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 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