Nationalisation of Northern Rock in the event that the takeover bids fail. On 12 January 2008, the Treasury recruited Ron Sandler, the former Lloyd's of London Chief Executive, to lead Northern Rock, in the event that the bank was nationalised. If the Bank was to be temporarily nationalised, the government would manage the Bank at "arm's length" on a commercial basis, where services for savers and borrowers would not be affected and the company would continue to operate as normal. However nationalisation would also address the future of the Northern Rock Foundation. Alistair Darling rejected the possibility of the Bank being put into administration.
Nationalisation of Northern Rock on 18 February, trading in Northern Rock's ordinary and preference shares on the London Stock Exchange was suspended. The legal authorisation for the nationalisation is the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008, which also allows for the nationalisation of other banks if necessary. At 00:01 on 22 February Northern Rock was formally nationalised. In November 2008 the government set up a new company, UK Financial Investments Limited, to manage their shareholdings in Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. On 10 March 2009 the Office of Fair Trading published their report on the impacts of public support for Northern Rock on competition