4
Why does the external environment matter?
The times they are a-changin.’
Bob Dylan
Prophetic words. Times have changed. But some things have not.
Shocked faces – anxious and worried – were the most memorable images. The queues of people seemed to go on for ever. Up and down the country, there were queues outside every branch. It could have been 1929, but it was not. It was 17 September 2007 and the bank was Northern Rock, based in Newcastle, in the north of England.
This was no small backwater entity. It had a million savers, 800,000 mortgage holders (including my family), 180,000 shareholders and 6,000 staff (see Figure 4.1). By the middle of 2007, Northern Rock held 19 per cent of the UK mortgage market, up from 11 per cent in 2006. ...
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