TWO major mortgage lenders today reassured investors about their prospects despite the woes of crisis-hit Northern Rock.
Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley both stressed they had sound funding platforms and healthy retail deposits in trading updates today.
B&B expects 2007 underlying profits in line with market hopes and A&L said it would beat expectations – although the performances exclude a combined total of £137m written off so far on investments such as mortgage-backed securities, whose values plummeted in the summer credit crunch.
B&B said it remained confident in the sector and added that the problems facing Northern Rock could ease mortgage competition for firms with a broader funding base.
