The British government announced on Monday that it had ceded control of the NatWest bank, nationalized after the 2008 financial crisis and in which it still held more than half of the capital, by reducing its stake from 50.6% to 48.1%.
“For the first time since the financial crisis”, NatWest “is no longer majority-owned by the State, after the sale of a share of the capital of 1.2 billion pounds”, announced the Ministry of Finance in a statement, stating that the shares were purchased directly by the bank.
Once sprawling and symbol of the excesses of finance and still recently called RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), NatWest was saved from bankruptcy by the state during the 2008 financial crisis.
She has since undertaken a spectacular slimming cure and a refocusing on retail banking and with companies in the United Kingdom.
The Labor government of the time had spent 45 billion pounds to acquire 84.4% of the capital. Successive Conservative governments since 2010 have gradually withdrawn from the bank’s capital.
The sale announced on Monday is the fifth sale by the British State of a share in NatWest.
“This is an important step in the government’s plan to return to private ownership (banking) institutions” nationalized following the financial crisis, argued the Ministry of Finance in its statement.
The British state had completely withdrawn from Lloyds Bank in 2017, which it had also saved from bankruptcy by raising up to 40% of its capital in 2009.
After losses due to the pandemic, NatWest returned to profit in 2021, driven by the rebound in the economy which allowed it to write back provisions for unpaid debts, posting a net profit group share of 2.95 billion euros. pounds, down from a loss of 753 million pounds a year earlier.