THE Northern Rock fightback began in earnest yesterday, as bosses declared themselves “delighted” with the public response to their battle for survival. Yesterday the queues diminished, the share price rose and new accounts were opened, as The Journal and the North-East’s business and community leaders stood firm to offer the bank their full support. After a three-day run which saw more than £2bn withdrawn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s promise to compensate any losses if the bank collapsed appeared to have calmed customers. And a host of big names led the droves of savers who followed The Journal’s lead and opened accounts with Northern Rock yesterday. The customers who had previously queued for hours to withdraw their savings were yesterday nowhere to be seen, with staff at just four branches out of 76 in the UK reporting queues as they opened. And only four people were waiting outside the Newcastle city centre branch when it opened its doors at 8am. The Journal newsroom was yesterday inundated with requests from businesses and community groups requesting details of our campaign to email to their networks of contacts. Northern Rock’s shares rose 8% yesterday, up 23.25p to 306p, and chief executive Adam Applegarth last night told of an incredible day at the office. He said: “We are delighted to say we have turned the tide. Customers are returning, queues have disappeared, and phone calls have dramatically reduced. “Now, eight out of 10 calls we receive are from people wanting to invest in the bank. We are absolutely delighted with the response.” The bank’s call centres had just 9% of the calls they had on Monday. At 10.30am they had received just 3,472 calls compared with 36,894 by the same time the previous day. Northern Rock said that of those calls more than 2,500 were to reinvest money. And bosses said anyone who has taken money out will have their transfer charges refunded if they reinvest it with them. A spokesman for the bank said: “Any customers who, under the terms and conditions of the account, had to pay a charge or transfer fee to withdraw money due to concerns about the current situation will have that charge refunded if they reinvest the funds into the same type of account with Northern Rock by October 5.” One customer at the bank’s Northumberland Street branch yesterday was Pam Pridie, 60, a probation officer, from Jesmond, Newcastle, who was withdrawing her normal weekly amount. She said: “I understand why people panic and it has a knock-on effect when you see other people panicking. But people can stop panicking now – if you can trust the Government, but I think it’s unlikely they would say that if they couldn’t carry it through.” --------------------------------------------------------- After 15-hour days, staff seek assurances EMPLOYEES of Northern Rock are backing their bosses, but need assurances about the organisation’s long-term plans, says a union officer. Russell Greig, Unite union representative at the Gosforth headquarters, said business was carrying on as normal, with staff putting in extra hours. He said: “The staff seem a little bit more optimistic today since the announcement from the Chancellor. There’s not as much staff movement or activity as there was before. “They have reduced queues from some of the branches, so we are getting a bit more optimistic about how things are improving. “But we’re just waiting to find out what the company’s proposals are.” Mr Greig, who himself saves with the bank, said staff still had confidence in the company, but needed some reassurance about plans. “A lot of staff are perhaps becoming more anxious about their jobs in the long term. “The company has assured us there will be no compulsory redundancies. The staff have worked really hard over the past few days, branches have been opening an extra two hours a day and people working in head office have been working from 7am to 10pm just to try to reassure the customers.” The chief executive and his deputy had been thanking staff for all their hard work and trying to reassure them about the business. Mr Greig said more staff wanted to join the union. “We have quite a good membership at Northern Rock, but we have had inquiries about joining because people do get anxious about their jobs.” | 
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