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The Government’s shareholding in NatWest has fallen below 4% as the bank edges closer to being privately owned.
The group, which was once rescued by taxpayers, is expecting the stake to fall to zero in the coming months.
It recently saw investment group BlackRock take over from the Government as its biggest shareholder for the first time in more than 16 years.
NatWest received multibillion-pound bailouts funded by taxpayers during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, as part of a rescue package to stabilise the banking sector.
This left the Government with an 84% stake in what was then known as Royal Bank of Scotland.
At the end of 2023, the shareholding was at 40%, but the Treasury has since been whittling down that stake as it accelerated efforts to return it to private hands.
A planned retail share sale was ditched last year when the new Labour Government came into power.
This could have seen shares offered to the public at a discounted price.
Returning to private ownership means NatWest, like other big high street lenders, will be owned by retail and institutional investors – while it also has shares listed on the London Stock Exchange.
A NatWest spokesman said: “Returning the bank to full private ownership is an ambition we share with the Government, and one that we believe is in the interests of all our shareholders.”