Nationalized lender Northern Rock made a loss of 1.4 billion ($1.97 billion) in 2008 due to heavy writedowns from the mortgage market.
The bank, which began rapidly scaling back its business after being taken into public ownership last February, also slashed its new lending from 29.5 billion in 2007 to 2.9 billion last year.
The number of customers with mortgage arrears of three months or more rose to 2.92%. For customers with Together mortgages, which allowed borrowers to take out loans worth up to 125% of the value of their property, the figure with more than three months’ arrears was 4.53%.
According to the BBC, the industry average is 1.88%.
Nevertheless, Northern Rock says it is making “good progress” towards meeting its business objectives and is ahead of schedule in repaying its government loan – around 8.9 billion remains outstanding.
“We can now return to what we do well – mortgage lending,” says Gary Hoffman, chief executive.
Last month, chancellor Alistair Darling announced that Northern Rock would offer 14 billion of new mortgages over the next two years.
D.C.