Rock director 'repeated NatWest mistakes'

NORTHERN Rock non-executive director Sir Derek Wanless has been accused of repeating the mistakes that caused NatWest to be taken over by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

He was appearing with the bank's chairman Matt Ridley and its chief executive Adam Applegarth before the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee about the crisis which had hit the mortgage lender.

The all-party group's chairman, John McFall MP, targeted Sir Derek, also an adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, over his time as a chief executive of NatWest.

He said that when Sir Derek was there, the bank had made unwise attempts to expand in the US and Canada, which had led to a successful takeover bid by RBS.

NatWest has been criticised for losing £90 million in unwise trading which was not picked up for a couple of years.

Mr McFall asked: "Have you repeated the errors you made at NatWest while being a non-executive director in charge of the Risk Committee of Northern Rock?"

Mr Ridley and Mr Applegarth said that the global freeze was "unpredictable".

And Mr Ridley said that he had already offered his resignation and was ready to quit if asked.