PAYBACK TIME AS GOVT SELLS LLOYDS SHARES

Bank bailout makes £500m

LLOYDS bank has fully returned to private hands almost nine years after the Government bailed it out.

The taxpayer has made a tidy £500million profit from the whole process.

The Treasury pumped more than £20m into the High Street banking giant at the height of the financial crisis to stop it going under.

It is understood the Government yesterday sold off its final shares and an official announcement is expected today.

Bank bosses now claim the deal has netted taxpayers a bumper profit.

The news is a major milestone in the country’s recovery from the 2008 credit crunch.

Disaster

At the time, the banking group had just merged with stricken HBOS – the UK’s then biggest mortgage lender – but the deal was a disaster.

At one point the Government had a 43% stake in the bank but this has been reduced since the autumn of 2013.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is expected to take credit for the Conservatives as a boost ahead of the general election.

Speaking last month Hammond said: “Recovering all of the money taxpayers injected into Lloyds marks a milestone in our plan to build an economy that works for everyone.”

Westminster insiders reckon the landmark will give the public confidence in the Tories’ financial management.

But Labour will claim it made the deal in the first place under its former PM Gordon Brown.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, Lloyds chief executive since 2011, has overseen a turnaround in the group’s fortunes, despite a £17bn bill for payment protection insurance mis-selling.