British taxpayers' £10.2bn loss on bailout of RBS
Sky News can reveal that the ultimate cost to the UK of saving RBS - now NatWest Group - from insolvency is expected to come in at about £10.2bn once the proceeds of share sales, dividends and fees associated with the stake are aggregated.
The final bill will draw a line under one of the most notorious bank bailouts ever orchestrated, and comes nearly 17 years after the then chancellor, Lord Darling, conducted what RBS's boss at the time, Fred Goodwin, labelled "a drive-by shooting".
Insiders believe a statement confirming that the final shares have been sold could come in the latter part of next week, although there is a chance that that timetable could be extended by a number of days.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is likely to make a statement about the milestone, although insiders say the Treasury and the bank are keen to simply mark the occasion by thanking British taxpayers for their protracted support.
A stock exchange filing disclosing that the taxpayer's stake had fallen below 1% was made last week, down from over 80% in the years after the £45.5bn bailout.
The stake now stands at 0.39%, meaning the final shares could be offloaded as early as the middle of next week, depending upon demand.
Total proceeds from a government trading plan launched in 2021 to drip-feed NatWest stock into the market have so far reached £12.8bn.
Based on the bank's current share price, the remaining shares should fetch in the region of £400m, taking the figure to £13.2bn.
In addition, institutional share sales and direct buybacks by NatWest of government-held stock have yielded a further £11.5bn.
Dividend payments to the Treasury during its ownership have totalled £4.9bn, while fees and other payments have generated another £5.6bn.
In aggregate, that means total proceeds from NatWest since 2008 are expected to hit £35.3bn.
Under Rick Haythornthwaite and Paul Thwaite, now the bank's chairman and chief executive respectively, NatWest is now focused on driving growth across its business.
It recently tabled an £11bn bid to buy Santander UK, according to the Financial Times, although no talks are ongoing.
Mr Thwaite replaced Dame Alison Rose, who left amid the crisis sparked by the debanking scandal involving Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader.
Sky News recently revealed that the bank and Mr Farage had reached an undisclosed settlement.
During the first five years of NatWest's period in majority state ownership, the bank was run by Sir Stephen Hester, now the chairman of easyJet.
Sir Stephen stepped down amid tensions with the then chancellor, George Osborne, about how RBS - as it them was - should be run.
Lloyds Banking Group was also in partial state ownership for years, although taxpayers reaped a net gain of about £900m from that period.
Other lenders nationalised during the crisis included Bradford & Bingley, the bulk of which was sold to Santander UK, and Northern Rock, part of which was sold to Virgin Money - which in turn has been acquired by Nationwide.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Finextra
2 hours ago
- Finextra
İşbank unit taps Algbra for UK digital banking launch
The fintech subsidiary of Turkey's İşbank has enlisted Algbra Labs to support the launch of a digital banking brand in the UK. 0 İşbank's Moka United unit is planning to launch tthe bank, dubbed Ruut, using a full-stack Fintech-as-a-Service platform from Algbra Labs, which is itself a subsidiary of ethical finance-focused and sharia-compliant UK-based fintech Algbra. The multi-phase agreement includes deployment of a partner banking platform enabling Ruut to operate client accounts; the launch of customer-named accounts, with Ruut acting as an authorised electronic money distributor; and support for Ruut to become a fully licensed EMI, with Algbra Labs continuing to provide the core banking and payments infrastructure. Moka is aiming for a fully operational platform within six months, targeting a 600,000-strong diaspora and a UK-Turkey financial corridor which currently facilitates over £28 billion in annual trade and remittance flows. Halim Memiş, CEO, Moka United and Ruut, says: "Through Ruut, we aim to deliver inclusive, user-friendly, and trusted digital banking experiences — beginning in the UK. Algbra's technological excellence and shared ethical approach make them the ideal long-term partner."
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Britain is facing an autumn of discontent: Essential services to be crippled by weeks of strikes
Britain is bracing itself for an autumn of discontent with essential services across the country crippled by strikes in coming weeks. London Underground workers are to walk out next month in a dispute over pay and conditions, the RMT union announced on Thursday. The workers will begin the week-long walkout on Friday, September 5, just as schools reopen and office staff return to their normal routines. Union leaders said rail bosses had 'refused to engage seriously' with their demands on pay as well as concerns about fatigue management and 'extreme shift patterns'. Underground workers were also demanding a reduction in the working week and to honour previous agreements made with staff. In a separate dispute over pay and conditions, workers on the Docklands Light Railway will also be striking during this period. The union said the action would bring 'significant disruption to the capital's transport network'. Meanwhile, GPs, junior doctors and nurses indicated they may strike during the winter months demanding higher pay and funding. And discontent has hit other sectors, including bin collectors in London, as well as Birmingham, where a five-month walkout is set to continue until Christmas over pay cuts. The threat of further strikes will come as a blow to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who had hoped to tame the unions with promises of backdated public sector pay rises, as well as Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has attempted to balance demands from the unions with struggling government budgets. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government had a 'responsibility' to stand up to pay rise demands and keep the country working. 'You look at the range of pressures we're facing domestically, internationally, economically, public services, the expectations of the country, the pain that families are feeling in their pockets and I'm always conscious that over and above everyone else, Keir and Rachel are carrying all of those pressures together', he told the Political Currency podcast. 'And so I think it is our responsibility to say to our own departments, or own audiences, or the people we're responsible for and the services that we're responsible for, 'you need to understand that we can't do everything for everyone, everywhere, all at once'.' Martin Beck, WPI Strategy's chief economist, told The Telegraph that the impending train strikes could hugely impact the capital: 'We estimate that it could cost the London economy up to a quarter of a billion pounds in the form of lost revenue to TfL and London businesses, more congestion on the roads and extra travel time for commuters.' Labour Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan also blasted the walkouts. A spokesman said: 'Nobody wants to see strike action or disruption for Londoners. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government had a 'responsibility' to stand up to pay rise demands and keep the country working 'The mayor urges the RMT and TfL to get around the table to resolve this matter and avoid industrial action.' RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: 'Our members are doing a fantastic job to keep our capital moving and work strenuous shift patterns to make sure Londoners get to their destinations around the clock. 'They are not after a King's ransom, but fatigue and extreme shift rotations are serious issues impacting on our members health and wellbeing- all of which have not been adequately addressed for years by LU management. 'Coupled with the fact there are outstanding issues around staff travel arrangements, an atmosphere of distrust has been created, where our members feel like no one is listening to them. 'RMT will continue to engage LU management with a view to seeking a revised offer in order to reach a negotiated settlement.' A Transport for London spokesperson said: 'We regularly meet with our trade unions to discuss any concerns that they may have, and we recently met with the RMT to discuss some specific points. 'We are committed to ensuring our colleagues are treated fairly and, as well as offering a 3.4% pay increase in our ongoing pay discussions, we have made progress on a number of commitments we have made previously. 'We welcome further engagement with our unions about fatigue and rostering across London Underground, but a reduction in the contractual 35-hour working week is neither practical nor affordable. 'Given the improvements we have recently put in place in response to concerns raised by our unions, we urge the RMT to put our fair, affordable pay offer to their members and to continue to engage with us rather than threaten strike action, which will only disrupt Londoners.' The strikes will involve different parts of the rail network striking at different times. On Friday September 5 and Saturday 6, managers at Ruislip depot are set to strike over pay, in a separate walkout to the main dispute. The Central Line is likely to be affected. On Sunday 7, track access controllers, power control and Emergency Response Unit (ERU) workers will refuse to work. This is likely to cause long delays in the case of any incidents and could affect all Tube lines. On Monday 8 and Wednesday 10, the majority of engineers and station workers will walk out, which will likely lead to stations closing from lack of staff and fewer trains available on the network. While on Tuesday 9 and Thursday 11, signallers, service control and ERU members will strike. This is likely to cancel most of the services as trains are not able to safely run without signalling staff.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Computer science graduates struggle to secure their first jobs
Eddie Hart studied computer science and cybersecurity at Newcastle University, graduating in says he knew getting into the tech workforce would be a challenge, but "I thought it would be a little easier".Even when "junior" roles were advertised, they often demanded two or more years professional experience, Mr Hart says."It's not realistic, and it's just discouraging the good candidates from even trying."To him it seems clear that potential employers are using AI tools to automate the simpler parts of coder's work, tasks which would traditionally allow newcomers to build up experience. While companies undoubtedly benefit from using AI in some parts of their operations, says Mr Hart, "I don't think replacing developers entirely with AI is sustainable." ChatGPT, and other coding tools, are being blamed for a collapse in tech job openings, particularly for younger software developers and engineers.A report by the UK's National Foundation for Education Research showed a 50% decline in tech job adverts between 2019/20 and 2024/25, with entry level roles particularly report cited the "anticipated impact of artificial intelligence" as one of the factors behind the same time, software developers have widely adopted AI code tools, while simultaneously expressing distrust in their by Stack Overflow, a software knowledge platform, shows almost half use AI tools daily, despite just one third actually trusting the output of such Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, says it's "a tricky time to graduate".More broadly, he says, its research shows developers are choosing to stay put, despite many expressing dissatisfaction with their work. "People are probably running for safety a little bit."All of this means young technologists are finding it harder to get that critical first job. The stress of finding a job is also being raised by the use of AI in the job application Hart came across one highly automated application process which had eight stages, the first of which was to answer 20 exam-style questions about exercises can take up hours of had been asked to record and upload answers to interview style questions."And then that's just reviewed by AI and a computer makes the decision. It just feels like you don't get that respect of at least being rejected by a human," he says. Colin, who didn't want his full name to be used, studied computer science at university, graduating in spent almost a year working through the recruitment process for one large company – only to be ultimately smaller firms often use AI to screen applications, he says, meaning CVs have to structured to be "AI friendly".Colin would then find he was being interviewed by people "who have clearly not read my CV".Both Mr Hart and Colin said they knew the senior roles were still out there. But, they wondered, who will fill them if younger developers like them were unable to secure jobs. Paul Dix, CTO and co-founder at California-based database firm, InfluxData says in any economic downturn or disruption, junior software developers were the ones who got hit he says, "If nobody's hiring younger developers, then you're going to arrive at this point where you don't have senior developers either, because you've completely killed your pipeline."More positively says Rajiv Ramaswami, CEO of US enterprise cloud firm Nutanix, "Some of these younger folks coming out of college actually have more experience using AI tooling compared to traditional ways of programming."Ramaswami adds: "I find the market for talent to be the best we've seen in several years."Mr Chandrasekar says the industry had always had an "apprenticeship" type model, with a pipeline of young people coming in and working with senior he suggests, executives and companies that had invested heavily in AI tech are under pressure to show some return on that investment. Even if that was by simply cutting back on hiring. Stack Overflow's research also found that while 64% of developers perceived AI as a threat to their jobs, this was four percentage points down on the previous year."They've now seen some of the limitations, where you need humans in the loop," Mr Chandrasekar tech disruptions had sparked fears that both senior or junior jobs would disappear, says Mr Chandrasekar. But invariably they result in more jobs as people uncover new problems and challenges."There's going to be an insatiable appetite for technologists and developers to go and build those things to help solve those problems."But that spike in demand might not come in time for some of today's Hart has secured a role as a security engineer at UK-based cybersecurity firm Threatspike, which he gained through a very human centred job Colin has turned his back on tech altogether and is considering a career in the police.
