Business Play Action Map

Rumors and speculation first began to circulate in May 2007 that Northern Rock, a well-known British bank, had over-extended itself in the mortgage markets, leaving its liquid assets dangerously depleted, which had the potential to threaten the solvency of the bank.

The affair immediately became a British sensation, with thousands of people queuing up to extract their savings. The British government eventually found itself sucked into the affair not as a political player in the traditional-sense, but rather, as a business-entity, capable of nationalizing the bank as a means of last resort.

Although the affair is still on-going, once the bank was nationalized, the British government no longer became a market-player, therefore, ending this playaction map.

Note: For the sake of space, abbreviations have been used in this map. They are as follows: