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 preferred option. Virgin announced that Peter McNamara, a former Alliance & Leicester managing director, would be responsible for risk management at Northern Rock if its bid succeeds. The other front-runner was an investment company Olivant, headed by the former chief executive of Abbey, Luqman Arnold. Olivant would have kept the Northern Rock brand. By 17 November, a total of ten companies had put forward proposals for the bank. Among the other suitors for Northern Rock were private equity firm Cerberus, JC Flowers and Lloyds TSB. In early December JC Flowers dropped out of the bidding. In March 2009, it