The Treasury has sold its final shares in NatWest, exiting the bank almost 17 years after it was bailed out, at a loss of £10.5bn to the taxpayer.
The announcement that the Treasury had sold its final stake, of less than 1%, in the bank came on Friday evening.
Over 2008 and 2009, the government provided £45.5bn to stabilise NatWest (then called Royal Bank of Scotland), which at the time was one of the largest banks in the world with over 40 million customers and operations in more than 50 countries.
At its height, taxpayers own 84.4% of the lender, which has since seen its operations greatly pared back.
The Treasury said: “To date, £35bn has been returned to the Exchequer through share sales, dividends and fees.
“While this is around £10.5bn less than the original support, the alternative would have been a collapse with far greater economic costs and social consequences.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: “Nearly two decades ago, the then government stepped in to protect millions of savers and businesses from the consequences of the collapse of RBS.
“That was the right decision then to secure the economy and NatWest’s return to private ownership turns the page on a significant chapter in this country’s history.
“We protected the economy in a time of crisis nearly seventeen years ago, now we are focused on securing Britain’s future in a new era of global change.”
