Northern Rock reports 26% lending increase

NORTHERN Rock, the British mortgage lender which has around 24,000 Irish-based account holders, has reported a 26% year-on-year increase in total net lending levels for the first quarter of 2006.

The company doesn’t break down quarterly performance levels for its operations here, but a spokesperson said: “The Irish business is good and only getting better.”

Net residential lending across all markets during the first three months of this year was 14% higher than the corresponding period last year. Going into the second quarter of the current year, the bank’s total lending pipeline stood at £5.7 billion (€8.17bn) - up 15% on the same time last year and already 8% higher than at the start of this year. Its strategic aim is to achieve asset growth of 20% this year.