Northern Rock announces £724.2m loss

Nationalised lender Northern Rock today posted a £724.2m (€853m) loss for the six months to June 30.

Northern Rock was notorious for its Together loans which lent up to 125% of home values.

As the recession bites and house prices fall, it is these loans that are responsible for its soaring rates of mortgages more than three months in arrears. When these loans are stripped out the share falls to 2.85%.

The lender said the number of properties repossessed as of June 30 were 2,522, compared with 3,620 at the end of 2008.

Chief executive Gary Hoffman said the lender might continue to see a small increase in the three-month arrears rate, but added that the share increases were slowing.

The Rock was at the centre of the first bank run in the UK in 140 years in September 2007 as the credit crunch exposed its over-reliance on money markets.

The crisis forced it to turn to the Bank of England for £26.9bn (€31.7bn) in emergency funding before being nationalised when sale attempts fell through.

Northern Rock now owes the British government £10.9bn (€12.8bn) after paying back the loan with mortgage redemptions as it encouraged borrowers to seek deals elsewhere.

But this has drained money from the mortgage market and in a change of plan earlier this year the bank is now increasing lending and delaying the repayment of the loan.

Today it said the government loan would increase after its planned restructuring.