RBS and Lloyds Bank part ways in closely watched sale

Lloyds Bank said the UK had sold its last remaining stake in the bank, making the lender the first to re-emerge from British state ownership in a symbolic step for the country’s recovering banking sector.

In 2011, Lloyds had made a bigger loss than RBS as it was forced to compensate customers for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and was more exposed to what became Britain’s costliest consumer scandal.

But six years on, Lloyds, which at one point was 43%-owned by the UK government, has emerged as the type of bank RBS is striving to be — a UK lender focused on retail and corporate banking.