Payback time

17 May 2017 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

The UK has recouped its 20.3 bln pounds on the once-failing lender. It wouldn’t matter if it hadn’t, since rescuing Lloyds helped save the banking system. Still, just as the real returns outweigh the financial ones, so do the costs: austerity and mistrust of the industry.

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Britain’s government has sold its last remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group, bringing to an end an investment that began during the financial crisis in 2008.

Lloyds, which took over failing rival HBOS in 2008, received a total of 20.3 billion pounds in state capital. In return the government received dividends, some underwriting fees and a 2.5 billion pound payment made in return for Lloyds being excluded from a bad asset insurance programme. It began to sell down its shares in 2013.

The lender said that the government made a profit of around 900 million pounds.

Lloyds shares were up 2.1 percent at 1000 BST on May 17, at 71.6 pence.

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