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Northern Rock

As has been well documented, the FSA accepts that it should have taken action last year when it became aware that there were problems in relation to the bank. However, I remind the House that, as the Treasury Committee found, the primary responsibility for running Northern Rock lay with the directors. They got themselves into a position from which they could carry on trading only by securing access to billions of pounds of funds from the financial markets. When that became difficult and then impossible in September, they had no alternative but to go to the Bank of England. The primary responsibility for Northern Rock, as for any other bank, must therefore lie with its directors. On the hon. Gentleman's earlier points, Northern Rock has a good quality mortgage book, the funds that have been advanced by the Bank of England are secured against Northern Rock's assets, and as to the guarantees that I have given to depositors, and other guarantees, none of them has been called, so there has been no cost to the taxpayer.