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 were the three companies short listed by the government to value the bank. On 9 September "The Times" reported that Andrew Caldwell, a valuations partner at BDO Stoy Hayward had been chosen as the valuer, with a fee of £4.5 million. The legal action brought by investors against the Government started in the Royal Courts of Justice on 13 January 2009. Shareholders were also staging a demonstration outside the court. One of the points that was revealed about the case is that they were examining who 'leaked' the information about the bank receiving its emergency government bailout. In order to