NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) is sounding out advisors over a possible bid for nationalised Northern Rock, it was reported yesterday.

The company – which owns Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks in the UK – has held a “beauty parade” of potential investment banking advisors to assist it in an auction of the Newcastle-based lender.

NAB has hosted presentations from the likes of Lazard, Citigroup, CSFB and Morgan Stanley, according to a Sunday newspaper.

The Australian bank is looking to become a major player as Northern Rock is returned to the private sector and Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are forced to sell off hundreds of branches in a shake-up of the UK banking industry.

At the beginning of the year, Northern Rock was split into a “good bank” with about £19bn in savings and £10bn of mortgages, and a “bad bank”

– Northern Rock Asset Management – which has been left with the majority of the lender’s loan book.

NAB, which was unavailable for comment, is one of Australia’s largest banks with 8.3 million customers in ten countries.