"is it now time to let Northern Rock go, can we all continue to support the Bank with our own money. If this was a company then it would have gone into adminstration by know. Lets pull the plug on Northern Rock and let it close down - I know at lot of people will loss money but we can't afford to support the bank / share holders any longer"
by N Blakeley - recession 2009
Northern Rock has reported a loss of £724.2m for the first six months of 2009, compared with a loss of £585.4m in the first half of last year.
The nationalised bank said that 3.92% of its mortgage loans were more than three months in arrears, well above the national average of 2.39%.
It currently owes the government £10.9bn, but is waiting for European regulatory clearance for more funding.
Northern Rock was nationalised in February 2008
It had to be bailed out by taxpayers in 2007, when its model of borrowing short-term funds from wholesale markets to lend to mortgage borrowers was hit by the credit crunch.
It reported impairment losses from loans and advances of £602.2m for the first six months of the year, compared with £191.6m for the same period the year before.
Additional funding
Northern Rock is in the process of splitting itself into two companies, one of which will hold savers' money and be responsible for new lending, while the other will hold many of the existing loans and be responsible for paying back loans to the government.
"If Northern Rock were a nationalised manufacturing company it would be closed down! Why is it allowed to continue soaking up "our money?"
Once the restructuring has been completed, the Treasury will provide additional funding if the European Commission agrees to allow the plan.
Chief executive Gary Hoffman told reporters he was making "good progress" in discussions with the Commission and expected to receive clearance in the autumn.
Earlier in the year, Northern Rock announced a change to its strategy, which has meant that it has reduced the priority of repaying its loans to the government and instead has tried to increase the amount of money it is lending.
But it has warned it is unlikely to meet its target of £5bn of new lending for this year and is more likely to hit a figure of £4bn.
Mortgage demand
Mr Hoffman said that the target would be missed, because it was constrained by not yet having received state aid clearance from Europe.
But he added that there would have been demand for the extra money if it had been available and said applications for Northern Rock mortgages had doubled in the second quarter of the year, compared with the first three months of the year.
In addition to reporting statutory losses, Northern Rock also released an underlying figure, which it said better reflected the state of the business.
The underlying loss fell to £269.6m for the six months to 30 June, compared with £443.3m for the same period of 2008.
The underlying figure excludes a £156.4m rebate that it will receive if it gets state aid clearance from the European Commission.
It also excludes what it calls a volatility charge of £298.2m on the way it accounts for the value of certain assets.
sourced from THE BBC
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