RBS and Lloyds taxpayer stake sell-off 'could take years'

Offloading the taxpayer stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group could take years, the Treasury select committee was told yesterday.

The Guardian reports senior fund managers and investment bankers told MPs 'banker bashing' is also hindering share price recovery. Manus Costello, managing partner of broker Autonomous, said it would be wrong to sell shares at present as they were taking at less than half of the £65bn the government paid for them. Fund managers Schroders, Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) and Standard Life Investments (SLI) also addressed the committee. Schroders' head of UK equities Richard Buxton said the RBS management team was doing a "fantastic job" but said its chief executive Stephen He...