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Northern Rock
Company typePublic ownership[1][2]
IndustryBank
Founded1965
Headquarters,
Area served
UK, Ireland
Key people
Ron Sandler (Executive Chairman)
ServicesBanking, Mortgages
Revenue£5 billion (2006)
£627 million (2006)
£443 million (2006)
OwnerUK Government
Number of employees
c. 4500 (as of September 2008)[3]
Websitewww.northernrock.co.uk

Northern Rock plc is a British bank, currently under ownership of the UK government. It is based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England in the United Kingdom. Formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, the bank was formed in 1997 when the society floated on the London Stock Exchange, distributing shares to members who held savings accounts and mortgages. Northern Rock joined the stock exchange as a minor bank and was expected to be taken over by one of its larger rivals, but it remained independent. In 2000, Northern Rock gained promotion to the FTSE 100 Index, but was demoted back to the FTSE 250 in December 2007[4] and later suspended from the LSE due to the bank's nationalisation.

On 14 September 2007, the Bank sought and received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England,[5] following problems in the credit markets caused by the US subprime mortgage financial crisis.

At 00:01 on 22 February 2008 the bank was taken into state ownership. The nationalisation was a result of two unsuccessful bids to take over the bank, neither being able to fully commit to repayment of taxpayers' money.[6] The government-appointed Chairman is Ron Sandler, who assumed the position on Monday 18 February.[7] There are no plans to change the name of the bank.[8]

History

Northern Rock Building Society was formed in 1965 as a result of the merger of Northern Counties Permanent Building Society (established in 1850) and Rock Building Society (established in 1865). During the 30 years that followed, Northern Rock expanded by acquiring 53 smaller building societies, most notably the North of England Building Society in 1994.[9] Along with many other UK building societies in the 1990s, Northern Rock chose to demutualise and float on the stock exchange in order to better expand their business. Throughout this period a concern against demutualisation was that the assets of a mutual society was built up by its members throughout its history not just the present members who would benefit, and that demutualisation was a betrayal of the community that the societies were created to serve.[10][11][12][13] Northern Rock chose to address these concerns by founding the Northern Rock Foundation.[14] From 1 October 1997 until the government nationalisation, the bank used the symbol NRK on the London Stock Exchange.

Location

The 1990s buildings at Regent Centre

The bank is based on a large site at the Regent Centre in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. It has customer contact centre operations at both Doxford International Business Park in Sunderland and at its head office. The bank is also developing a site at Rainton Bridge, which it is now seeking to sell or let to a third party[15].

Northern Rock is midway through a redevelopment of the Gosforth site, which saw the demolition of the original 1960s tower block during Spring 2006. A new tower block is due to be completed by the end of 2008, originally intended to act as the main entrance and focal point of the company headquarters. This will now also likely be sold or leased as the additional space has become surplus to requirements.[16]

The Gosforth site currently consists of the Kielder and Prudhoe buildings, completed in the early 1990s, behind which lies the distinctive glass-fronted Alnwick building. The main Atrium reception is adjacent to this, opening out onto Baker Street, a large covered atrium that houses a restaurant, shop and on-site branch. A number of other buildings, all named after North-Eastern castles are joined to Baker Street.

A sub-division in Guernsey was established in February 1996,[17] handling offshore savings and investment accounts.

Northern Rock opened a branch in Ireland on 16 November 1999[18] and the first branch in Northern Ireland followed on 4 April 2007. The first branch of the bank opened in Denmark on 7 February 2007;[19] however as part of the Government restructuring, the Danish operations will cease by the end of 2008.

Corporate image

Northern Rock logo used until 2000

In the year 2000 Northern Rock introduced a new corporate identity consisting of a magenta square containing the company name. This replaced the NR 'blocks' logo. To this day however, some branches still display the old logo. The Northern Rock Foundation also changed its logo in 2003 from the NR 'blocks' inline with the main company, using the same new typeface. The Red Box Design Group have designed all of the currently standing buildings at the company's headquarters in Gosforth[20][21][22][23][24][25] and have contributed to many of the other design aspects of the company, such as the in-branch styling.[26]

Business

A typical Northern Rock branch, on Northumberland Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. The clock outside this branch, the bottom of which can just be seen, is emblazoned with the bank's name and has become a popular image in print and television coverage of the Northern Rock crisis.

Northern Rock is one of the top five mortgage lenders in the United Kingdom in terms of gross lending.

As well as mortgages, the bank also deals with savings accounts, current accounts, loans and insurance. The company also promotes secured loans to its existing mortgage customers. The unsecured loans business is administered and underwritten by Ventura based in Leeds. Home and contents insurance is dealt with by AXA whilst Legal & General, whose mortgage book Northern Rock took over, arrange insurance and stock-market-based investments. Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) can be arranged with London-based Cardif Pinnacle.[27]

In 2003, to free capital for its rapid growth in mortgage lending, the bank sold its credit card business to The Co-operative Bank for a profit of more than £7 million. Until November 2007 Northern Rock continued to sell credit cards under their own brand through The Co-operative Bank; the decision to stop was made before the 2007 crisis.[28]

In 2006 the bank had moved into sub-prime lending via a deal with Lehman Brothers. Although the mortgages are sold under Northern Rock's brand through intermediaries, the risk is being underwritten by Lehman Brothers.[29][30]

Board of Directors

Prior to the credit crisis the company had focused on developing its own staff and most appointments including the Chief Executive, were made internally.

The Chief Executive was Andy Kuipers, who joined the company in 1987, and retired on 31 August 2008. Gary Hoffman, will become Chief Executive of Northern Rock in October 2008. He is currently the vice chairman of Barclays and a former Managing Director of Barclaycard, who was appointed in July 2008 and [31]

John Devaney and Simon Laffin joined the board in November 2007, when Sir Derek Wanless, Nichola Pease, Adam Fenwick and Rosemary Radcliffe retired as Non-Executive Directors. The Chairman, Matt Ridley resigned as did the Chief Executive Adam Applegarth, although the latter stayed on in a caretaker role until December 2007. David Baker and Keith Currie left the board, but remain employed within the company.

In February 2008, Ron Sandler was appointed Executive Chairman by the government. Bryan Sanderson, Sir Ian Gibson, David Jones and Paul Thompson retired from the board at this time.


As of 22 February 2008, the Board of Directors comprised:[32][33]

  • Executive Chairman: Ron Sandler
  • Deputy Chairman: Stephen Hester
  • Chief Financial Officer: Ann Godbehere
  • Non-Executive Directors: John Devaney, Simon Laffin, Laurie Adams, Philip Remnant and Tom Scholar

Sponsorship

The company sponsored many local sports clubs and events, including Newcastle United Football Club,[34] Newcastle Falcons (rugby union), Newcastle Eagles (basketball), Durham and Middlesex County Cricket clubs, professional golfer Paul Eales and the cycling festival Northern Rock Cyclone.[35]

The sponsorship of Newcastle United began in 2003, and was set to expire in 2010. The current five year deal from 2005 to 2010 was worth £25 million.[36]

In 2005, to coincide with the Spirit of the Tall Ships Festival, Northern Rock enlisted the help of Red Box Interiors to create a temporary art installation at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on the Gateshead Quay of the Tyne. The art entitled "Northern Rock @ Baltic" included mobile light stem sculptures and large scale external graphics.[37]

In 2007, almost three weeks before the bank had to appeal to the Bank of England for an emergency loan, the bank bought the home ground of Newcastle Falcons Rugby Club, Kingston Park stadium[36] for £15 million. In February 2008, documents relating to the sale came to light, attracting much criticism that the purchase has been made at a time of impending crisis.[38]

It was confirmed on 20 May 2008 that Northern Rock would continue to sponsor both Newcastle United and the Newcastle Falcons, the former due to the long term agreement between them and the club. Chief Executive Ron Sandler was quoted as saying:

"We have already ended a number of sponsorships that I inherited... but we have chosen to continue the sponsorship of Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons, partly because of commitments we have entered into there - sometimes sponsorships continue until they come to a contractual end - and partly because I believe it is in the commercial interest of the bank that we should continue with both of these."

Northern Rock Foundation

The company donates substantial amounts annually to its own charity, the Northern Rock Foundation. The foundation was formed when the company was floated, with an initial donation of 15% of the share capital and a covenant to donate 5% of the company's annual profit thereafter.[39][40] In 2006, Northern Rock was the second largest charitable giver in the FTSE 100 after ITV.[41]

In April 1996, when the Building Society was considering demutualisation, plans were announced by the then chairman, Robert Dickinson, for the creation of the foundation. Since the official launch of the foundation in January 1998, it has steadily grown and expanded its activities. In 2003, along with a new logo and the introduction of new programmes, the Foundation moved to a new building – the renovated Old Chapel in Gosforth.At the end of 2006 the foundation received £28.2 million investment. By the end of 2007 £190 million had been donated to the foundation, by Northern Rock.

Nationalisation will end the covenant requiring Northern Rock to remit a share of profits to the Foundation. Instead, for the next three years the Foundation will receive an annual £15 million payment from Northern Rock, whether it remains publicly-owned or returns to the private sector. The Foundation's shares will be cancelled and compensated in the same way as those of other shareholders.[42]

2007 credit crisis

Emergence

People queuing outside a branch to withdraw their savings due to fallout from the subprime crisis.

On 12 September 2007, Northern Rock asked the Bank of England, as lender of last resort in the United Kingdom, for a liquidity support facility due to problems in raising funds in the money market to replace maturing money market borrowings.[43] The problems arose from difficulties banks faced over the summer of 2007 in raising funds in the money markets, caused by the subprime crisis in the United States. The bank's assets were always sufficient to cover its liabilities, but it had a liquidity problem because institutional lenders became nervous about lending to mortgage banks following the US sub-prime crisis. Bank of England figures suggest that Northern Rock borrowed £3bn from the Bank of England in the first few days of this crisis.[44]

Government intervention

With shares in Northern Rock plummeting by nearly a third, the British Government moved to reassure investors with the bank, with account holders urged not to worry about the bank going bust. The Treasury select committee chairman John McFall MP said: "I don't think customers of Northern Rock should be worried about their current accounts or mortgages."[45][46]

Northern Rock is not the only British bank to have called on the Bank of England for funds since the sub-prime crisis began[47] but is the only one to have had emergency financial support from the Tripartite Authority (The Bank of England, the FSA and HM Treasury).[48] However, the bank is more vulnerable to a credit crunch as its 'high risk'[49] business model depends on funding from the wholesale credit markets, 75% of its funds coming from this source.[50] In his address to the Treasury Select Committee, Bank of England governor Mervyn King had stated emergency funds would be made available to any British bank that needed it, but at a penalty rate, to ensure that lenders who had made bad lending decisions would suffer relative to lenders who had made sensible lending decisions.[51]

Run on the bank

On Friday 14 September, the first day branches opened following the news, many customers queued outside branches to withdraw their savings (a run on the bank).[52] It was estimated that £1 billion was withdrawn by customers that day, about 5% of the total bank deposits held by the Northern Rock.[53] In one incident, police were called to the branch in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire when two joint account holders barricaded the bank manager in her office after she refused to let them withdraw £1 million from their account. Their money was held in an internet only account, which they were unable to obtain after the Northern Rock website became inaccessible due to the volume of customers trying to log on.[54]

On Monday 17 September, as worried savers continued to flock to some Northern Rock bank branches to withdraw their savings, it was reported that an estimated £2 billion had been withdrawn since the bank applied to the Bank of England for emergency funds. By early afternoon in London, Northern Rock's shares, which had lost 32% on the previous Friday, fell a further 40% from 438 pence to 263 pence.[55]

Later that day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced that the British Government and the Bank of England would guarantee all deposits held at Northern Rock.[56] Northern Rock shares rose by 16% after this was announced.

Stabilisation

The announcement by the Chancellor showed its intended effects the next day, as the queues outside Northern Rock's branches gradually disappeared. In addition, Northern Rock had a series of adverts published in major UK newspapers to reaffirm that their customers' money was safe.[57]

In an interview on BBC Radio 4, Bank of England governor Mervyn King revealed that they had anticipated emergency funding to be in the £20–30bn range.[58]

What we want to do is to give incentives for people to behave properly, so in judging the interest rate at which we lent to Northern Rock we asked ourselves the question: "At what interest rate would they have to pay in borrowing from us today that would make them regret not having taken out an insurance policy as Countrywide did before the 9th of August?"

— Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, BBC Radio 4 – File on 4

Boardroom changes

Matt Ridley was forced to resign as chairman in 2007, having been blamed in parliamentary committee hearings for not recognising the risks of the bank's financial strategy and thereby "harming the reputation of the British banking industry."[59]

In December, the EU regulators approved Britain's actions to provide aid to the Bank by concluding that it was in line with European emergency aid rules.[60]

Growth of Bank of England loan

By January 2008, Northern Rock's loan from the Bank of England had grown to £26bn. On 11 January, Northern Rock announced that it had sold its portfolio of lifetime home equity release mortgages to JP Morgan for £2.2bn and that it would use this to pay off a piece of the Bank of England loan.[61][62]

On 15 January 2008, a meeting was held at the 11,000 seater Metro Radio Arena to discuss the current situation at the bank; all but one of the proposals put forward by the hedge funds were rejected.

On 6 February, the Office for National Statistics announced that it was treating Northern Rock as a public corporation, similar to the BBC and Royal Mail for accounting purposes, causing the loans (approximately £25 billion) and guarantees (approximately £30 billion) extended by the Bank of England and the value of the company's mortgage book (approximately £55 billion), provisionally estimated to total around £100 billion, to be added to the National Debt.[63] Although not technically a nationalisation, the decision effectively acknowledged that "In all but name, Northern Rock is now nationalised".[64]

The addition of this borrowing to the Government's totals increases the National Debt from £537 billion, or 37.7% of GDP to around 45%,[63] breaking the so-called Golden Rule which sets the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement threshold at below 40%. The figure is the equivalent of £3,000 additional borrowing for every family in Britain.[65] In the 2008 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the government will issue £14 billion of gilts in order to cover the Northern Rock debt.[66]

Handling of the crisis

On 26 March the Financial Services Authority released an internal report into the failings over handling the problems at Northern Rock. "They found that their supervision of the bank had not been carried out to a standard that is acceptable". The previous FSA review had taken place in February 2006.[67] In the light of these failings at Northern Rock, the FSA announced that they would overhaul their own staffing and systems.[68] The FSA internal report also concluded that ultimately the blame for the collapse of Northern Rock should sit at the feet of the bank's senior management. "The boards and managements of regulated firms carry the primary responsibility for ensuring their institutions' financial soundness," the FSA said. The British Bankers' Association (BBA), the UK banking body, agreed.[69]

Financial performance

On 31 March the bank released its annual report for 2007, it showed a loss of £167 million. The former boss, Adam Applegarth is also to receive a £760,000 (£63,333 a month) payoff.[70] The report also outlined further details of their proposed business plan.[71]

On 5 August the bank announced that it had made a loss of £585.4m for the first 6 months of the year and that £9.4bn of a loan from the Bank of England had been paid back, reducing the amount owed to £17.5bn.[72]

Takeover offers

Virgin

On 12 October 2007, Virgin Group announced that it intended to bid for Northern Rock as the lead partner in a coalition including American giant AIG, turnaround specialist WL Ross and First Eastern Investment. Had the deal been successful, Northern Rock would have been integrated into Virgin Money,[73] as Virgin Bank.[74]

It is unclear what role partners would have had in the deal. This bid was later approved by the UK Treasury and had been noted as the preferred option.[75] Virgin announced that Peter McNamara, a former Alliance & Leicester managing director, would be responsible for risk management at Northern Rock if its bid succeeds.[76]

Olivant

The other front runner was an investment company Olivant, headed by the former chief executive of Abbey, Luqman Arnold.[77] Olivant would have kept the Northern Rock brand.[78] By 17 November, a total of ten companies had put forward proposals for the bank. Among the other suitors for Northern Rock were private equity firm Cerberus,[79] JC Flowers[80] and Lloyds TSB.[81] In early December JC Flowers, dropped out of the bidding.[82]

Bids rejection

Northern Rock announced that all offers had been "materially below" the previous trading value. Alistair Darling said on 19 November that the Government would have to approve or veto any sale, in the interests of taxpayers, depositors and wider financial stability.[83]

Possible nationalisation

In December the Government prepared emergency legislation to nationalise the Bank, in the event that the takeover bids fail.[84] On 12 January 2008, the Treasury recruited Ron Sandler, the former Lloyd's of London Chief Executive, to lead Northern Rock, in the event that the bank is nationalised.[85] If the Bank was to be temporarily nationalised, the government would manage the Bank at "arms' length" on a commercial basis, where services for savers and borrowers would not be affected and the company would continue to operate as normal. However nationalisation would also address the future of the Northern Rock Foundation.[86] Alistair Darling rejected the possibility of the Bank being put into administration.

In-house proposal

On 15 December, Northern Rock hired the bank Goldman Sachs to put together a financing package, to assemble backers and present proposals to its board. This package would be available to any potential bidder for the bank.[87]

Final bids

The deadline for bids was 4 February 2008, where final bids were expected from Virgin, Olivant and the bank’s management; other bidders could still have expressed interest. Goldman Sachs were likely to contact Cerberus and JC Flowers to see if they would like to rejoin the bidding, now that the situation has materially changed.[88] When a successful proposal has been chosen, it will be put to the European Commission by 17 March, which would consider whether it conformed to EU state aid rules.[89] Olivant pulled out of the bidding (but stated that they may have still attempted a rescue bid if the Government changed their conditions[90]) on 4 February leaving just the Virgin bid and the in-house bid, led by Paul Thompson and Andy Kuipers[91]

For repayment of the Government loans, there was a proposal to create an 'asset pool' at the bank, of a size greater than the loans. The bidder would have issued bonds against this asset pool, with maturities set inline with the repayment. Proceeds from the bond issue would have also gone to the Government and the bank would have paid for a government guarantee for the bonds to trade in the market at or near prices of similar gilt-edged stocks.[89] This would have replaced the original plan for the bidders to have to find their own investors to cover the first £15bn, which proved impossible, due to the credit crunch.[92] The government would also continue to guarantee the Bank's liabilities, such as savers’ deposits.[89]

Nationalisation

On 17 February 2008, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that Northern Rock was to be nationalised[6] claiming that the private bids did not offer "sufficient value for money to the taxpayer" and thus the bank was to be brought under a "temporary period of public ownership".[93][94]

The government is the sole shareholder and the Bank is managed at "arms length" on a commercial basis by an independent board under Ron Sandler. Customers are not affected by this change.

A Government-appointed arbitration panel will decide on a fair price for the compensation to be offered to investors for their shares.[95] Prior to the markets opening on 18 February, trading in Northern Rock's ordinary and preference shares was suspended.[42] The legal authorisation for the nationalisation is the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008, which also allows for the nationalisation of other banks if necessary.[96] At 00:01 on 22 February Northern Rock was formally nationalised.

Offshore mortgage book

It has subsequently become known that the best book of Northern Rock's mortgage business, comprising of mortgages worth £47 billion - some 40% of the company's assets - had been transferred to a Channel Islands based company called Granite, together with an ongoing obligation to continue to supply business. Failure to maintain the arrangement could cost a reported £5 billion.[97] Granite was set up as a charitable trust to benefit a small charity, Down's Syndrome North East. Despite having assets worth an estimated £45 billion, Granite has never made a donation to the charity.[98]

At Northern Rock's heart is Granite, a £45bn securitisation vehicle though which mortgages are parcelled up and sold to investors. Under 'substitution clauses' in Granite, investors can call in their loans if maturing mortgages are not replaced with new ones.

Should the clauses be triggered, investors could demand their funding back - potentially leaving the Government with an immediate £45bn bill. At the moment, only £25bn of taxpayer's money has actually gone into Northern Rock, through Bank of England loans. The rest of the support is via state guarantees, which the Treasury would prefer are not drawn upon.

'Granite is the reason the Government opted for nationalisation and did not put it into administration,' one senior Northern Rock insider said. Administration would also have triggered the clause.

Granite matures in tranches, with roughly £5bn expected to come up this year and £10bn next. As the Government regains control of the vehicle, it can run it down or sell it off. Either way, the obligation will last almost five years. Hence, bankers' fervent belief that "temporary public ownership" will not be anything of the sort.[99]

Debt reduction strategy

On 18 March, Northern Rock announced the measures that it would be taking to reduce the government debt within three to four years.[100] The bank is to cut around a third of jobs (2,000) by 2011; on 1 May the bank confirmed that they would be initialising talks with the unions and that most of the job losses would be later in 2008.[101]

Job losses

At the end of July 2008 Northern Rock announced the first set of redundancies; 800 staff were made compulsorily redundant and a further 500 staff left under a voluntary redundancy programme.[102] It is also aiming to halve its £100 billion loan book by either selling off mortgage assets to other lenders or by declining to offer new mortgages to existing customers.[103]

Danish operations

On 18 March, Northern Rock announced the termination of its Danish savings operation. All accounts in the Danish branch were closed on 18 April 2008.[104]

Lloyds TSB deal

On 5 June it was announced that Lloyds TSB would assume a proportion of the Northern Rock mortgage book over 3 years; this would be achieved by Lloyds TSB offering new mortgages to Northern Rock customers who are nearing the end of their fixed-rate deals.[105]

Two hedge funds which owned 20% of the bank, SRM Global and RAB Capital, are planning to take legal action against the Government, regulators and individuals who they believe to be responsible for the problems at the bank. They allege that it was their poor actions that led to the current crisis. In May Legal & General joined the hedge funds, as an "interested party".[106] The hedge funds are to request that an independent valuer assesses a fair level of compensation and to argue that the banks shares are worth more than the final price of their trading prior to nationalisation. This legal action is thought to have started on 8 May.[107] As of 6 July around about 10 firms have applied to value the Bank.[108] The Times reported on 3 August that Houlihan Lokey, BDO Stoy Hayward and L.E.K. Consulting were the three companies short listed by the government to value the bank.[109]

See also

References

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