Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has written down the goodwill value of its margin lending business, Leveraged Equities, by A$95 million. The loan portfolio fell by 19 per cent in 2009/10 and has fallen from $3.6 billion to $2.6 billion since 2009.The Reserve Bank of Australia reported that total margin loan balances fell 18.8 per cent in the year to September.From a peak of $41.6 billion in December 2007, the margin lending market fell to a low of $20.6 billion in June 2009. The market staged a weak recovery in the second half of 2009 and in 2010, but the latest period of volatility on the equity markets has put paid to that.The number of investors operating margin loan accounts has seen a more modest contraction. From a peak of 248,000 in December 2007, account numbers have fallen 12.9 per cent to the current level of 216,000.