The UK Treasury has received a dividend payment from Lloyds Banking Group of £130 million, bringing the total amount received from dividends to £318 million.
The Treasury also said that it plans on returning its remaining stake in the bank to the private sector in 2016-17 – making shares available for the public to buy.
The government currently owns a 9.3% stake in Lloyds, down from its 43% stake after bailing out the bank for £20.5 billion during the 2007-09 financial crisis.
Harriett Baldwin, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: “The £130m we’ve received today marks another milestone in government’s plan to recover the money taxpayers were forced to put into Lloyds during the financial crisis.
“The Government has already recovered over 80% of its original investment in Lloyds and today’s dividend payment takes the amount we’ve recovered from the bank to over £16.8 billion.
“I am determined to build on this success by making Lloyds shares available to the public this year, so that we can build a share-owning democracy and continue to reduce our national debt.”
The latest dividend payment takes the total amount the government has recovered from Lloyds to over £16.8 billion. Since the financial crisis the government has recovered over £75 billion of financial assets for the taxpayer.
