The board of Northern Rock is this week set to come under pressure from agitated shareholders pushing them to sell the bank as quickly as possible. But the prospect that the embattled mortgage lender could simply be left to wither as an independent entity is increasing as a full-blown takeover fails to emerge.

The bank and Merrill Lynch, which has been conducting the sale process, have been working hard to drum up buyers and late on Friday Northern Rock's shares were lifted to 194.3p on rumours they had succeeded.