Bradford & Bingley shareholders will appeal against a valuers’ decision not to pay them compensation following the bank’s nationalisation during the financial crisis.

A pressure group representing nearly 1,000 former B&B investors said it “roundly rejected” independent valuer Peter Clokey’s decision they should not be compensated.

His decision comes after B&B’s loan book was nationalised and its savings arm sold off to Spanish banking giant Santander in September, 2008.

The bank’s shares closed at 20p each in the final day before the nationalisation and break-up of the group.

Richard Jennings, a spokesman for B&B Shareholders Action Group (BBSAG), urged all “dispossessed” shareholders to register with independent watchdog, the UK Shareholders Association, ahead of the appeal.

He said: “This is in readiness for the appeal which the group will now mount on their behalf and also in support of the potential legal action to follow should Mr Clokey continue to deny them justice.”

Shareholders should register at the website uksa.org.uk, he said.

The action group, which had previously said that any valuation below 55p a share would be “tantamount to theft” will appeal against the decision in the next few weeks.

Mr Jennings said shareholders were angry that the former Government allowed B&B to collapse when Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were given rescue packages under the Special Liquidity Scheme.

He said: “There, of course, is a wider issue as to whether the Bank of England’s actions in not approving the Special Liquidity Scheme access was appropriate given the seemingly different treatment that was meted out to the banking behemoths HBOS & RBS in the self same week that it was denied to B&B. BBSAG intend to explore this avenue from a legal perspective.”

Meanwhile, blue chip bank stocks rallied higher as details of Europe’s stress test plans signalled the next step in restoring confidence in the wake of the financial crisis.

The UK’s big four banks are among the 91 groups named to be “stress tested” to assess resilience and ability to withstand further economic and credit shocks. Shares in the UK players made strong advances following the news, with gains of up to four per cent for Barclays and its part-nationalised counterparts Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. HSBC was also higher.

Financial analyst Bruce Packard at Seymour Pierce said a credible stress test was seen as vital in generating confidence in the battered European sector, which has suffered amid the fallout from the Greek debt troubles.

The UK banks have already been subjected to tough tests by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) last year, which is also seen as standing them in good stead for the European exercise.