Govt could take five years to offload bank stakes

According to the BBC, UK Financial Investments' could take another five years to sell its £40bn investment in RBS, Lloyds and Northern Rock - despite expectations it could recoup the taxpayer money sooner. Schroders head of UK equities Richard Buxton says while it is speculated the Government would like to offload a small stake in the banks before the upcoming election, he believes the move would be untenable. The £1.8bn Schroder UK Alpha Plus manager, who holds both RBS and Lloyds, says the stakes could begin to be sold by about 2013 - at a time when earnings start to normalise at th...