Northern Rock and a hard place

BBC Radio 4's Money Box Saturday 17 November at 1204 GMT On Radio 4 and Online Read the transcript

Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth and four non-executive directors have resigned, nine weeks after the Bank of England bailed them out.

So far the troubled bank has borrowed more than £20bn and that is expected to rise to £30bn by the end of the year.

Savers have taken out £10.5bn, mortgage business has collapsed and the share price has plummeted.

Adam Applegarth is going to stay on until the bank is sold, as potential suitors have been submitting their initial proposals to rescue the beleaguered lender

Suggested options include an outright buyout, a breaking up of the bank's assets, or the government may even "nationalise" it to recoup taxpayers' cash.

But what is the current position for those with mortgages or savings with Northern Rock?

We talked to:

Robert Peston, the BBC's Business Editor

Doug Henderson, the MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne North

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol

Further information:

Northern Rock's chief steps down

Two suitors confirm Rock offers

Tories call for bank assurances

Darling on Northern Rock crisis

Bank 'gives Rock further bailout'

Buyer talk boosts Northern Rock

Northern Rock dividend cancelled

What if Northern Rock goes bust?

External links and helplines

---

First Solution

Ghulam Rumi was one of the directors of First Solution

The two thousand or so members of the Bangladeshi community in Britain who lost £1.7 million, between them, when the money transfer business First Solution collapsed, are now only likely
to get 25% of their money back.

The provisional liquidator has been trying to strike a deal
with the former directors and agents who wanted to buy the company since August, and the Companies Investigation Branch is still looking into the reason for the collapse.

We spoke to Paul Titherington, the official receiver who is trying to recover the customers' money and to Azmel Hussein, leader of a group which is trying to help the victims.

And to put First Solution's case, we spoke to Gulam Robbani Rumi, a former managing director of First Solution.

Further information:

Anger at First Solution payments

First Solution clients still wait

Money transfer collapse

Agents bid to buy First Solution

A hidden world of money transfers

Firm collapse costs man £70,000

External links and helplines

---

Credit card fraud

Money Box listener Tim Hewitt

Criminal gangs around the world have for some time touted customers' stolen credit card details on websites for other criminals to buy.

This week, Money Box listener Tim Hewitt came across one such site, offering card details plus names and addresses of hundreds of UK residents, to those wishing to commit card fraud.

Shocked, he wanted to alert the appropriate authorities, but that proved to be no easy task.

Bob Howard investigated.

Further information:

Have Your Say: credit card fraud

ID stolen despite victim's caution

MPs call for identity fraud tsar

ID theft fear over planning form

Watchdog issues ID theft warning

External links and helplines

---

Post Office

Up to £1,000 can be saved per year in the account

The Post Office is to launch a new savings club which will let customers save for Christmas 2008.

People will be able to deposit cash at any of the Post Office's 14,000 branches from January.

The scheme comes after a gap was identified in the savings club market, following the collapse of Farepak.

Gary Hockey - Morley Post Office director of marketing - talked to Moneybox.

Further information:

Post Office starts Christmas club

External links and helplines

---

Other News

Out of "goodwill" Littlewoods has decided against demanding a refund from internet shoppers, who it originally said had "abused" their scheme by gaining access to a £25-off voucher via online chat-rooms, rather than having been sent it.

---

BBC Radio 4's Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 17 November 2007 at 1204 GMT.

The programme was repeated on Sunday, 18 November 2007 at 2102 GMT.