Northern Rock reports increase in arrears

Posted 2008-05-11

Northern Rock has revealed that the number of mortgages three months in arrears at the end of April rose to 0.95 per cent.

The nationalised lender cited the current economic turbulence coupled with a diminishing loan book for the figure, which stood at 0.57 per cent at the end of December.

Ron Sandler, executive chairman of the bank, said that it was still in line to meet its targets of repaying the loan it received from the Bank of England.

"We remain firmly focused on our business priorities of repaying the Government debt, releasing the guarantee arrangements and, in due course, returning Northern Rock to private ownership," he said.

Part of the companys strategy to reduce its debt was to ask its customers to transfer their mortgage to another provider once it has expired, something which has been made more difficult given the current financial climate, Mr Sandler said.

Northern Rock was temporarily nationalised in February, the first case of such action since the 1970s.

Leave a Reply