B&B shareholders face compensation wait until June 2010

Shareholders in nationalised bank Bradford & Bingley (B&B) will have to wait until the end of June 2010 to be told the amount of compensation they will receive.

Peter Clokey, valuer at PricewaterhouseCoopers, who was instructed in June 2009 to value B&B, told a meeting of shareholders in London on Saturday he would issue his ruling within a year of his appointment.

Clokey, who will value B&B at the time of its nationalisation without taking into consideration any taxpayer assistance, told the meeting he wanted to receive submissions from ordinary shareholders.

On 29 September 2008, all shares in B&B were transferred to the Treasury and it is estimated 930,000 shareholders have a possible claim. The Friday before it was nationalised, the value of B&B's shares fell to 20p, having been as high as £3.

While B&B's retail branches and its savings accounts were transferred to Abbey, the rest of B&B, including the mortgage operation, was taken into public ownership by the Government. As a result of the transfer, B&B ceased all new lending activities.