A Rock and a hard place

28 July 2010 By Neil Collins

The former finance director of Northern Rock, the failed UK mortgage bank, has been fined and barred by the FSA. Quite right. The figures that were published before the collapse were wrong. That destroys the rock on which analysis, creditworthiness and comparisons are built.

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The UK's Financial Services Authority has fined David Jones, the former finance director of Northern Rock, 320,000 pounds and barred him from any financially regulated activity.

He is the third former executive to be fined, following the collapse of the mortgage lender in 2007. David Baker, its deputy chief executive and Richard Barclay, its credit director, were also barred in April this year.

The FSA found that the bank had allowed false mortgage arrears figures to appear in explanatory text accompanying the 2006 annual accounts. The figures grossly understated the true picture of arrears and possessions.

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