'Very active market' for bad British loans - USA TODAY
Britain's state-backed banks could offload billions of pounds of bad loans, amid huge growth in demand for distressed debt. That could provide a windfall for banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds, and even the state-owned Northern Rock Asset Management, which was left with the taxpayer after Virgin Money completed the acquisition of the "good" part of the... The bank is expected to ask regulators at the Bank of England this week for permission to pay a "token" dividend to investors when it releases results later this month, given how its financial position in general has improved. Lloyds, which is 25% owned by taxpayers, still had bad loans worth £23 billion pounds ($35 billion) on its books as "run-off assets" at the time of half-year results in September, although this was down from 33 billion pounds at the end of 2013.... Recovery has been slow, but last year's 90 billion euros of sales was itself a sharp improvement on the 2013 figure of 64 billion euros. Source: www.usatoday.com
