Big Shitpile, UK Edition

Bloomberg:

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in his clearest indication yet that Northern Rock Plc may be nationalized, said the U.K. is considering acquiring the mortgage-lender and reselling it when market conditions recover.

``Because stability is the issue, we will look at every option and that includes taking the company into public ownership and then moving it later back into the private sector,'' Brown said in an interview with ITN's News at Ten program last night. ``So that is, yes, one of the options that has got to be considered.''

The U.K. Treasury said it may nationalize the bank in order to recover more than 25 billion pounds ($49 billion) in loans it made to Northern Rock and to protect depositors.

Northern Rock was bailed out by the Bank of England in September, when the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market drove up market credit costs, triggering the first run on a bank by depositors in the U.K. for more than a century.