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 worry about the bank going bust. The Treasury select committee chairman John McFall MP said: "I don't think customers of Northern Rock should be worried about their current accounts or mortgages." Northern Rock was not the only British bank to have called on the Bank of England for funds since the sub-prime crisis began but is the only one to have had emergency financial support from the Tripartite Authority (The Bank of England, the FSA and HM Treasury). However, the bank was more vulnerable to a credit crunch as its 'high risk' business model depended on funding from the wholesale