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Northern Rock repossessions rise
27/01/2006 16:17:00
More borrowers are falling into repossession with Northern Rock, according to the firm's financial results.
It said in its preliminary results for 2005 that it had repossessed 576 homes, accounting for 0.09 per cent of its mortgage customers. Despite the low figure, it was up on 2004's 181, or 0.03 per cent of its customers.
The company said that the results are in line with its strategy of pursuing recovery from borrowers who will not make repayments or are a high credit risk.
Meanwhile, it claimed that its unsecured personal loan arrears were significantly better than the average for the industry. The number of customers with three months or more in arrears came to only 0.98 per cent, below the previous year's figure. A policy of attracting only high quality lending stood behind the figures, the bank said.
"We do not expect to see a significant deterioration in credit quality going forward. We have low levels of arrears, strong credit risk management and a low risk balance sheet. We have continued to provide, prudently, for loan losses using our Basel II based impairment models," said chief executive Adam J Applegarth.
The company claimed underlying pre tax profits of £504.6 million, up 14.3 per cent on the year before.
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