Rock chairman asks shareholders for support

Troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock has asked its shareholders to stave off plans for nationalisation and put it "on the road to recovery".

A full-scale review of the business, its finances and its future has been announced by the lender`s chairman Bryan Sanderson to its 600 shareholders at a meeting in Newcastle.

Northern Rock`s shareholders have said that they want a greater say in the future of the bank, amid reports that contingency plans to re-nationalise it are being prepared if a buyer is not found.

Mr Sanderson said: "We cannot reverse history but with your support, we can set the company on the road to recovery. I assure you we are doing all that we reasonably can to look after the interests of shareholders and we have you at the top of our minds."

Northern Rock is the most high-profile casualty of the global credit crisis. When it received liquidity help from the Bank of England last September, worried consumers withdrew £3 billion.