UK: Angry savers force Northern Rock to be sold

Northern Rock, the crisis-hit bank under siege from thousands of its customers, was preparing itself last night for a sell-off, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

One plan being worked on by City bankers was to divide the company's £100 billion mortgage portfolio between the other major banks, in what would amount to a private-sector rescue of the lender.

In scenes not experienced for decades, police were needed to keep the peace at branches across the country as increasingly angry and desperate investors rushed to withdraw their funds.

However, despite many queuing from before dawn, scores were sent away empty-handed when cashiers ran out of time to serve them.

The Northern Rock crisis sparked a wider political row as David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, pinned the blame on Gordon Brown. Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a "huge expansion of public and private debt" during his decade as Chancellor.

Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative leader declared: "Though the current crisis may have had its trigger in the US, over the past decade the gun has been loaded at home."

Personal debt had trebled under Labour to £1.3 billion, Mr Cameron added, as he called on ministers to explain the "chain of events" that led up to the Bank of England's decision last week to prop up Northern Rock.

The bank siege became a virtual stampede, despite repeated assurances by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, that the lender remained solvent.

However, sources close to the company said that if customers continued to draw their deposits at the same alarming rate, Northern Rock would be forced to break up.

Government and Bank of England officials are understood to be preparing a public statement designed to reassure millions of customers across the banking sector that their savings were safe. Both are anxious to secure a "quick fix" of Northern Rock's woes before the crisis spreads.

One plan under discussion in Whitehall is a co-ordinated rescue of Northern Rock involving other banks and the Bank of England.

"If the run on deposits looks out of control, Northern Rock would effectively be nationalised and put into administration so it could be wound down," said an official.

A source close to Northern Rock said: "Things look really ugly. If the share price falls heavily on Monday, then a fast break-up and sale of the assets looks inevitable."

On Friday, following 10 days of discussions involving the Chancellor, Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, and Sir Callum McCarthy, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the Bank of England offered Northern Rock an emergency credit line.

The reputation of Mr King, the Bank of England's highly respected governor, has taken a battering over his handling of the crisis involving the country's fifth-largest mortgage lender.

"Mervyn was being too clever," said one of his officials. "If he had sounded a little less tough, banks might still be lending to each other."

A Whitehall source said: "The governor has handled this badly. He urgently needs to reassure savers."

Northern Rock's near collapse is the latest symptom of the squeeze in world financial markets, which began in the United States late last year when overstretched homeowners began to default on their mortgage payments.

The credit squeeze has made it difficult for Northern Rock to raise money to fund its business.

Although the Bank of England's deal ensures that Northern Rock has more than enough money to honour all of its commitments to savers and mortgage customers, its longer-term future remains in doubt.

"Queues outside our branches are not pretty viewing on TV," admitted Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock's chief executive. "Has our brand been damaged today? Well, of course it has."

He added: "It will be a long slog as an independent company to rebuild that. Our share price has come off 30 per cent. You have got to be more vulnerable [to a sale] if your share price has come down. It's up to the bidders to make a bid."

With frantic manoeuvring continuing in Whitehall and the City, police were called on to calm "boisterous" customers in numerous branches, including Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow and London.

At least £1 billion was withdrawn from the bank by worried savers on Friday - four per cent of the bank's deposits. Branch staff said they were even busier yesterday.

It is understood that attempts by the Bank of England to find a single buyer for Northern Rock have failed. Instead, it is more likely to be sold off piece-by-piece with possible buyers including HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland.

Merrill Lynch, the investment bank, is expected to oversee the auction, which could begin as early as next week.

Wow, thanks for the post. Really, I don't see the cause for alarm. It's seems likely to me that there's some motivation to drive people into a panic.

2 posted on 09/16/2007 1:09:53 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)

"Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a "huge expansion of public and private debt" during his decade as Chancellor.

Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative leader declared: 'Though the current crisis may have had its trigger in the US, over the past decade the gun has been loaded at home.'"

And offering higher interest rates for savings didn't help. How long can a nation administer so much business that actually happens elsewhere?

"the current crisis may have had its trigger in the US, over the past decade the gun has been loaded at home.' "

"The former building society used to account for 2% of the total mortgage market a decade ago, but its share now stands at about 9%.

In the first six months of this year, it was responsible for one in five new mortgages and offered generous loans - up to 125% of the value of the property - to first-time buyers."

yitbos

Wow, thanks for the post. Really, I don't see the cause for alarm. It's seems likely to me that there's some motivation to drive people into a panic.

Our share price has come off 30 per cent. You have got to be more vulnerable [to a sale] if your share price has come down. It's up to the bidders to make a bid."

I think the saying is, "No guts, no glory."

5 posted on 09/16/2007 4:30:39 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)

How long can a nation administer so much business that actually happens elsewhere?

That affects the US too - especially since the US$ as reserve currency has benefitted the US greatly in worldwide transactions they have no involvement in. The US is still bigger than Britain in direct business involvement, but it doesn't dominate the scene in reality the way it did several decades ago. The degradation of the US manufacturing sector especially has seen to that.

The manufacturing sector is bigger than ever. They are just not mking things than anybody and everybody can make.

A run on banks would reveal that 90% of the money we transfer electronically doesn't even exist in bills.

And it would reveal that 2/3rds of the $800 billion in cash this nation has is overseas.

That would get rather embarrassing if a Northern Rock situation occured here.

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