Fears that Alliance & Leicester may have to seek emergency funds from the Bank of England circulated in the City last night as ratings agency Standard & Poor's said the bank could suffer from the lending freeze that triggered Northern Rock's downfall, The Guardian reports.
S&P said Alliance & Leicester could be in trouble if wholesale markets failed to open up in the near future, and it downgraded the outlook for the bank from stable to negative. Analysts said the bank was struggling to cope amid turbulence on international money markets that has in effect put a freeze on banks lending to each other. Suspicions were raised in the last few days when it became apparent a share buyback programme that involves the bank buying £300m of its own shares this year was stopped 12 days ago without notice to shareholders. COMPANIES IN BRITAIN and Europe have fail...
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