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 the Government, regulators and individuals whose nationalisation of the bank, they believed to have been inappropriate, and a contributory factor to the current crisis. On 15 January 2008, a meeting was held at the 11,000 seat Metro Radio Arena to discuss the situation which then existed, where all but one of the proposals put forward by the hedge funds were rejected. In May Legal & General joined the hedge funds, as an "interested party". The hedge funds are to request that an independent valuer assesses the level of compensation and to argue that the bank's shares are worth more than