Northern Rock, the stricken UK lender that set today as a deadline for bidders to tender takeover offers, has revealed seven of its 12 directors are stepping down from the bank's board with immediate effect and chief executive Adam Applegarth will leave at the start of next year.

The entire board of Northern Rock has been under pressure to quit since the bank appealed for emergency funding from the Bank of England on September 14, which led to a run on the bank as depositors withdrew £3bn (€4.2bn) in three days. Northern Rock is thought to have borrowed more than £20bn in total from the UK central bank in the last four months.