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Rock word 'not good enough'
18 March, 2008
The Building Societies' Association's director general has expressed concern over Northern Rock's attitude to competition.
Prompted by the publication of the bank's provisional business plan, Adrian Coles warned that Northern Rock may well gain an unfair competitive edge as a result of its nationalisation.
He said: “This does little to allay our fears of unfair competition from the taxpayer-funded bank.
"Northern Rock has confirmed that the bank’s market share of retail deposits will be increased over the next three or four years and we have only Northern Rock’s guarantee that they will not compete on an unfair basis - this is not good enough and we will look for much more detail on this in the finalised business plan later this month.
"Taxpayers deserve to see as much detail as possible about the plans of the bank that they own.
“Northern Rock has clearly been sensitive to the distortions it has caused to the Danish markets, but it, and the government, must also take steps to minimise the much greater potential distortion to the UK savings markets as a matter of urgency.
"It is unacceptable for Northern Rock to build market share via a combination of artificially high interest rates and government guarantees to savers.”