Government sells final shares in NatWest 17 years after £45bn bailout
The UK has sold its final shares in NatWest Group, ending 17 years of state ownership since the £45bn taxpayer bailout that saved the bank from collapse at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.The full privatisation of NatWest is a symbolic moment for the banking group – formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – and draws a line under the most tumultuous chapter in its near 300-year history.However, it comes at a £10bn loss to the taxpayer, with the state having only recouped about £35bn of its costs, because its shares have long languished below the average 502p level paid in the bailout.That compares with the £900m profit recouped from the sale of shares in Lloyds Banking Group, which was privatised in 2017, nine years after receiving £20.3bn in state aid for rescuing HBOS during the banking crash.
The Treasury said that while it did not recover the entirely of the RBS bailout bill, “the alternative would have been a collapse with far greater economic costs and social consequences”, that could shater confidence in the UK’s financial system and put savings and livelihoods at risk,Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said: “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 17 years ago, now we are focused on securing Britain’s future in a new era of global change,”The government has now exited all of the banks it helped bail out during the financial crisis, the Treasury said.
RBS became a symbol of the UK banking sector’s implosion during the 2008 global financial crisis, with public ire focusing on its aggressive expansion under the former chief executive Fred “The Shred” Goodwin,Goodwin was stripped of his knighthood in 2012, but is now estimated to be receiving a pension worth nearly £600,000 per year,In 2007 RBS led a consortium to buy the Dutch bank ABN Amro for £49bn – a huge sum at the top of the market,It was then the largest deal in financial services history, and for a short period made RBS the world’s biggest bank,With £2.
2tn in assets, it was more than double the size of the UK economy.Executives’ excessive spending, which extended to private jets and a lavish £350m campus outside Edinburgh, also stretched the bank’s finances just as the sector was facing a credit crunch.RBS was eventually forced to take a state bailout in October 2008, with the taxpayer eventually injecting £45bn into the lender, without which millions of customers’ savings would have been put at risk.It left the government with an 84% stake in the banking group, leading to years of government austerity that many blame for hollowing out public services across the country.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionRBS, for its part, was forced to cancel bonuses and begin a long turnaround that involved slashing tens of thousands of jobs, shrinking its investment bank, and pulling out of almost 50 countries to become a UK-focused lender.
It finally returned to profit in 2018, but ditched the toxic RBS name in 2020, rebranding the group – and its branches in England and Wales – as NatWest.The government started to recoup its costs through dividends paid out by the lender, and slowly sold its shares through a combination of sales to institutional investors and a drip-feeding of stock into the open market.NatWest also fast-tracked the process through multibillion-pound share buybacks.That process is now completed, bringing NatWest back into full private ownership nearly two decades after taxpayers saved it from the brink.NatWest chief executive, Paul Thwaite, said: “This is a significant moment for NatWest Group, for all those who work here and for the UK more widely.
As we turn the page on the financial crisis, we can look to the future with confidence, without forgetting the lessons of the past,”
‘It would be better as a T20’: Welsh Fire’s Sanjay Govil questions Hundred format
Before stakes in the Hundred franchises were sold in February it was widely assumed that Welsh Fire would be the cheapest off the peg. Based in Cardiff, where bums on seats can be a challenge, and lacking Welsh representation on the field, they have been the butt of a few jokes during the tournament’s short history.But for Sanjay Govil, an IT entrepreneur and the owner of Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket (MLC), the appeal of “one team, one country” was too great, likewise the “chemistry” during talks with the top brass at Glamorgan. Though he was on a plane when the auction took place, he secured a 49% stake in Welsh Fire, later raised to 50%, that valued the team at £84.6m, more than Trent Rockets or Birmingham Phoenix
Why are members of the Super Bowl champion Eagles promoting a right-wing Christian wealth scheme?
The thousands who gathered on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia weren’t there for a basketball or hockey game. Instead, the 21,000-seat arena played host to a very different spectacle. The stage was bathed in lights, Christian pop thundered from the speakers and the congregation filed in to hear not just sermons, but also strategies: how to get right with God and get rich doing so.The billed headliners were five current and former members of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Head coach Nick Sirianni, star running back Saquon Barkley, second-year cornerback Cooper DeJean, and longtime fan favorites Brandon Graham and Brian Dawkins all appeared on promotional materials for Life Surge, a touring Christian financial seminar that promises attendees a blueprint “to grow and use wealth for Kingdom impact”
Simon Yates rides away with prize of Giro d’Italia while rivals lose the plot | William Fotheringham
The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling’s Grand Tours. The 2025 Giro d’Italia was the exception, appositely as the biggest loser was an actual Mexican, Isaac del Toro, with the unassuming Lancastrian Simon Yates the two-wheeled equivalent of the bandit who skips off with the loot, while two other bandits – in this case Richard Carapaz and Del Toro – stare each other down waiting for the other man to blink.Yates’s second career Grand Tour win, forged on the Colle delle Finestre on Saturday afternoon in a peerless display of courage and cunning, and sealed 24 hours later in the streets of Rome, will go down in cycling’s annals as one of the most improbable heists the sport has witnessed.The endless joy of the Grand Tours – Spain, France, Italy – is that they throw up all kinds of delightful scenarios, but there have been few, if any, where the decisive plot line was a frozen stalemate between the cyclists in first and second places, each waiting for the other to move while a third man skipped away to victory. This was probably the most bizarre act of self-immolation in a Grand Tour since 1989, when Pedro Delgado wrecked his race on day one by getting lost en route to the start of the prologue time trial
Magnus Carlsen slams table after shock loss to Gukesh Dommaraju in Norway
World champion Gukesh Dommaraju earned his first classical victory over Magnus Carlsen on Sunday, toppling the longtime world No 1 in dramatic fashion and prompting the Norwegian to punch the table in frustration before storming out of the venue.The win in round six of the double round-robin Norway Chess tournament marked a milestone moment in Gukesh’s young career, not for its stakes but for who it came against. Under pressure for much of the contest, the 19-year-old Indian grandmaster turned the tables in the final phase, capitalizing on a rare Carlsen blunder in time trouble to steal the point and shake up the standings in Stavanger.“Right now, what means the most to me is that I didn’t lose the game,” Gukesh said afterwards. “But yes, beating Magnus in any form is special
Russell believes Verstappen should have been disqualified for Spanish F1 GP crash
George Russell has insisted that Max Verstappen should have faced disqualification after he crashed into the British driver at the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming he felt the world champion had done so deliberately and that he was setting a bad example for young drivers.Verstappen, who was bullish after a race where he received a 10‑second penalty that dropped him from fifth at the flag to 10th, dismissed Russell’s comments, maintaining he had no regrets and mocking the British driver’s reactions with the comment: “Well, I’ll bring some tissues next time.”When asked if he thought the incident warranted disqualification as the former world champion Nico Rosberg had stated, Russell was unequivocal. “If it was truly deliberate then absolutely,” he said. “Because you cannot deliberately crash into another driver
Giro d’Italia winner Simon Yates hails ‘huge moment in my career’
Simon Yates reflected on a “sweet success” he had been targeting for much of his life after a spectacular and decisive coup in Saturday’s final mountain stage ensured he would ride to victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.At 32, the Lancastrian had not been tipped to add to his sole Grand Tour victory, the 2018 Tour of Spain, but in the mammoth stage over the Colle Delle Finestre, he confounded those expectations to win the sport’s second most prestigious race, after the Tour de France.“It’s a huge moment in my career, a defining moment maybe,” Yates said after the Giro’s closing stage in Rome. “I don’t think anything comes close. I’m just incredibly proud of the whole team over the three weeks
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