Northern Rock solvent but customers not confident

The financial watchdog in Britain maintains that Northern Rock bank is solvent and will continue with business as usual.

It comes with more panic among savers, and speculation Britain's fifth biggest mortgage lender will be taken over.

The bank has around 25,000 customers in Ireland.

Customers here waited in line for up to two hours yesterday at Northern Rock's Dublin office to take their money out, while in Britain police had to control some of the crowds trying to withdraw money.