Bank of England in crisis talks with building societies

The Bank of England is in talks with seven building societies hoping to renegotiate emergency funds made available during the credit crunch. While the building societies – including Chelsea, Yorkshire and Skipton – are not considered in danger of collapse, last week’s downgrading by credit agency Moody’s threatened to breach the terms of the government’s special liquidity scheme, forcing the building societies to either hand the money back or be changed more to use the funding, possibly further reducing the amount of money available for lending.