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 the company's IPO following the purchase of Northern Rock. Nationalisation of Northern Rock In 2008 the Northern Rock bank was nationalised by the British Labour Government, due to financial problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. In 2010 the bank was split into two parts (assets and banking) to aid the eventual sale of the bank back to the private sector. On 14 September 2007, the Bank sought and received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England, as a result of its exposure in the credit markets, during the 2008 financial crisis. On 22 February 2008 the bank