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 bank, leaving only NBNK and Virgin as contenders. This came as the restriction on NBNK from Hoffman's appointment expired; at this time NBNK were also preparing a bid for 632 branches of Lloyds. On 17 November 2011 it was announced that Virgin Money Holdings (UK) Limited were going to buy Northern Rock from UKFI for £747 million up front and other potential payments of up to £280 million over the next few years. These additional payments which would take the value of the sale to over £1 billion could include a £150 million capital instrument and an additional cash consideration