Yorkshire has its eyes on Northern Rock

Yorkshire Building Society, the country's second largest, today called for Northern Rock to be remutualised and threw its hat in to the ring as a potential bidder for the bailed-out bank.

"Re-mutualisation of Northern Rock provides a real opportunity to create a more vibrant and sustainable financial sector," Yorkshire's chief executive Iain Cornish said. "We believe that returning Northern Rock to mutuality would deliver long-term benefits.

"Clearly there are issues for the Government to tackle but we believe Yorkshire is well placed to work with the Government and regulators."

Coventry Building Society, the country's third largest, said recently that it too would be interested in Northern Rock.

Deutsche Bank has been appointed to look at options for returning Northern Rock to the private sector with an outright sale to an existing bank such as Virgin or Tesco still seen as most likely.