Northern Rock was the British bank that collapsed in 2008 after becoming the first UK bank to receive emergency support since 1973.
Northern Rock experienced a bank run in September 2007 after it could no longer obtain sufficient wholesale funding during the global credit crisis. It was the first British bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run, and thousands of customers queued outside branches to withdraw deposits.
The government nationalized Northern Rock in February 2008. Its assets and operations were later divided, and the bank was eventually sold to Virgin Money in 2011. The original Northern Rock brand disappeared from high-street banking.
Northern Rock did not begin as a traditional nationwide commercial bank: it had converted from a building society in 1997. Its heavy reliance on wholesale funding made it especially vulnerable when credit markets froze, even though it was not initially famous for the same investment-banking activities as Lehman Brothers.