The British Government and the Bank of England has stepped into to try and thwart the mortgage meltdown and will take control £50 billion ($88.5 billion) in mortgage loans for the struggling main street bank Bradford and Bingley. B&B is to sell off its other savings assets, somewhere in the region of £20 billion ($34 billion US) to its chief competitor Abbey and its Spanish parent company Santander for £612 million ($1.1 billion)

B&B is the second UK bank to be nationalized since the start of the global credit crunch, following Northern Rock's move into state ownership in February this year. Bradford and Bingley was founded in 1964 and was originally a building society (savings bank) but became a fully fledged bank in 2000.

The Spanish company has stated that people's savings will be safe and that it will be business as usual, but with Santander already owning most of the competition: Abbey and Alliance and Leicester, some high street branches may be closing in the future.

UK government intervention was sparked on another rough day in financial markets around the world and preempted the failure of Congress to adopt the Paulson Bailout package which had a disastrous effect on Wall Street:

• Wachovia, the fourth-largest US bank, was bought by larger rival Citigroup in a rescue deal backed by the FDIC
• Benelux banking giant Fortis was partially nationalized by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments to ensure its survival
• The Icelandic government took control of the country's third-largest bank, Glitnir, after the company had faced short-term funding problems
• Global shares fell sharply - France's key index lost 5% Germany's main market dropped 4% while in the US the Dow Jones plunged 700 points.