No plan to split mortgage book, says B&B
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Bradford & Bingley says it has no plans to split up its mortgage book and sell it off as good and bad assets.
Press reports this morning suggest the bank, which closed for new business last September is looking to divide its £50bn balance sheet into “good” and “bad” assets in an exercise that echoes Northern Rock’s plans.
B&B was broken up and partly nationalised a year ago and is looking for attractive assets that it can sell to private buyers. Reports say the plan is part of B&B’s drive to repay its loan as quickly as possible.
Its mortgage book nationalised with an £18.4bn loan from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the government paid the FSCS fee but the financial services industry must cover the sum over time.
But a spokesman for B&B says: “We have no plans to split the mortgage book at the moment.”
He says in future it may consider selling part of the book when the economic climate is right and if it adds value to the shareholders.
