[1] From 1967 to 1970, he was an undergraduate, studying mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, which he attended on a support grant from Westminster Bank, graduating as Senior Wrangler in 1970.

The Northern Rock's crisis was due to inadequate risk provision, and a 'run on the Bank' was only halted with promises of unlimited UK government support.

[10] Sir Derek Wanless was a Freeman of the City of London, received a Knighthood in the 2005 New Year Honours[11] and a Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa from Durham University on 30 June 2005.

It is right that members of the Board of Northern Rock have been replaced, though haphazardly, since the company became dependent on liquidity support from the Bank of England.

The high-risk, reckless business strategy of Northern Rock, with its reliance on short- and medium-term wholesale funding and an absence of sufficient insurance and a failure to arrange standby facility or cover that risk, meant that it was unable to cope with the liquidity pressures placed upon it by the freezing of international capital markets in August 2007.

The non-executive members of the Board, and in particular the Chairman of the Board, the Chairman of the Risk Committee and the senior non-executive director, failed in the case of Northern Rock to ensure that it remained liquid as well as solvent, to provide against the risks that it was taking and to act as an effective restraining force on the strategy of the executive members.