Northern Rock ... where now ?

The "grilling" of the Directors of Northern Wreck by the Tresury Select Committee was as inept as the Directors who turned up - notably absent was the man in charge of finances !

The questions to be asked are straightforward and simple.

1. Account for the first 6 months to June 30th were prepared / YES
2. The Accounts were published and the Directors published them on July 29th with a recommendation for a dividen increased byu 30% , the maximum allowable under the new Basel 2 rules the company had adopted / YES
3. 12 days later on August the 9th the Banks was unable to obtain funds to continue in businessa dfn approached the BOE as lender of the last resport. / YES
4. The copmany now has loans of 13 BN.Pounds Sterling (ish) without which it could not continue in business / YES

Questions to ask ... what has all this got to do with blaming the BOE , FSA, world conditions, the weather, a grumbling tummy ?

Not only were the Directors reckless in their borrowing policy , when given the opportunity to reduce the bank's liquidity by issueing an interim dividend it, did so, and increased it to the maximum level possible.... a decision which they had to reverse.

Now we have news that no @rescue@ packages are available and besides loans of unimagineable size, gurantees of loans from private lenders by the state of any size, the delightful, glamorous, generous Kitty Ussher has announced that savers who had withdrawn cash from tax-free Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) held at Northern Rock PLC can reinvest in other ISAs without any tax penalties.

What more somersaults does the Government have to perform and distort the market for other deposit taking institutions to get this pig off it's hands ?