The troubled bank is making hundreds of its workers redundant, with the housing market slowing down.
Around 370 people are to lose their jobs at Bradford & Bingley (B&B), thanks to the continuing downturn in the mortgage market.
The lender is closing its Borehamwood mortgage processing centre, making the last of its branch mortgage advisors redundant and also trimming its sales force.
B&B is one of the firms worst-hit by the housing slowdown, which has seen mortgage approvals drop by around half and house prices fall by over ten percent in the past year. B&B has faced three separate attempts to raise new funds through a share sale, a failed deal with a US private equity firm to buy a stake and the loss of its chief executive due to medical reasons so far this year.
Moreover, the firm's stock has dropped in value by over 90 percent, with investors sceptical over its financial stability. This sentiment has worsened still further following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB - and the ensuing volatility in the stock markets.
Earlier this week, B&B was boosted by the news that it had cut its obligation to buy £1.75 billion of new mortgages from fellow lender GMAC-RFC to just £750 million. However, this new deal appears to have come too late to prevent the job losses.
Richard Pym, the recently-appointed chief executive, said: "We are a strongly capitalised bank now undertaking a complex transition with regrettable job losses…but we are planning to put the problems of the past behind us and have a business which is fit for purpose going forward."
