A British Bank called Bradford & Bingley has gone down. From The Telegraph…

B&B’s £24 billion of savings and its 200 branches is likely be sold to a rival or rivals. Spain’s Santander, which owns Abbey and is in the process of buying Alliance & Leicester, was in talks about possibly taking over deposits and branches, an industry source said.

But rivals are reluctant to take ownership of B&B’s book of £41 billion pounds of mortgages – representing 3.4 percent of UK mortgages – as many of them are higher risk buy-to-let and self-certified, which have a far higher chance of defaulting. More than eight out of ten of B&B’s mortgages are either buy-to-let or self-certified.

Hypo bank in Germany has big problems. From Naked Capitalism….

The prospect of an almost-as-big-as-Lehman bankruptcy evidently focused the mind of the officialdom. The providers are private firms, but one imagines, a la the LTCM rescue, that they were given a big prod by regulators It appears the amount of the facility is sufficient to refund maturing paper, but likely falls short of the end of troubles for this highly geared bank (a mere 6 billion euros of equity supporting a 400 billion euro balance sheet).

Fortis Bank (which is based in Belgium) has big problems. As Spiegel Reports….

The news came one day after the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments announced an €11.2 billion bailout of troubled Fortis bank, which saw a partial nationalization of the company. Fortis is Belgium’s largest bank, and the government in Brussels is providing €4.7 billion for a 49 percent stake in the company’s Belgian operations. Luxembourg is providing €2.5 billion for 49 percent of Fortis Bank Luxembourg, and the Dutch are investing €4 billion for 49 percent of Fortis Holding Netherlands.

From the Washington Post….

Gasoline shortages hit towns across the southeastern United States this week, sparking panic buying, long lines and high prices at stations from the small towns of northeast Alabama to Charlotte in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

In Atlanta, half of the gasoline stations were closed, according to AAA, which said the supply disruptions had taken place along two major petroleum product pipelines that have operated well below capacity since the hurricanes knocked offshore oil production and several refineries out of service along the Gulf of Mexico.

Drivers in Charlotte reported lines with as many as 60 cars waiting to fill up late Wednesday night, and a community college in Asheville, N.C., where most of the 25,000 students commute, canceled classes and closed down Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week. Shortages also hit Nashville, Knoxville and Spartanburg, S.C., AAA said.

Terrance Bragg, a chef in Charlotte, made it to work only because his grandfather drove from a town an hour away with a 5-gallon plastic container of fuel for him. Three of his co-workers called and said they couldn’t make it.

“I drove past nine or ten gasoline stations that were out of gas,” Bragg said. “I had my GPS up looking for any gas in the area, from the mom-and-pop places to the corporate gas stations. Nothing. They were all taped off.”

Liz Clasen-Kelly, associate director of a homeless assistance center in Charlotte, took the bus to work yesterday. On Wednesday night, she and her husband checked five stations that had no gas, passed a long line backed up onto the interstate highway and chose not to wait at an open gas station with 50 to 60 cars still lined up after 11 p.m.