Northern Rock rescue as market falls
Updated on 21 January 2008
While the market is in crisis, Northern Rock's share price rises by 46 per cent after the government agrees to convert the bank's £25 billion loans into bonds.
The Chancellor said he hoped a private sector deal would now be agreed, but warned that Northern Rock could still be taken into temporary public ownership if this didn't happen.
Under the bonds plan, the debt would be paid off immediately, but the taxpayer would be exposed to potential losses over several years. The Tories said it amounted to a £2,000 second mortgage for every family in the country.
Today was the the day that the world's stock markets decided to cower in fear from the prospect of a US recession.
The stock market is now in panic mode.
That's the view of one trader today as share prices slumped dramatically across the world.
Many markets saw their worst one day performance since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
The immediate cause - investors have been unimpressed by President Bush's plans to give the US economy a boost, and there are growing fears America is now lurching into recession.
For months economists have wondered why stock markets have failed to feel the pain in credit markets, banking circles, and housing.
Today it all happened in one day with falls around the world of 5, 6 and 7 per cent. Only the US itself was spared, and that's because it's a public holiday.
A grim day and not the financial climate you'd choose for the launch of an unprecedented government-backed £25bn bond issue to repay Northern Rock's Bank of England loan but the Chancellor did today.
So far Northern rock has borrowed £25bn from the Bank of England to fund its business.
Now, the Rock will issue £25bn in bonds to private investors.
That money will be used to repay the government loan. But to encourage private investors, those bonds will be guaranteed by the UK taxpayer.
And the separate guarantee to cover all deposits at the Rock, currently worth another £30bn or so will also remain in place.
So the money owed to the Bank of England will be repaid but the bond issue to replace it will be underwritten by the government, and it's not clear what the terms will be to make it attractive to private investors.
In the House of Commons, the opposition says this is just state underwriting but without the clarity of nationalisation.
