NORTHERN Rock's former FD has laid into his old employer at the company EGM.

Bob Bennett left the bank in January 2007, after 13 years of leading operations in the finance function, but panned the bank's current lending practices.

'The credit crunch that was obviously coming should have led to more restrained [mortgage] volumes,' Bennett told The Daily Telegraph.

'I thought the housing market was slowing down. I thought the appetite for securitisations would be lower, therefore lending should be more restrained.'

Bennett also believed that nationalisation would be the right option for the bank going forward.

'The government should nationalise it,' he said. 'Unless something happens they will destroy what Northern Rock was.'

Further reading:

Why the Treasury is no mere finance officer