Chancellor hopes decision will end debate on Northern Rock.

Financial Adviser, February, 2008

It was Goldman Sachs, the government's financial adviser on the future of Northern Rock, that concluded that a temporary nationalisation would be the best way of protecting taxpayers' interests.

Chancellor Alistair Darling subsequently outlined objectives aimed at protecting the taxpayer and said under public ownership, the government would "secure the entire proceeds from the future sale of the business in return for bearing the risks in this period of market uncertainty".

Mr Darling said that the two offers, which had been under consideration from the Virgin Consortium and the internal management board of Northern Rock, did not meet the test of taxpayers' interests.

Mr Darling said: "Both proposals involve a degree of risk for taxpayers...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.