Mortgage lender B&B nationalised

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The Government has taken B&B's £41 billion loan book on to the public balance sheet and guaranteed around £9 billion in other commitments related to the bank. The move follows Northern Rock's nationalisation in February, which has added £87 billion in debt.

B&B's savings business and its branches - with 2.7 million customers and £20 billion in deposits - have been sold to Spanish bank Santander for £612 million.

Santander owns Abbey and recently agreed to buy Alliance & Leicester - so the deal will give it 1,286 branches and a 10% share of the UK retail savings market.

The deal comes just two weeks after a £12.2 billion rescue takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland was announced.

The break-up will mark a dramatic end to a business which can trace its roots back more than 150 years.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) decided on Saturday morning that B&B was not strong enough to continue as a deposit-taking bank after the recent financial turmoil undermined confidence in the firm.

Chancellor Alistair Darling told GMTV: "My priority was to protect savers and depositors but also to ensure we got a good deal for the taxpayer. We had to stabilise the situation in order to protect the banking system as a whole, just as we have done on previous occasions."

The Treasury said it would be "business as usual" for the firm's savers and borrowers.

B&B, which became a bank in 2000, has around 3,000 staff and 197 branches, and was the last former building society to retain its independence after the nationalisation of Northern Rock and July's announced takeover of Alliance & Leicester.