British bank Northern Rock, nationalised during the global financial crisis, said today that its losses halved in the first six months of 2011 and it expected to trade profitably next year.
Last year, the lender was split in two, forming a so-called 'good bank' for its healthy businesses and a 'bad bank' management company to wind down toxic assets.
The 'good bank' - Northern Rock Plc - today reported a pre-tax loss of £68.5m for the six months to June compared with a year-earlier loss of £142.6m. Underlying losses stood at £78.8m, down from £140m.
'Northern Rock has made good progress in the first half of 2011,' the bank's executive chairman Ron Sandler said in a statement.
Sandler added that the bank continued to explore options for a sale of Northern Rock as it looks to return to the private sector.
Northern Rock collapsed in mid-September 2007 when the credit crunch forced it to seek emergency assistance from the Bank of England, sparking the first run on a British bank in recent history.
To prevent a wider system meltdown, the government agreed in December 2007 to guarantee all customer deposits held at the struggling group, before taking the lender over in early 2008.
