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.
Northern Rock to the credit crisis the company had focused on developing its own staff and most appointments including the Chief Executive, were made internally. At the time of the 2007 financial crisis Matt Ridley was the Chairman and Adam Applegarth was the Chief Executive. Ridley resigned in October 2007 and Applegarth resigned in November 2007, although the latter stayed on in a caretaker role until December 2007. The Chief Financial Officer was Andy Kuipers, who joined the company in 1987. After Applegarth's departure, Kuipers became the interim Chief Executive prior to the nationalisation before retiring on 31 August 2008. In February