Statement
The government is no longer a shareholder in NatWest Group (NatWest, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS), due to the disposal of the remainder of the government’s shares through the trading plan on 30 May 2025.
This concludes nearly 17 years of government being a shareholder in the bank and brings to an end the public ownership of banks resulting from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.
In total, the government raised £24.8bn in proceeds from sales of its shares in NatWest. Also accounting for dividends and other fees, the government received a total of £35bn in relation to its shareholding in NatWest. This is approximately £10.5bn lower than the amount of capital originally provided to stabilise the bank. However, the government believes that the cost of not acting to protect the economic and financial stability of the UK economy would have far exceeded £10.5bn.
Policy rationale
The government has been committed to returning NatWest to full private ownership, given that the original policy objective for the intervention in NatWest – to preserve financial and economic stability at a time of crisis – has long been achieved. The government only conducted sales of NatWest shares when it represented value for money for the taxpayer to do so.
Format and timing of the final sale
The government concluded that selling shares through the trading plan represented value for money. The trading plan, which launched in August 2021 and was most recently extended in April 2023, has now ended. In total, the trading plan generated over £13.2bn in proceeds from sales of NatWest shares.
Table 1: The net impacts of sales made via the trading plan on a selection of fiscal metrics are summarised as follows:
Metric | Impact |
Net sale proceeds | £13.2bn (total proceeds from sales of shares through the trading plan) |
Retention value range | Within the valuation range |
Public Sector Net Borrowing | Nil There may be future indirect impacts as a result of sales made via the trading plan. Sales proceeds reduced public sector debt. All else being equal, sales reduced future debt interest costs for government. PSNB will also be impacted by the loss of future dividends. |
Public Sector Net Debt | Reduced by £13.2bn |
Public Sector Net Financial Liabilities | Nil |
Public Sector Net Liabilities | Nil |
Detail on the government’s shareholding in NatWest
Over the course of 2008 and 2009, the government provided c. £45.5bn to recapitalise RBS. This was done, as part of a series of interventions made by government in the financial sector, to protect ordinary savers and businesses from the collapse of a bank which was vital to the functioning of the UK economy and financial system. Allowing RBS to fail would have caused significant disruption to individuals and businesses who relied on the bank to provide their accounts, loans and mortgages. In addition, it would have risked causing a loss of confidence in the UK’s financial system, potentially deepening the impacts of the financial crisis. As the Office for Budget Responsibility has stated, the costs of the financial crisis would almost certainly have been much greater in the absence of the interventions made to restore financial stability.
Since the global financial crisis, government has implemented reforms to strengthen the ability to manage bank failures safely, and to do so in a way that protects the wider economy and minimises the need for taxpayer support. In addition, the development of a more robust regulatory structure ensures the resilience and stability of both individual firms and the wider financial system.
The capital provided resulted in the government having an 84.4% shareholding in RBS. The government sold shares through a combination of three accelerated bookbuilds (large block sales to market based investors), five directed buybacks (sales of shares back to NatWest), and a trading plan (which sold smaller amounts of shares regularly into the market). Sales only took place when it represented value for money for taxpayers.
Table 2: Details of all sales of the government’s shareholding are summarised in the table below:
Date | Sale method | Size of transaction | Proceeds |
04/08/2015 | Accelerated bookbuild | 630m shares | £2.1bn |
04/06/2018 | Accelerated bookbuild | 925m shares | £2.5bn |
19/03/2021 | Directed buyback | 591m shares | £1.1bn |
11/05/2021 | Accelerated bookbuild | 580m shares | £1.1bn |
28/03/2022 | Directed buyback | 550m shares | £1.2bn |
22/05/2023 | Directed buyback | 469m shares | £1.3bn |
31/05/2024 | Directed buyback | 392m shares | £1.2bn |
11/11/2024 | Directed buyback | 263m shares | £1.2bn |
12/08/2021-30/05/2025 | Trading plan | 4,310m shares | £13.2bn |
Total | £24.8bn *Numbers may not sum due to rounding | ||
Table 3: Explainer of total amount received by government in relation to NatWest shareholding:
Type | Amount (£bn) | Comments |
Sale proceeds | 24.77 | Total combined proceeds from sales of the shareholding between 2015 and 2025. |
Dividends | 4.91 | Total combined dividends received since the bank recommenced dividend payments in 2018. |
Dividend Access Share | 1.51 | Combined value of payments made to retire the DAS, which provided enhanced dividend rights to HMT following the provision of capital support to RBS. The DAS was retired in 2016. |
Asset Protection Scheme fees | 2.50 | Fees paid by RBS in exchange for its participation in the APS, which protected against exceptional credit losses on certain portfolios of assets. RBS exited the APS in 2012. |
Contingent Capital Facility fees | 1.28 | Fees paid in return for the provision of an £8bn CCF to RBS by HMT in 2009. The CCF was terminated in 2013. |
Total | £34.98 *Numbers may not sum due to rounding |
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This statement has also been made in the House of Lords