The Bank of England has learnt lessons from the handling of the Northern Rock crisis implicitly acknowledging failings after weeks of blaming other players and legislative deficiencies for the run on the institution. Financial Times

Its bi-annual Financial Stability Report says: “The Bank will consider carefully the design of its lending facilities in times of stress to maximise the chances of these being effective”. The Bank also believes it may have to monitor individual banks’ finances more closely in future to prevent history repeating itself.

The Bank now acknowledges that officials fumbled the lender of last resort operation for Northern Rock which led to the first mass run on an English bank since 1866.