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’Northern Rock’s capital cracks
So much for the revived Rock.
From the bank’s just-released interim results:
In February 2009, the Company announced that it intended, as part of its revised strategy, to lend up to £14 billion over the next two years,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Legal & General interim IFRS operating profit falls 92 per cent to £31m — statement.
- Northern Rock half-year underlying loss reduced to £269.9m — statement.
Northern Rock covered
What’s this? Northern Rock has fallen below its minimum regulatory requirements?
Northern Rock’s capital base has now reduced to a level below its minimum regulatory capital requirement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Tesco is a “potential bidder” for Northern Rock — Times.
- Cattles terminates employment of six senior execs after independent review — statement.
- Greg Hutchings to step down from Lupus following negotiation of new banking arrangements — statement.
Tesco eyes Northern Rock
Tesco has emerged as a potential bidder for Northern Rock as the government races to sell the state-owned lender before a general election, reports The Times. The UK supermarket chain has shown provisional interest in buying the bank,
Future divided for Northern Rock
UK lender Northern Rock should be split into two businesses, with retail deposits in one unit and mortgages in the other, according to bankers examining the feasibility of a sale of the bank, reports The Times.
Branson eyes Northern Rock
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money has revived its interest in possibly buying parts of Northern Rock, the mortgage lender it tried to buy last year before the government nationalised it. Alistair Darling,
Northern Rock heads for large loss
Northern Rock has predicted it will be “substantially loss-making” in 2009, in large part due to higher provisioning against bad loans. The lender, which was nationalised last year, said on Thursday that 3.67% of its residential mortgage loans had now been in arrears for more than three months,
Rock:”Substantially loss making” for 2009
Generally a poor set of results from Northern Rock on Thursday, encapsulated really by the bank’s statement that it will be “substantially loss making” for the duration of the year. Of course, the government is now running Northern Rock as part of the economic stimulus package as much as it is running it back to rude health as a viable private concern.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Credit Suisse reports revenues at CHF9.5bn (Q1 08: CHF2.9bn) – statement, FT story.
- Northern Rock sees debt owed to the government increase to £9.8bn (Dec 08:
Welcome to Planet Crock
The business case approved in March 2008 had been developed on assumptions made by the Northern Rock management team in the Autumn of 2007 in planning for a wind-down of the company and later as part of the management team bid,
Mortgage bubbles
Bubbles, in the current climate, are generally not the best way to illustrate the results of government economic initiatives.
Nevertheless, JP Morgan’s UK economy team makes a good point on the British mortgage front with these two charts.
Rock’s bad-loan impairments treble
Impairments on bad loans at Northern Rock have more than trebled to £894m as mortgage arrears grew by more than 50% in the autumn, the UK state-controlled bank announced on Tuesday as it reported full-year losses of £1.36bn.
Spartan Rock
Northern Rock has just released its 2008 annual report and accounts.
It’s a spartan affair, devoid of pictures. But there are plenty of interesting tidbits on the nationalised mortgage lender — including for instance,
Northern Rock to launch drive
Northern Rock is to embark on a £14bn mortgage sales drive to resuscitate Britain’s sluggish housing market, fuelled by a hefty injection of fresh government funding for the state-owned lender to be announced Monday.
Anxious eye on Lloyds shares
The UK government will monitor the share price of Lloyds Banking Group on Monday, as it seeks to avoid marking this week’s first anniversary of the nationalisation of mortgage lender Northern Rock by taking another bank into public ownership,
UK considers new aid to Northern Rock
British MPs have urged the UK Treasury to reveal the magnitude of liabilities incurred by the rescue of the banks. A Commons committee report published Friday says that taxpayers deserve to know the potential costs of nationalisations and part-nationalisations.
Pesto vs. McFall
This should make for fun TV: Robert Peston is to face off against John McFall, Labour chairman of the Treasury select committee, next month.
The Treasury select committee raised the question of whether journalists should be muzzled to protect financial stability when it started its inquiry last month into the causes of the banking crisis.
Return of the Crock
This is a troubling graph.
It’s the three most recent months of mortgage lending (in GBP millions) compared with the 12 months prior, from UBS. Compared with now, the 1970s were just a blip — as UBS note.
Profits goal for UK public bank stake
The taxpayer’s multi-billion pound stake in the British banking industry is to be managed by a new “arm’s length” company, whose aim is to ensure that nationalisation yields a profit. Sir Philip Hampton,
Northern Rock reveals B&B talks
Northern Rock has explored plans to take on the loan book of Bradford & Bingley, as the first British victim of the credit crunch, which was nationalised in February, looks to consolidate the business of the government-owned banks.
Crock valuer appointed
Here he is, Andrew Caldwell of BDO Stoy Hayward – the man who has taken what is possibly the worst job in Britain.
Following an exhaustive six month search, Mr Caldwell has been named as the independent valuer of Northern Rock with a brief to decide how much compensation should be paid to shareholders who lost out when the mortgage bank was nationalised.
New row over £3bn N Rock debt swap
Fears of spiralling public costs for the bailout of UK lender Northern Rock grew on Tuesday after critics attacked the government for taking on £3.4bn in extra risk because the troubled bank’s finances were far worse than previously thought.
Tin Hat Time!: FT Alphaville’s credit crunch anniversary video
If you’re missing the – err, well, you know, the razor-sharp analysis and pithy one-liners of FT Alphaville’s Paul Murphy (while he tries, in his island hideaway, to forget we all exist), see FT.com’s video,
N Rock losses to hit £500m
Talks on the value of UK government promises to shore up Northern Rock’s retirement scheme are close to deadlock, as the bank’s board and pension scheme trustees fail to reach agreement over its deficit.
N Rock probes previous board
The new management of UK mortgage lender Northern Rock has launched an investigation into whether there are grounds for bringing legal action against the board that presided over the bank’s near collapse last September.
N Rock’s borrowers’ arrears double
Northern Rock revealed Monday the number of borrowers behind with repayments had jumped sharply since the UK mortgage lender was nationalised. The number of mortgages where payments were behind by three months or more jumped to 0.95% of its outstanding loan book,
A shrunken Crock
How sweet. “Consistent with the spirit of the Framework Document,” under which former mortgage bank Northern Rock resides in temporary public ownership, Rock has promised to continue acting like a real,