Investment group Olivant has written to Northern Rock threatening to pull out of the auction process if it is not granted full access to financing banks and wants a decision on the UK lender's future by Christmas, a source close to the matter said tonight.
The source said Olivant's interest in the process "would be at an end" if it does not get clarity on the issues raised in the coming days.
"The ball is in the court of Northern Rock," the source said. Olivant declined to comment, and Northern Rock had no immediate comment.
Northern Rock advisers are auctioning the bank after it was engulfed in a funding crisis in September and has since been forced to borrow £25 billion from the Bank of England.