Egg scrambles to safety

NEWS Egg, the online bank owned by the Prudential, took another step in the right direction this morning when it announced lower than expected losses. The bank remains confident it can break even by the end of the year. Pre-tax losses for the first six months of the year were £63.4m, down from £80.7m for the same period in 2000. Analysts were expecting losses as high as £70m. There were other promising indicators for Egg. It signed up 370,000 new internet customers during the first half of the year, a 19 per cent increase on the previous. It now boasts 1.7 million customers for its financial services.