Northern Rock has given its savers another week to reopen their accounts and escape a fine, amid shareholder concerns that large sums from its Bank of England borrowings are being used to pay off fleeing depositors.

Northern Rock said last month that customers who had withdrawn their savings during the run on the bank in mid-September would have their penalty payments refunded, but only if they returned funds to the same account by yesterday.

But in a move designed to lure back depositors, it said yesterday: “While the deadline is today, we will look sympathetically at late returns over the next week on a case-by-case basis.”

The Rock refused to disclose how many of its previous 1.4 million customers had been retained. Nor would it disclose the present value of its retail deposits, which touched £24 billion before its financial crisis began.

Before it was forced to turn to the Bank of England for emergency funding, the expanding Rock also had 800,000 mortgage customers.

Adam Applegarth, the chief executive, has halted the bank’s aggressive expansion, stopped recruitment and unveiled plans to cut the 6,300 staff.

The extended deadline for savers came as shareholders called on the Rock to be more transparent about the business.

One said he had presumed that much of the £2.9 billion Bank of England loans extended to the Newcastle bank in the past week had been used to pay depositors withdrawing funds.

“The truth is we don’t know what the situation is; we don’t know what the Bank funds are being spent on; we don’t know how many customers the bank has and we don’t know its depositor assets,” he said.

“This is a sensitive time. If they published these things, at least it would bring some certainty.”

Shareholders pointed out that potential bidders for the Rock, including the private equity firms JC Flowers and Cerberus, would probably have access to its financial information.

Northern Rock is understood to have borrowed as much as £10.7 billion from the Bank of England in the past three weeks. It has not confirmed the size of its drawings.

Fitch, the ratings agency, said yesterday that the bank’s asset quality “remains good” and there was no reason why interest payments should not be made on some of its debt instruments.

Fitch also said there was no need to write down any of the bank’s underlying assets in a potential restructuring.

Rock shares closed 3.2p lower at 158.5p.

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