Northern Rock Nationalised

After 5 months, the government has finally taken action over Northern Rock. It will be nationalised after £51 billion has already committed to the ailing bank in loans & guarantees to savers.

Nationalisation become inevitable after the one potential bidder after another was rejected.

When the crisis arose, there were a number of alternatives

1 Let the bank go bust.

2 Let a high street bank like Lloyds TSB take over the bank, who were initially interested.

Probably the worst aspect of the crisis was the Chancellor being indecisive for so long & seemingly hoping the problem would go away, the delays have severely damaged the Northern Rock brand.

There is one glimmer of hope, the man put in charge Ron Sandler has a good record of previously running Lloyds & Nat West.