Returning Taxpayers’ Investment: Britain considers RBS share give-away

LONDON: Britain’s finance ministry insisted Saturday it would dispose of its majority stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) ‘at the appropriate moment’ amid reports ministers were considering a share giveaway.

RBS could be ready to return to the private sector later this year, but at present prices that would represent a huge loss to British taxpayers.

They own 81% of the Edinburgh-based bank after it was bailed out to the tune of $70.5 billion at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

At current share prices, the taxpayers’ stake is worth £31 billion.

A senior government source was quoted by The Independent newspaper as saying of giving away shares: “Obviously a give-away to taxpayers before the election, who, after all, paid for it in the first place, is very attractive.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2013.

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