BRITAIN'S Treasury has tapped former Lloyd's insurance boss Ron Sandler to head Northern Rock Plc if the troubled mortgage lender is nationalized, according to media reports.

Sandler's reported recruitment fuels speculation that the government has given up on finding a private buyer for the stricken bank, whose share value collapsed in September after it revealed it had sought emergency funding from the Bank of England.

"In the event that the bank is taken into public ownership, then I would go in on day one as executive chairman," Sandler said in comments carried on The Daily Telegraph's Website. "But I should stress that this is only in the event that the company is taken into public ownership."

The announcement that Northern Rock had sought emergency funding sparked the country's first bank run in a century and cut the value of its shares by more than 90 percent.

The government has sought to rescue the bank while keeping it in private hands, but a turbulent money market has turned off many potential bidders. So has the size of the bank's debts.

The Bank of England has reportedly extended 26 billion pounds (US$51 billion) in credit to Northern Rock since problems with subprime mortgages led to a drying up of its usual borrowing sources.

Last Thursday, Treasury chief Alistair Darling acknowledged it might not be possible to find a private buyer for Northern Rock.