How not to stop a Rock rolling
Goldman Sachs’s plan to sort out Northern Rock’s securitization-dependency problem by securitizing more of its debt does have a certain irony. The mortgage lender needs to deal with its emergency funding from the Bank of England if any sort of private sector sale can take place – and securitizing it seems to be the answer.
By guaranteeing bonds backed by £24 billion of Bank of England loans, the UK government can remove the big stumbling block for any buyer of the stricken lender. There is no suggestion that there will be...
