Britain's Treasury has tapped the chairman of Bermuda insurance company Ironshore to to head Northern Rock if the troubled UK mortgage lender is nationalised, according to media reports on Saturday.

Ron Sandler, a former chief executive of London insurance market Lloyd's, replaced Robert Clement as Ironshore chairman last month and his reported recruitment fuels speculation that the UK government has given up on finding a private buyer for the stricken bank.

Northern Rock's 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," Mr. 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.... You should consider this as contingency planning."

Mr. Sandler joined the Ironshore board in October last year. He was CEO of Lloyd's from 1995 until 1999 and subsequently served as chief operating officer of NatWest Group. He is currently a director of Fortis, Computacenter plc and several private companies.

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 too has the size of the bank's debts — the Bank of England has reportedly extended £26 billion ($51 billion) in credit to Northern Rock since problems with sub-prime mortgages led to a drying up of its usual borrowing sources.

On Thursday, UK Treasury chief Alistair Darling acknowledged it might not be possible to find a private buyer for Northern Rock. The Treasury refused to address the media reports on Saturday, saying only that all options were on the table.

Northern Rock shares closed at 87 pence ($1.70) on the London Stock Exchange on Friday. A year ago, Northern Rock shares were trading above 1,100 pence.