UK’s bad banks pay another £3bn back to the government
THE REMAINING chunk of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley is paying the government increasingly quickly, UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) said yesterday.
It paid £3.8bn to the government in the first nine months of the year, £3.1bn of which were loan repayments.
That compares with payments of £2.6bn in the same period of 2012 and leaves the bad bank with £40.4bn left owing to the government.
UKAR ran down its total loan balances by another £6bn in the year, a fall of 6.5 per cent to £64.3bn.
The figure was boosted by the bank’s £856m profit, up 15 per cent on the same period of 2012.
It has been selling off loan portfolios to other lenders, including the £400m sale of Northern Rock Asset Management’s unsecured personal loan book.
And the quality of its loan book also improved – the number of mortgage accounts three or more months in arrears is down 26 per cent to 18,993.