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 on 18 February, trading in Northern Rock's ordinary and preference shares on the London Stock Exchange was suspended. The legal authorisation for the nationalisation is the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008, which also allows for the nationalisation of other banks if necessary. At 00:01 on 22 February Northern Rock was formally nationalised. In November 2008 the government set up a new company, UK Financial Investments Limited, to manage their shareholdings in Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. On 10 March 2009 the Office of Fair Trading published their report on the impacts of public support for Northern Rock on competition