Nationalisation of Northern Rock in financial services. The OFT concluded that "public support for Northern Rock did not, during that period, have a significantly adverse impact on competition." In February 2008, Ron Sandler was appointed Executive Chairman by the government. Bryan Sanderson, Sir Ian Gibson, David Jones and Paul Thompson resigned from the board at this time. Gary Hoffman became Chief Executive of Northern Rock in October 2008. He has previously been the vice chairman of Barclays and a former Managing Director of Barclaycard. With the appointment of Gary Hoffman, Ron Sandler changed to a Non-Executive Chairman position. On 4 November 2010 Hoffman left
Nationalisation of Northern Rock the year and that £9.4bn of a loan from the Bank of England had been paid back, reducing the amount owed to £17.5bn. On 12 October 2007, Virgin Group announced that it intended to bid for Northern Rock as the lead partner in a coalition including American giant AIG, turnaround specialist WL Ross and First Eastern Investment. Had the deal been successful, Northern Rock would have been integrated into Virgin Money as Virgin Bank. It is unclear what role partners would have had in the deal. This bid was later approved by the UK Treasury and had been noted as