Northern Rock brand 'may disappear'

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For a second consecutive day, savers queued at branches throughout the UK on Saturday to drain their accounts, despite assurances from the regulator that their money was safe.

Anxious bosses at Northern Rock must now wait to see if the run on the bank continues on Monday, when doors will open an hour early to accommodate the expected numbers.

They will also find out if shares in the bank, the UK's fifth largest mortgage lender, plummet further, making the company even more vulnerable to a takeover attempt.

In a report today, the Sunday Telegraph suggests that the bank is already preparing for a sell-off.

The newspaper says that one plan being discussed by City bankers is to break up the company's £100bn mortgage book and distribute it among other lenders.

It also quotes Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock's chief executive, as saying: "Our share price has come off 30%. You have got to be more vulnerable (to a sale) if your share price has come down. It's up to bidders to make a bid."

Experts have predicted that the name of Northern Rock could disappear from the High Street within a year, such is the impact of its current woes.

Brand damage and a slump in share price has made a takeover of the bank a real possibility in the coming months, it has been claimed.

Justin Urquhart Stewart, of Seven Investment Management, said: "I expect that in a year's time, Northern Rock will not exist. As a brand it is shot. The question will be who will own it. It is a great shame. A perfectly good business will be strangled by circumstances."