Treasury to nationalise B&B bank

Parts of B&B are set to be sold on to another bank by the Treasury

Troubled bank Bradford & Bingley is to be nationalised, the BBC has learned.

Officials from the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have been in talks with executives from the bank in a bid to secure its future.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says the Treasury will then speedily sell B&B's 200 branches and its savings business to a bank or number of banks.

B&B told savers deposits were safe and Treasury minister Yvette Cooper said they would be "properly protected".

Ms Cooper told the BBC One Politics Show that negotiations were still ongoing, but the chancellor would make a statement before the markets opened on Monday.