Taxpayer nursing huge losses on RBS and Lloyds

When taxpayers bailed out Lloyds Banking Group – which was two separate banks Lloyds TSB and HBOS at the time – and Royal Bank of Scotland the expectation was that the government stake would have begun to be sold off by now. And at a profit.

Instead, three years later, the taxpayer is nursing a loss of close to £32bn on stakes originally worth more than £60bn. The meltdown in the financial markets and the impact of the report by the independent commission on banking to "ringfence" high street banks is being blamed for the fall in the share prices.

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The scale of the downturn is also worth noting. David Buik, the City commentator, has pointed out that back in 2007 RBS stood at 547p a share. It is not alone. Goldman Sachs, for instance, has fallen from $200 to $96 a share while Société Générale, for instance, is down from €123 to €21. As Buik puts it: "The mind boggles."