Good old fashioned run on the bank.

For those unfamiliar with bank runs, they’re when people fear that a bank is insolvent and start to withdraw their deposits. Generally images of bank runs are associated with long lines outside bank branches.

“The jitters plaguing financial markets spread to the high street for the first time yesterday as thousands of panicking savers queued to withdraw millions of pounds from Northern Rock, Britain’s eighth-biggest bank.” – full story at Times Online