Mortgage News
RBS and Lloyds taxpayer stake sell off could ‘take years’ – reports
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 reported that senior fund managers and investment bankers told MPs ‘banker bashing’ was 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 Hester could not be paid a commercial rate.
RLAM chief investment officer Robert Talbut added it would be hard for the banks to retain top executives due to conservative pay in relation to competitors, the report added.
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Keith Skeoch, SLI chief executive, said that while public anger towards banks was understandable, it could affect share prices.