La City (Londres) teme que un segundo banco esté en problemas

Quisiera decir que lo hemos advertido, pero aparentemente no hay interés de los medios de "comunicación" en informar lo que realmente está sucediendo. Este es el segundo banco en el Reino Unido que se encuentra en problemas en menos de dos meses, el primero siendo Northern Rock. Y ahora Barclays. Simplemente, como se indica abajo, necesitan fondos del banco central inglés para apuntalar sus negocios. Nada más y nada menos. Más de $500,000 millones de dólares se han inyectado a bolsas y bancos en los últimos 2 meses, sin lograr dar algo de confianza al "mercado". Algo está sucediendo, eso es claro, pero no sabemos la gravedad real de esta situación. Pero que conste, aquí lo advertimos.

· Rumours sweep City over who borrowers might be
· Barclays shares hit by financial stability fears

The City was swept by rumours yesterday that another British bank was in trouble after Northern Rock indicated it was not the only bank borrowing from the Bank of England's rescue fund.

Northern Rock has borrowed only £18bn of the £23bn lent by the Bank of England from its emergency loan fund, leading to speculation that other British banks need £5bn of extra funds to cope with the global credit crunch.

The chairman of the Newcastle-based bank confirmed the level of borrowing from the central bank was below £20bn in an interview with the Newcastle Journal. Sources close to Northern Rock indicated the figure was closer to £18bn as the need for borrowing in the last few weeks had been lower than the scramble for funds in the immediate aftermath of the bank's near-collapse in September.

While there may be technical reasons for some banks drawing on the Bank of England's funds overnight, most experts said the scale of the borrowing indicated one or more banks were using money from the central bank to prop up their businesses. Banks would only borrow from the Bank of England if they had exhausted other sources of credit as it insists on charging a penal rate of interest and only accepts the highest grade collateral, usually government bonds.