20 Facts About Northern Rock

Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank.

Northern Rock Building Society was formed in 1965 by the merger of two North East of England building societies: the Northern Counties Permanent Building Society and the Rock Building Society .

Northern Rock chose to address these concerns by establishing the Northern Rock Foundation, which funded community-based projects.

At its Stock Exchange flotation on 1 October 1997, Northern Rock distributed shares to members with savings accounts and mortgage loans; the flotation share price was £4.

On 12 October 2012 Northern Rock plc was renamed Virgin Money plc, and Virgin Money Limited was renamed Northern Rock Limited.

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Under non-executive chairman Matt Ridley and Chief Executive Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock had a business plan which involved borrowing heavily in the UK and international money markets, extending mortgages to customers based on this funding, and then re-selling these mortgages on international capital markets, in a process known as securitisation.

Amid the resultant unease by August 2007, global demand from investors for securitised mortgages had fallen away, and Northern Rock was unable to raise funding by selling its securitised loan books, and therefore became unable to repay short-term loans from the money market.

Northern Rock had been wary of its continued aggressive growth strategy, which would continue up until summer 2007, despite the increasing volatility in the markets on which Northern Rock relied.

Northern Rock hoped the bonuses would enable them to retain critical staff members at risk of being poached by other companies.

Northern Rock has been one of the top five mortgage lenders in the United Kingdom in terms of gross lending according to Council of Mortgage Lenders statistics.

Northern Rock continued to sell credit cards under its own brand through The Co-operative Bank until November 2007; the decision to stop was made before the 2007 crisis.

Northern Rock completed the redevelopment of the Gosforth site, Northern Rock House, in the 2000s, which saw the development some new buildings as well as the demolition of their original 1960s tower block during Spring 2006.

Northern Rock opened a branch in Ireland on 16 November 1999 and the first branch in Northern Ireland followed on 4 April 2007.

In 2000 Northern Rock introduced a new corporate identity consisting of a magenta square containing the company name.

The Northern Rock Foundation changed its logo in 2003 from the NR 'blocks' inline with the main company, using the same new typeface.

On 4 November 2010 Northern Rock announced that Gary Hoffman had left the bank and was to move to NBNK Investments as CEO.

In 2005, to coincide with the Spirit of the Tall Ships Festival, Northern Rock enlisted the help of Red Box Interiors to create a temporary art installation at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on the Gateshead Quay of the Tyne.

The art entitled "Northern Rock @ Baltic" included mobile light stem sculptures and large scale external graphics.

Northern Rock sponsored the North East Premier League competition for recreational club cricket.

In 2006 Northern Rock sponsored the All*Star Cup celebrity Golf match, which was shown on ITV.