A new proposal could see British taxpayers becoming shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams has backed a plan to distribute shares in the two banks, which are part-owned by the government after massive public bailouts at the height of the financial crisis.
Corporate finance firm Portman Capital Partners proposed the plan, which would involve re-privatising the banks by distributing shares to every adult on the British electoral register. Each UK citizen would receive around 440 shares in Lloyds Banking Group, and 1,450 in RBS.
Currently, the public stake in the two banks stands at 84 per cent of RBS, and 43 per cent of Lloyds. Both banks reported considerable improvements in their financial position in recent annual results, and most analysts expect the government-owned stake to be sold off to investors in the near future.
However, Williams has publicly backed the proposal to instead distribute shares to the country’s taxpayers, as a reward for funding the bailouts which helped prop up the ailing banks.
He said: “HM Treasury needs to recover the approximate £66bn it spent bailing out the two banks. There is a general feeling in the country that we need to get something positive in return for the bailout.”
