GIVEN his impressive achievements during his short spell at the helm of the newly-nationalised Northern Rock, it’s no surprise that Gary Hoffman seems poised to re-emerge on the scene as a major force in British banking.

The former Rock chief executive has been quietly going about things at NBNK since his abrupt departure from Gosforth almost a year ago.

In fact, his banking activities have been somewhat overshadowed by his high-profile and occasionally acrimonious bid to buy his beloved Coventry City Football Club, where he had previously been deputy chairman.

Now that is all set to change with NBNK’s announcement yesterday that its shares have been suspended as it holds talks to buy the UK assets of National Australia Bank – namely the Clydesdale and Yorkshire.

If Hoffman can successfully ally this deal with a purchase of the 632 branches that Lloyds is being forced to offload, then he will be well on his way to achieving NBNK’s stated objective of changing the face of British banking.

With both Hoffman and former Lloyds chairman Lord Levene on board, NBNK certainly has the characters and expertise to realise this ambition.

Bringing together the two sets of branches would certainly give NBNK a good geographical spread. But in terms of increasing competition in the high street, the new operator would only, in effect, replace the Clydesdale and Yorkshire businesses in those areas – such as the North East and Scotland – where they are predominantly based. So the impact in these areas will be pretty limited.

But as far as Hoffman is concerned, this would represent a major breakthrough and underline why he was willing to jump ship from the Rock, where one always sensed his ambitions were limited by the stranglehold of nationalisation and the political interference which inevitably accompanied that.

After a spell of firefighting and cost-cutting at the Rock, you sense the new challenge is one Hoffman will relish getting his teeth stuck into.

:: Andrew Hebden is head of business at The Journal