The 'bad' part of Britain's bailed-out bank Northern Rock said today it repaid £2 billion of British government loans last year.
It still owes the British state £19.7 billion, said UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the government body overseeing the running down of Northern Rock's bad bank.
"We continue to make good progress against our objectives and made further significant repayments of the government loans," UKAR chief executive Richard Banks said in a statement.
UKAR added that the bad bank posted surging underlying pre-tax profits of £789.9m in 2011, up from £191.3m in 2010.
Nationalised at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, Northern Rock was later split in two. The 'good' part was sold to Richard Branson's Virgin Money at the end of last year at a loss for taxpayers.
Northern Rock was plunged into crisis in late 2007 when its exposure to the credit crunch forced it to seek emergency assistance from the Bank of England and government, sparking the first run on a British bank in recent history.
