August 1, 2008 | posted by Michael Baxter in Banking |

Well, it can come as no surprise to learn that profits at Alliance and Leicester have plummeted.

In all, profits before tax in the bank’s first half came in at just £2m. This compares with £290m in the same period last year. In other words, profits fell by 99 per cent.

Bet you can’t guess who got the blame for the fall? Give up already? Well, it was the credit crunch.

Presumably senior management and shareholders are saying Phew – thank goodness for the Spanish and its bank Santander, which is buying up the Alliance and Leicester.

Of course it barely needs saying, but it is worth recalling anyway, that all banks are going to be extremely shy about jumping back on the lending bandwagon for a very long time. Well, they have got to repair their balance sheets first anyway.