LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Nationalised British bank Northern Rock, which will post its annual results on Monday, is widely forecast to swing into the red because of the global credit
crunch, the Sunday Times reported without citing sources.
A spokesman for Northern Rock confirmed that the 2007 results will be published on Monday morning, months later than originally planned.
The Sunday Times reported that Northern Rock would reveal it had dived into the red last year on the back of huge subprime-related writedowns and interest payments made to the Bank of England.
The newspaper added that bad debts -- or customer loans that had been written off -- were also expected to soar in Britain as many homeowners faced rising borrowing costs and fell behind with their mortgage payments.
Northern Rock executive chairman Ron Sandler is believed to be keen to write off as much as possible in his first full set of results, according to the paper.
The Sunday Telegraph said the sub-prime write-downs will push Northern Rock's total impairment charges to around 400 mln stg.
In September, the bank had said it was on track to make profits of about 500 mln stg, but those profits had since been wiped out, the paper added.
The bank, previously Britain's fifth largest home loan provider, was taken into public ownership last month after the government failed to find a private sector buyer.
Northern Rock was brought to the brink of collapse when it could not raise funds, as commercial banks tightened lending criteria amid uncertainty over the sector's exposure to a crisis in the US subprime or high-risk home loan sector. kathy.sandler@thomson.com afp/ks/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
A spokesman for Northern Rock confirmed that the 2007 results will be published on Monday morning, months later than originally planned.
The Sunday Times reported that Northern Rock would reveal it had dived into the red last year on the back of huge subprime-related writedowns and interest payments made to the Bank of England.
The newspaper added that bad debts -- or customer loans that had been written off -- were also expected to soar in Britain as many homeowners faced rising borrowing costs and fell behind with their mortgage payments.
Northern Rock executive chairman Ron Sandler is believed to be keen to write off as much as possible in his first full set of results, according to the paper.
The Sunday Telegraph said the sub-prime write-downs will push Northern Rock's total impairment charges to around 400 mln stg.
In September, the bank had said it was on track to make profits of about 500 mln stg, but those profits had since been wiped out, the paper added.
The bank, previously Britain's fifth largest home loan provider, was taken into public ownership last month after the government failed to find a private sector buyer.
Northern Rock was brought to the brink of collapse when it could not raise funds, as commercial banks tightened lending criteria amid uncertainty over the sector's exposure to a crisis in the US subprime or high-risk home loan sector. kathy.sandler@thomson.com afp/ks/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.