Biggest UK mortgage lender down 34% in one day

Biggest UK mortgage lender down 34% in one day

news.bbc.co.uk

Shares in UK bank HBOS are leading a steep decline in UK stocks as turmoil on financial markets intensifies.

Investors are concerned that HBOS is too dependent on money markets to fund its lending as the cost of borrowing shoots up.

Shares in HBOS were down 34%, or 79.5 pence, at 153p after an 18% fall a day earlier. Many other bank shares have also been hit.

In a statement, HBOS said it had a "strong capital base".

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Could this be the UK's Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac? Who would have believed this titan of a bank could be in danger, never mind find itself in the worst position of all? Unbelievable.

"We have a strong capital base" sounds like "People have become concerned about our capital base". And it would take more than pure rumour to produce a slide on this scale, surely.

HBOS said on Monday that the group had the strongest capital ratio of all the major UK domestic banks.

If true, what does that say about the prospects for the others?

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)