RBS sale price queried

Lawmakers in Britain yesterday challenged public officials over whether they had allowed more than £2bn (€2.73bn) of government shares in Royal Bank of Scotland — the owner of Ulster Bank — to be sold too cheaply last month.

Officials and politicians here will likely be keeping a close eye on the experience of bank sales in Britain as the Government prepares to start selling a stake in AIB, probably next year.

As global share prices started to come off their highs in early August, the British government sold 5% of RBS at a price worth a third less than it paid when it rescued the bank with £46bn of UK public money at the peak of the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis.