Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury banks", pinpointing the banks' sense of grievance on their finding it "very, very difficult to face up to the failure of their banking model". With King's term as governor ending in 2013, top UK banks have warned that unless a less "hostile" figure is found as a successor, they may feel it necessary to move abroad. On 26 November 2012, Mark Carney was named as King's successor. King had faced accusations of refusing funding to the Northern Rock Bank, precipitating a run on that bank, a situation not seen in the UK since 1914. King later said that it had
Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury York Times/Financial Times, 20 September 2007) that his actions were on the basis that the Bank of England was the "lender of last resort" but subsequently supported moves to provide funding to those banks which had been nationalised or partly nationalised. It has been alleged that King's Mansion House speech for 2009 helped to bolster the Conservatives during the approach to the general election by issuing high-profile criticisms. King called for the break-up of the country's biggest banks, as well as arguing that, unless the bank was given more active, interventionist powers to ensure financial stability, it would be like