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 opened following the news, many customers queued outside branches to withdraw their savings (a run on the bank). This bank run was not the traditional form, where depositors withdraw money in a snowball effect, leading to a liquidity crisis; instead, it occurred in the aftermath of the liquidity crisis. It was estimated that £1 billion was withdrawn by customers that day, about 5% of the total bank deposits held by Northern Rock. In one incident, police were called to the branch in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, when two joint account holders barricaded the bank manager in her office after she refused to