North reaction: Unionists called for strident measures to be taken against Sinn Féin following the publication of the IMC's report into the Northern Bank robbery.
Sinn Féin rejected the IMC report and said it had no credibility.
The DUP called for senior Sinn Féin members to be arrested, while the Ulster Unionists called on the British government to say it would exclude Sinn Féin if the Assembly was not suspended. The SDLP said "silly sanctions" do not work and they allow Sinn Féin to pretend to be victims.
Mr Mark Durkan said: "They only let Sinn Féin pretend to be the victims, when in fact the real victims of these robberies were the families held hostage, and the people of Ireland whose Good Friday Agreement is being wrecked by paramilitary activity." He called on both governments to proceed with implementation of as much of the agreement as possible to show republicans and the DUP they do not have a veto on progress.
Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble said: "I welcome this report. The IMC are right to recommend exclusion. I call on the [ British] government to publicly state that if the Assembly was sitting, and if the Assembly failed to pass a motion of exclusion, they would if necessary use the new statutory powers that they have - that the UUP brought into existence - to exclude Sinn Féin. In this context I call for the Assembly to be resumed right away."
For the DUP, Mr Peter Robinson, called for the arrests of unnamed senior Sinn Féin members who, the IMC reported, knew of the plan to rob the bank.
"The senior Sinn Féin members who are also senior members of the Provisional IRA and were, according to the IMC, involved in the Northern Bank raid and three other serious robberies, must now be arrested by the PSNI and questioned.
"In no other society would those who are believed to have knowledge of a bank robbery be left untouched because of their political positions."
He said the action proposed by the IMC was "ineffective and disproportionate".
"Financial sanctions are no hardship at all," he said. "Docking salaries or expenses is a drop in the ocean to an organisation which has just pocketed £26.5 million from the Northern Bank."
Mr Mark Durkan said: "Nobody can be above the law. Not loyalists. Not the State. Not the IRA. Everybody has to live by the same laws that decent working people do. It is sickening for people who work hard for a living to see paramilitaries stealing millions for themselves.
"The SDLP believes the best way forward is not through silly sanctions. It is by showing Sinn Féin - and the DUP - that they don't have a veto on change. We need a process of equals instead."
Accusing the IRA of "messing about with the agreement", he said this should not mean that all parties should be hit by suspension of the Stormont institutions.
"Just because we cannot get an inclusive executive established now, it does not mean that we should be left with deep suspension and direct rule. Our strong message to the two governments is clear: they have to press ahead with as much of the agreement as they possibly can." The Alliance party backed the imposition of sanctions but concurred with the SDLP about pressing ahead with the Belfast Agreement.
Mr David Ford, the Alliance leader, said: "The IMC has sent out a clear message that the full range of sanctions against Sinn Féin is now appropriate, given the recent actions of the IRA not only with respect to the Northern Bank raid, but a catalogue of ongoing paramilitarism and criminality.
"The governments are rightly demanding that republicans end all paramilitary and criminal activity. But they are wrongly putting all of the process on hold until republicans can accept the same common value of democracy, human rights and the rule of law as everyone else."
Sinn Féin angrily rejected the report. Mr Gerry Kelly said: "The IMC is not independent; it was set up as a sop to unionists. The report contains no evidence and it has even less credibility. The IMC slavishly regurgitates unsubstantiated allegations from within the British security system and it recommends sanctions against Sinn Féin on this basis."