Dunfermline Building Society, Scotland’s largest building society, which has been struggling to keep running in the past few weeks, has finally gone bust today.
Although the Dunfermline are yet to update their website with any details of how this will affect its customers, the Government seems to be indicating that savers with up to £50,000 will not lose any of their money (under the terms of the recently revised Financial Services Compensation Scheme).
The Dunfermline Building Society has been exposed to its fair share of risky debt, and lost more than £9 million on its own failed IT business, as well as buying dodgy mortgage securities from GMAC and Lehman Brothers
It is expected that the building society will be broken up, with the profitable parts being sold privately, and us tax payers having to underwrite the “toxic” loans still on their books.