N.Rock says customers reinvesting, tide has turned

Embattled British bank Northern Rock said a majority of customer calls it had received on Tuesday were to reinvest money in accounts, and queues for cash withdrawal were considerably down from past days.

Britain's government late on Monday promised it would guarantee the savings of depositors at the bank -- an attempt to halt the worst run on a major UK bank in recent memory.

The crisis was sparked by news on Friday that the Bank of England was making emergency funding available to the Newcastle-based group.

Northern Rock, also Britain's number-five mortgage lender and the top seller of new mortgages in the first half of 2007, said confidence among customers was returning. The tide has turned ... the picture is quite obviously changing, a spokesman said.

Its call centers had received 3,472 calls by 5:30 a.m. EDT, less than 10 percent of the volume at the same time on Monday, and 80 percent of the calls were to reinvest money, it said. Customers were also cancelling previous orders to withdraw money, it said.

Long queues at branches seen on Friday, Saturday and Monday were not as evident on Tuesday, and the bank said there were lines at just four branches by mid-morning on Tuesday.

One customer said the bank was calling clients to ask them if they still wanted to withdraw their money after the government guarantee.

The bank said any customers who have had to pay a charge or transaction fee to withdraw money in recent days will have that charge refunded if they reinvest the money in a similar account by October 5.

Half as many customers were accessing Internet accounts compared with Monday, and most people were logging onto the accounts at the first attempt, it said, after widespread problems with its Web site in previous days.

Northern Rock's problems stem from its unusually high reliance on wholesale markets to fund its mortgage lending. The cost of borrowing in that market rose sharply in recent weeks and liquidity dried up, as banks, fearful of potential exposure to dodgy U.S. home loans, became reluctant to lend to each other.

Northern Rock itself has negligible exposure to U.S. subprime loans and it and the government have said it remains solvent.