Nationalisation of Northern Rock In October 2008 the chairman Ron Sandler noted that there had been informal talks concerning the idea of the merger with the government, but there had been no subsequent discussion. Sandler did however add "It would not surprise me at some point if a closer look was taken at the method of managing loan books within government-owned banks". In March 2009 Alistair Darling said that he was keeping his options open during the "fast-moving" crisis in the banking industry, and thus not ruling out the possibility of a mortgage book merger between Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. On 24
Nationalisation of Northern Rock chief executive David Baker £504,000 for misreporting mortgage arrears data and former credit director Richard Barclay was fined £140,000 for failing to ensure accurate financial information. In April finance director David Jones quit the bank after reports that the FSA were to further investigate the activities at the bank prior to the nationalisation. In July Jones was fined and banned by the FSA. It has subsequently become known that the best book of Northern Rock's mortgage business, comprising mortgages worth £47 billion – some 40% of the company's assets – had been transferred to a Channel Islands based company called