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 was reported that Yorkshire Building Society were interested in Northern Rock. It has also been reported that Nationwide Building Society are not interested in the bank. On 31 March 2011 the Coventry Building Society expressed an interest in remutualising Northern Rock as a part of Coventry. During 2011 the government encouraged another round of bidding for the bank. By the first round deadline on 28 July Virgin Money and JC Flowers put forward their expressions of interest. In late October Virgin Money submitted their 2nd round bid for the bank. The following day NBNK rejoined the bidding process for the