Debbie Crosbie: Only been in the job 18 months
Nationwide’s boss has sought to dampen speculation that she could become chief executive of troubled Natwest.
Debbie Crosbie, who only took over at the building society in June last year, is seen by some as a frontrunner to replace Alison Rose at the taxpayer-backed bank.
Rose was forced to resign in July this year amid a row over the closure of Nigel Farage’s account at Coutts, which is part of Natwest. She has since been stripped of £7.6m in shares and bonuses.
Natwest is still searching for a new chief executive – with Crosbie’s name among those rumoured to be in the frame.
Announcing Nationwide’s half-year results yesterday, Crosbie distanced herself from the job.
She told the Mail: ‘I’ve only been here for 18 months. I really wanted to join Nationwide because I love its business model. I’m really happy here.’
Her comments came as Nationwide, which is owned by its members, revealed the number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgage payments is creeping higher.
The UK’s third largest mortgage lender saw an uptick in arrears in the six months to the end of September, with 0.38 per cent of residential mortgages behind on repayments for more than three months. This was up from 0.32 per cent at the start of April.
Despite insisting the number of homeowners struggling to pay was still ‘historically low’, bosses have set aside £305m to cover potential losses on its more than £200billion home loan book.
Nationwide signalled there would not be much respite until mortgage rates are back below 3.5 per cent. ‘Rates have to fall somewhat further to restore confidence in the mortgage market,’ said the building society’s finance chief Chris Rhodes.
The average mortgage rate for a five-year fixed mortgage is currently 5.35 per cent.
Crosbie told the Mail that the banking sector is in a ‘much better state’ than during the financial crisis in 2008.
But high interest rates are still putting off movers. Mortgage lending fell to £12.1billion during the six months to September, compared with £19.7billion in the previous year, Nationwide said.
Despite this, the building society’s mortgage book grew to £202.3billion at the end of September, up from £201.7billion at the start of April.
Profits also climbed 2 per cent to £989m thanks to a boost in the lender’s net interest margin – the amount of money that a bank is earning in interest on loans compared to the amount it is paying in interest on deposits.
This increased from 1.48 per cent to 1.66 per cent in the half year. Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown said: ‘The building society model appears to be in rude health.’
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