Northern Rock has borrowed $ 42 Billion from the BOE

I don´t care if someone still argues that this isn´t a bailout. What started with a speech from the head of the BOE Marvin King dissing the ECB and the Fed for providing liquidity has morphed into a disaster for the credibility of the BOE. They have rescued one of the most aggressive lender in the UK . I don´t care if the collateral from Northern Rock for the $ 42 billion is "first class". You just have to look at the UK housing market and combine this with the fact that Northern Rock was active in creative financing and the action from the BOE sends a clear message..... No wonder that the Bank of England set to win power for covert rescues .....

Wer spricht immer noch davon das es sich hier um keinen Bailout handelt....... Was mit einer Rede vom Kopf der BOE Marvin King angefangen hat indem er die anderen Notenbänker für deren großzügigen Liquiditätsspritzen kritisiert hat mutiert zu einem Debakel erster Klasse für ihn und die BOE. Erschwerend kommt hinzu das die Hilfe ausgerechnet dem mit Abstand aggressivsten Akteur auf dem UK Hypothekenmarkt zugeflossen ist. In meinen Augen zieht auch nicht das ja als Sicherheit angeblich das erstklassige Kreditbuch von Northern Rock eingebracht wird. Wenn ich mir den Zustand des UK Immobilienmarktes vor Augen führe und das mit der Tatsache kombiniere das Northern Rock führend im "kreativen" Hypothekensegment gewesen ist braucht man sich nicht wundern wenn dieses als Signal aufgefasst wird das im Zweifel die BOE oder der Steuerzahler schon helfen wird.......Kein Wunder das die BOE jetzt um Ermächtigung sucht verdeckte Rettungsaktionen durchzuführen......

Rock against the clock / FT
Each week the sums get ever more eyewatering. It has now emerged that Northern Rock has borrowed an extra £4.65bn from the Bank of England, taking its total state-sponsored borrowing to £20.6bn.

The facility is due to expire in February and is intended to enable the Newcastle lender to find its own solution to its funding crisis and examine possible bids.

Alistair Darling, the chancellor of exchequer, scotched one worry about the situation on Thursday when he told MPs that the European Commission had raised no objections to the facility. That suggests it is not being treated as state aid under European rules. So in theory there is scope for the facility to be extended. This matters because Northern Rock’s potential suitors – Cerberus, JC Flowers and Virgin Group – will surely want government assistance to be extended after any takeover.

After all, the size of the refinancing required for Northern Rock is the key obstacle to any bidder. A buyer will have to repay £20.6bn of Bank funding and replace £14bn of short- and medium-term loans. For example, Lloyds TSB sought a £30bn loan from the Bank as a condition of buying Northern Rock. A successful bidder would also need extra capital to continue writing a minimum volume of mortgages and drive some inflows of retail savings, because Northern Rock’s securitisation vehicle, Granite, must keep a certain level of mortgages within its securitisation trust to function.

So the government’s involvement in Northern Rock is looking increasingly long-term. The hope in Newcastle must be that the Eurocrat view that this does not fall foul of state-aid rules will be long-term too.