Bradford & Bingley battered by bad mortgages

Bradford & Bingley, publicly owned since last September, said that the proportion of mortgage customers in arrears by three months or more surged from 1.6 per cent to 4.6 per cent – or one in every 22 – since 2007. And it warns that worse is yet to come as the arrears rate climbs. B&B’s arrears rate – the highest of Britain’s major lenders – ‘highlighted the woeful credit control that was in place’, according to banking analyst Alex Potter.  More than 6 per cent of buy-to-let and self-certification customers are now more than three months in arrears.