Arrears up at NRock

The bank, which had to be nationalised earlier this year after it was forced to take out billions in taxpayer loans, says the credit quality of its loan book is still satisfactory. Figures show mortgages in arrears for at least three months accounted for 0.95% of total lending at the end of April, up from 0.57% at the end of last year. However, Northern Rock has had some success in repaying its Government loans, with the facility falling from £26.9bn at the end of 2007 to £24.1bn by the end of March 2008. Ron Sandler, chairman of Northern Rock, says the bank's business priority remains t...