³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

It's not often that you can call a £250m loss progress, but that was the general view of .

To understand why, you've got to look where the bank's come from.

, and it had set a target of halving that, so £250m does appear to be a real stride forward.

So much so the bank has paid out £14.9m in bonuses.

That's led to some predictable outrage, even though its Chief Executive Gary Hoffman has waived his package.

The bank also points out that the majority of the money has gone to staff in Sunderland and Newcastle who are paid less than £25,000 a year.

So do those staff deserve a bonus? The .

And again I suppose you've got to remember just where Northern Rock has come from.

. It seemed Northern Rock's brand would be permanently sullied.

Of course, since then we've seen more banks nationalised, and more banks exposed as having taken similar unwise risks.

Now there are even suggestions that the progress made in the last year could see the brand revitalised and rescued from ignominy.

The Newcastle Central MP, Jim Cousins, has long championed the Northern Rock cause.

He believes the bank could even be in a position to take over other financial institutions, rather than be taken over, and could certainly continue to be called Northern Rock.

He also points to the loyalty of local depositors as a sign that the bank is still trusted.

I say bank, when actually mean what's being known as the "good bank", .

is still in the market for new business and holds all the savings accounts and around £10bn of mortgages.

The "bad bank" (Northern Rock Asset Management plc) holds £50bn of mortgages, all taken out before the credit crunch, and unsecured loans of £3.9bn.

That's the dodgier stuff I suppose, though it includes a lot of what were seen as good customers in the past.

That "bad bank" will stay in state ownership, but the "good bank" could be sold off to recoup some of the billions owed to the taxpayer.

. It could even happen this year.

And so the irony is that the progress made by staff has added to the uncertainty over their future.

The banks still employs 4,500 people in the region, but would any new owner have the same commitment to the North East?

And as many of them work for the "bad bank" which isn't in the market for new business, what will happen to them as the mortgage book is gradually run down?

So progress today, but yet more uncertainty lies ahead.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?