October 20, 2007 (LPAC)--Northern Rock chairman Matt Ridley resigned three days after members of the British parliament accused him of "clinging to office," and the same day that it was revealed that there is virtually no end in sight for the amount that the failed bank has to borrow, as LPAC reported yesterday. The board of the failed mortgage bank released a statement saying "the time was right" for Mr Ridley to step down.

He will be succeeded by Bryan Sanderson, a former chairman of Standard Chartered Bank and BUPA. He was also a main board director of British Petroleum. Ridley had already volunteered to resign last month, but that the board had asked him to stay in place "until the new funding arrangements were in place" and until he had represented Northern Rock before MPs at the Treasury select committee hearing earlier this week.

Northern Rock has borrowed no less than £16bn in emergency funding from the Bank of England.