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 when it emerged that there had been a surge in the number of new accounts which had been opened. People appeared to see Northern Rock as a safe place to put their money, given the current status as a nationalised bank which cannot fail. The bank decided to remove some of their savings products from the market, as the bank has a commitment to take only a 1.5% share of total UK retail deposits. In January 2009 the media began to speculate about the Government having plans to use Northern Rock as a way of boosting lending. On 19 January,