What a difference a year makes – and, even in the current climate, the difference is sometimes positive. Last February, Northern Rock, its reputation and stature severely battered by its financial difficulties, was nationalised to give it some clarity and direction after attempts to sell it off had failed.

The Rock, one of north-east England’s biggest indigenous businesses and its largest financial institution, had seen its debt to the government balloon to £26.9bn ($39bn) at the end of 2007 as it struggled to survive, while its savings deposits, decimated by the run on the bank by anxious customers, shrank by almost £14bn in six months to £10.5bn.