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 private sector by the end of the year. On 17 November 2011 the UK Government announced the sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money for £747m. On 26 June 2009 the bank confirmed that it was to be split into two parts, an "assetco" and a "bankco". The plan was also to include that the remaining amount of the government loan was to be repaid by the end of 2010. On 28 October the European Commission waived through plans to split the bank off and sell the "good" parts off. On 8 December the Northern Rock plc Transfer Order