Northern Rock's Innovative Mortgage Website Scoops Prestigious Award

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, England, October 4, 2010 - Northern Rock's new interactive mortgage website has been commended by a
leading magazine for its 'best use of digital by sector'.

The new Northern Rock mortgage site was launched in April this year and
managed to fight off stiff competition to win the prestigious accolade at the
Communicate Magazine's Digital Impact Awards.

The award presentation was held at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill in
order to celebrate excellence in digital stakeholder communications.

Northern Rock (www.northernrock.co.uk/), along with digital agency
TH_NK, who helped design the website, succeeded in beating off stiff
competition from FT.com, Echo Research for the Liberal Democrats, Omobono for
Ocean Sky, Echo Research for Syngenta and Citigate Dewe Rogerson for
TalkTalk, which were also shortlisted for the prize.

The site was created to make it easier for customers to find Northern
Rock mortgages
(www.northernrock.co.uk/Mortgages/Tools/Overpayment-Calculator) and
learn more about the purchase process. As well as containing lots of useful
advice and information for different customer groups, it also includes a
range of new tools such as a jargon buster, budget planner and mortgage
overpayment calculator (www.northernrock.co.uk/mortgages/) to take
the complexity out of the mortgage-selection process.

The Northern Rock website has already proved to be effective, with the
average time customers spend on the site increasing since its launch and,
more importantly, a growing number of application enquiries.

Guy Herrington, head of Customer Marketing at Northern Rock said: "We're
committed to improving the customer journey in everything that we do and
we're delighted with this award.

"The team worked really hard to deliver a cutting edge mortgage website
which improved the journey for customers looking for a mortgage, and this is
fantastic recognition for their efforts."

About Northern Rock (companyinfo.northernrock.co.uk/)

Northern Rock plc is a new bank, authorised by the FSA as a deposit taker
and mortgage lender from 1 January 2010. It offers savings accounts to
customers in the UK and Ireland and mortgage products to UK borrowers. New
products are offered through both direct channels - including a national
branch network - and mortgage intermediaries.

Northern Rock continues to operate within the compensatory measures
agreed with the EC as part of the State Aid approval announced in October
2009.

Northern Rock plc - Registered in England and Wales (Company No.
6952311).

Registered Office: Northern Rock House, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE3 4PL. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

    Nigel Charlesworth
    Northern Rock House
    Gosforth
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE3 4PL
    +44(0)191-279-4676
    www.northernrock.co.uk

Nigel Charlesworth, Northern Rock House, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 4PL, +44(0)191-279-4676