Shares in mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley fell today, despite the mortgage lender’s denial that it planned a rights issue to bolster its balance sheet.
The bank rejected the weekend press speculation and insisted it had a strong capital base.
But the reassurances were not enough to halt a 3% drop in B&B’s share price today, with a downbeat note from broker Deutsche Bank adding to the group’s stock market woes.
B&B, which is one of the UK’s biggest buy-to-let lenders, has been the subject of regular speculation since the credit crunch first hit.
It previously raised more than a quarter of its capital through the wholesale money markets before these effectively dried up, triggering the problems that ultimately led to the nationalisation of Northern Rock.