit" - read the soon to be infamous Collateralised Debt Obligation (CDO) and Credit Default Swap (CDS) - some 2 years ago. Did I dodge a bullet, eh?

The "rumours" were evidently true.

The American troubles have begun here in earnest. As March and April are the two earliest significant "reset" months we should see some real action very soon.

Is this misreporting?

they are going down from C+ to C with warnings of further de-rating?

This is outrageuous. either they ARE a C or they are not. For a ratings agency to say they are likely to fall further means they really are in a bad way and dont deserve a C- NOW.

This rumour needs to be investigated by the FSA.

So write to the FSA and ask them to - why should someone else do this for you?

Disagree.

You would have made shed-loads of money for 2 years and then either seen the trouble coming and got out of the game or lost your job. Either way, net-net, you probably would have been better off my taking the gamble...

Don't flame me - just an opinion

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/102203.asp

Moodys , C = junk

They should be watching- thats what we pay them for.

If i was BB I would complain.

Furthermore, my post was a reference to the overreaction to the highly publicised FSA INVESTIGATE a rumour designed to destroy a UK bank- in spite of the fact that these rumours are a daily occurence, indeed, are part of the process of trading in the city.

Does this have something to do with the insurance companies that turn bad stock into AAA are now refusing to pay up.

Why has this been moved to off topic

I was just wondering that meself! This is a highly significant development which should be on the main board, why is it being buried in some backwater? Is somebody keen not to upset Bradford and Bingley after the furore over supposed "rumours" about HBOS last week?

Did you see the risk associated with a moody's C rating?? "High risk / In Default"