News
Northern Rock – business as usual
Northern Rock will continue to issue mortgages at up to 5.9 times a borrower’s salary where appropriate, a spokesperson for the bank has confirmed today.
The bank’s decision to uphold its lending criteria, enabling qualifying first-time buyers to borrow up to £180,000 on a £30,000 salary, is accompanied by an announcement that shareholders in the company will receive their interim dividend as planned, estimated to be worth £59m in total.
Despite accusations of ‘reckless’ lending practices, the Treasury’s guarantee of all Northern Rock’s existing deposit accounts, coupled with weekend speculation about a take-over bid, appears to have fuelled the public’s confidence in the bank’s potential recovery and was reflected in morning trading, with share prices rising 6.8% to 197.5p.