"Remorse" of ex Northern Rock Chairman

See front page of today's Journal.

But doesn't reveal what he could and should have done differently.

He is quoted as saying;

"I enormously regret what happened at Northern Rock. It's an incredibly painful memory for me and it's something that I will live with for the rest of my life. I have nothing but remorse for my role in what happened. I've apologised and explained as much as I can what happened before the Treasury Select Committee.

"We were all taken by surprise by that. there was almost nobody who saw it coming. Those who did were not in the right place to warn everyone else. Northern Rock ended up suffering a fate no different from any other mortgage bank. They all disappeared as a result of the crisis, and I learnt a lot from that."

Apparently he says he now knows that "the only thing I'm good at is writing."

Editor's notes ;
1. Mr Ridley is currently promoting a book.
2. Robert Peston was warning about potential problems at Northern Rock even before he went to the BBC.
3. Mr Ridley was all but invisible to the investors and the general public during the whole crisis. The chairman of a public company is generally expected to be its public face.
4. Building Societies who built their businesses on prudent mortgage lending and not on fancy financial instruments weathered the storm.
5. Mr Ridley was paid £300,000 per annum to know better than the rest of us.

Newcastle Building Society "vulnerable"

Societies' losses in commercial arena should be limited
Mortgage Strategy, Monday 23 August 2010
http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/latest-news/societies-losses-in-commercial-arena-should-be-limited/1017299.article
Fitch Ratings says improved management means building societies are less likely to face commercial real estate losses in 2010 compared with 2009. It says societies with a stable outlook are not expected to see their ratings affected by commercial ex-posure. Mutuals with a negative out-look such as Nationwide Building Society, Newcastle Building Society and West Bromwich Building Society, which are heavily reliant on commercial loans, are vulnerable.

Government spurns remutualisation

Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable has announced that the coalition government would be seeking to sell Northern Rock to the market. This is of course an about face to where Vince and his Lib Dem team were when they were writing their manifesto.

Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, who are running a "The feeling is mutual" campaign, said :

"The ConDem Coalition has failed its first big test on co-operatives after less than 3 months.  By reneging on their commitment to re-mutualise Northern Rock, Vince Cable has shown that their devotion to a new approach to the economy is just a sham.

"Just like David Cameron's Big Society, this is a Big Con.  They are dumping all of their promises one by one and showing that they are just like the last Conservative Government which de-mutualised all of our building societies."

Jim Pickard's blog in the Financial Times criticises re-mutualisation.
http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/08/the-case-against-turning-northern-rock-into-a-mutual/

Robin Ashby has said on a number of occasions in the media that if shareholders do not receive proper compensation (which Governments have refused to do) then the next best option is to give us our shares back. Although we would be heavily diluted as a result of the new shares that the Government has created for itself, we would still have some ownership and value, which are important to NRSSG members. he has however also pointed out that a number of members had been against demutualisation in the first place, so if Northern Rock was turned back into a building society they would consider honour was satisfied even though they had been deprived of value.

Good bank, bad bank both making profits

In the last couple of weeks it has become clear that both parts of the old Northern Rock are now making a profit.

As we've repeatedly said, this business will make a profit for the taxpayer - at the expense of the small shareholders who were treated differently from those in RBS and Lloyds.

Or a form of discrimination...