All quiet on the Northern Rock front you’ve been thinking? Well our favourite non-doms CEO Ron Sandler and CFO Ann Godbehere (where?) were up in front of MPs at the Treasury Select Committee this week telling them that, surprise surprise, the drop in the housing market meant they needed a six month extension to the repayment of the £24bn they borrowed from the tax payer. Before we all groan, they do expect to repay £7bn this year and have the whole matter tied up within 3 years. Good work. And now might be a good time to get your foot in the door…

Let’s just be clear on this: Adam Applegarth the failed CEO of Northern Rock is widely credited with the responsbility for the collapse of the bank. Yet he has been awarded: £760,000 compensation for his dismissal; £346,246 into his pension fund; £785,000 in pay and benefits; a 2% subsidised mortgage rate; and £10,000 on security on his home so angry shareholders can’t turn up and give him a shoe-ing. The bank announced it would pay back the £24bn of tax payers money it received by 2010. All goes to show just how much money banks make out of us. Merry Christmas. Read original article

Sitting right alongside troubleshooter boss Ron Sandler as Finance Director at the new Northern Wreck is a Canadian accountant with little exposure to the UK banking system. Ann Godbehere has been unemployed for a year since quitting insurer Swiss Re after 11 years because she allegedly did not like her new boss there. She will earn £75,000 a month (!) in her new role. Read original article

The government has decided to temporarily nationalize Northern Wreck. With their shares suspended, shareholders reacted with fury and threats of legal action, accusing the Government of acting like a thief, are preparing legal challenges to protect their investment. Under nationalisation rules, they will be offered compensation for their holding, at a level set by a government-appointed panel and this could be as little as 5p a share. When the market closed on Friday the bank’s shares were trading at 90p, down from a high of £12.14 a year ago. A spokesman for the private investor group, UKSA, said: “It seems the only reason that the Government has chosen nationalisation is because ‘it offers better value to the taxpayers’. This is equivalent to a thief telling you it offers better value to him to steal from you, than to enter into a commercial transaction with you.” Read original article

In a weekend statement, Chancellor Darling said he rejected private sector bids from Virgin and the management team because he felt they would benefit the private sector rather than the tax payer, whose money The Badger used to bail out the bank. From today Northern Rock will be led by ex-NatWest chief operating officer Ron Sandler as executive chairman and ex-Swiss Re financial officer Ann Godbehere as chief financial officer. They will earn £90,000 and £75,000 per month, respectively, for their roles. Sandler has suggested the bank was likely to shrink in size and he did not rule out splitting the bank up and selling its constituent parts. It is thought that up to 2,500 jobs could be cut from the 6,000-strong workforce. Read original article