No pay-off for Northern Rock boss

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Northern Rock chairman Matt Ridley will not receive a pay-off following his resignation, the BBC has learned.

There had been much speculation about the bank paying a golden handshake to Mr Ridley.

The chairman, who resigned on Friday, had been in the Â£315,000 a year job for the past three years.

News that Northern Rock needed emergency Bank of England funding last month sparked the first run on a UK bank for almost 150 years.

Mr Ridley had offered to resign in September but was asked to remain in his post to testify before a parliamentary committee last week.

On Tuesday, the Treasury Select Committee accused him of "damaging the good name of British banking".

Mr Ridley defended the way the bank had been run, saying it had been hit by "wholly unexpected" events.

"We were subject to a completely unprecedented and unpredictable closure of the world credit markets," he said.

Northern Rock said that Bryan Sanderson would take over as chairman of the bank as soon as he has been approved by the Financial Services Authority.

Mr Sanderson is a former Chairman of BUPA and of Standard Chartered.