Treasury 'slow' to nationalise Northern Rock

The Treasury was too slow in nationalising Northern Rock during the height of the financial crisis, one of its top civil servants has said.

The organisation's most senior civil servant - Sir Nicholas Macpherson - told MPs at a hearing yesterday the government should have been quicker to nationalise Northern Rock following its collapse, the BBC reports. Answering questions from the Public Accounts Committee, which is investigating claims taxpayers will end up losing £2bn from the collapse and rescue of the bank, Macpherson said there was a period of many months where the lender was left to "drift." Customers queued to pull out their money in September 2007 after its strategy of using money markets to borrow cash backfired ...